By Lynette Cockerell
Lakeview Farmers Cooperative Gin
Lakeview Farmers Cooperative Gin, located on State Highway 256 in northern Hall County, is the oldest cooperative gin in the state of Texas still operating on its original charter. The gin, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, operates two gin plants and services six counties in the Northern High Plains of Texas.
Recently, Lakeview signed on with PCCA to provide the association’s marketing services to its members. Jerry Byars, now in his 29th year of management at Lakeview Farmers Coop Gin, is optimistic about the 2002-03 ginning season.
“Not only are we interested in the opportunities PCCA can offer our members, but things went pretty good this year,” Byars says. “We had an above average crop in our area, and hope for the same in 2003-04,” he adds.
Northwest Cotton Growers
This season, Northwest Cotton Growers opened for business in Moscow, Kan. The new gin is located in Stevens County, approximately 35 miles north of the Oklahoma state line, and has been built from the ground up in the six months preceeding harvest. Although the office area and some of the outlying buildings still were under construction, Northwest Cotton Growers Manager Gary Moore and his staff had the gin up and running just in time for harvest.
Cotton is a new crop for most Kansas producers, and Moore believes the technical support PCCA provides is essential for his office personnel as well as the new cotton producers in his area.
“The technical support in all areas related to cotton as well as the option for pool marketing at PCCA is invaluable for first time cotton growers since it takes so much of the guess work out of the equation,” Moore explains. “I can call any PCCA employee with a question about almost anything, and if they don’t know the answer, they’ll do their best to get it for me,” he says.
