Table of Contents

Conference with House Expected in early 2008 After months of delays due to partisan gridlock and with time running out, the U.S. Senate voted 79 to 14 to approve a new farm bill on Dec. 14, just one week before recessing for the remainder of 2007. The number of votes in favor of the legislation… Read more »

Field Services Staff Provides Link Between PCCA and Its Members PCCA’s Field staff is a personal, “direct link” between the cooperative and its members and gin customers. The nine-person staff spends the majority of each year on the road visiting growers and gins as well as attending key industry meetings. All the while, the team strives… Read more »

Served as First American President of ICA History was made in 2007 as PCCA’s President and CEO Wally Darneille served as president of the International Cotton Association (ICA) headquartered in Liverpool, England. Darneille was the first-ever American to hold the organization’s highest office. Formerly known as the Liverpool Cotton Association and established more than 160… Read more »

Potential Acreage Decline Expected in Rest of U.S. Cotton Belt The number of acres planted to cotton in the United States has dropped sharply in the past three seasons with government reports forecasting further declines in 2008. The culprit is a rush into the biofuel sector and the resulting increase in demand for grains, like… Read more »

The United States Department of Agriculture announced in early November that the 2007 cotton crop is record breaking in terms of average yield and quality due to favorable weather and ground-breaking research scientists have conducted in recent years to improve cotton varieties. In Lubbock, some of those researchers today are exploring the benefits of wild… Read more »

Charles Abernathy retired from his position as the District One representative to PCCA’s Board of Directors in September 2007. His service to his fellow man started in the U.S. Army and continued as he became a lifelong farmer serving cotton producers as a coop leader for more than 45 years. A graduate of Ozark High… Read more »

PCCA members attending Plains Cotton Cooperative Association’s 54th Annual Stockholders Meeting on September 19, 2007, elected Robbie Robbins to represent District One on the cooperative’s Board of Directors. He replaces his friend and mentor, Charles Abernathy. “I’ve never known a better man than Charles Abernathy,” Robbins says. “Charles is a great Christian, a proud American… Read more »

PCCA Hosts One-Day Seminar for Group Plains Cotton Cooperative Association (PCCA) and its President and CEO, Wally Darneille, hosted a group of leaders from the China Cotton Association (CCA) for a one-day seminar during their visit to the U.S. Cotton Belt in September. Their focus was on learning about the U.S. cotton industry. The tour,… Read more »

Gin waste usually is thought of as anything but a treasure, consisting of residue from the cotton plant such as immature seed, sticks, leaf, short fiber lint, and sand. However, the future looks bright for cotton gins having problems disposing of gin waste as more and more uses are being found for the product. Research… Read more »

The results from the 2007 Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) contest are in, and PCCA has been recognized once again. CCA is an organization of roughly 350 professionals who communicate for cooperatives. Every year, these communicators participate in the annual competition in several categories. These include writing, photography, publications, audio visuals, video, and other communication forms. For… Read more »