Cotton Specialists Corner
Extension Cotton Specialists and others from across the U.S. weigh in on a variety of topics that impact cotton producers, consultants, and the industry as a whole.
Cotton Specialists Corner
Unraveling the One Big Beautiful Bill: What Cotton Growers Need to Know
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When the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed on July 4th, 2025, it marked a turning point for America's cotton farmers after years of economic hardship. But what exactly does this legislation mean for growers across the Cotton Belt, and how did the industry secure these critical policy wins?
In this revealing conversation, Camp Hand hosts three key cotton industry leaders—Taz Smith from the National Cotton Council, Kody Bessent from Plains Cotton Growers, and Taylor Sills from the Georgia Cotton Commission—to break down the groundwork and advocacy that led to this watershed moment. The panel reveals how a unified cotton industry approached Congress with compelling economic data showing hundreds of millions in losses, convincing lawmakers that American agriculture faced an existential threat without significant policy improvements.
The results are substantial: reference prices for seed cotton jumped from 36.7 cents to 46 cents, potentially tripling PLC payments for many producers. Payment limits increased from $125,000 to $155,000 and are now indexed to inflation. Producers gained the flexibility to simultaneously participate in PLC and area-wide insurance coverage—a long-sought change that enhances risk management options. These provisions extend through 2031, providing unprecedented long-term stability.
Yet challenges remain. The first payments under these new programs won't reach farmers until October 2026, creating an immediate cash flow crisis for operations already stretched thin. The panel discusses efforts to secure bridge assistance and the proposed Buy American Cotton Act, which would provide tax incentives to boost demand for U.S. cotton amid intensifying global competition from Brazil and Australia.
Whether you farm cotton in drought-prone Texas, hurricane-threatened Georgia, or anywhere across the Cotton Belt, you'll want to attend one of the National Cotton Council's upcoming educational sessions this September. With complex decisions ahead about base acre updates and program participation, these regional meetings offer crucial guidance to maximize your benefits under this landmark legislation. Dates and locations for these meetings can be found at this link: https://www.cotton.org/news/releases/2025/ncc-farm-bill-meetings.cfm
Listen now to understand how the cotton industry's remarkable unity delivered this policy victory and what you need to know to navigate the road ahead.
Cotton Industry Challenges
Speaker 1Well, if it was so easy, they'd simply call you corn. You promised me the moon, and then I wish I wasn't born.
Speaker 2I got cotton, picking cotton, picking cotton, growing blue.
Speaker 3Lord, I can't live without you.
Speaker 1Living with you. What am I gonna do? One rain away from glory, but it's still the only night I've ever chewed ever choose.
Speaker 2Well, I finally made some money. It's the cotton picking, cotton growing blues.
Speaker 4Welcome to this episode of the Cotton Specialist Corner podcast. My name is Camp Hand. I'm the Extension Cotton Specialist here at the University of Georgia, based out of Tifton, and today we have a little different topic than we normally do. A lot of times this podcast is focused more on production and things like that in terms of research that's going on in some of these land-grant institutions, in terms of research that's going on in some of these land-grant institutions, but today we're going to discuss the one big, beautiful bill act that was signed on July 4th of 2025. And I know that the National Cotton Council is getting ready to go on the road and kind of discuss some of this stuff with growers, but wanted to give everybody kind of an opportunity to hear about it on the podcast as well, because it affects everybody and obviously by the name.
Speaker 4The bill was big and some people say it was beautiful. So there was a lot of things in there that were changed or impacted, from tax policy to health care, energy, immigration, the debt ceiling and things like that. But it did impact agriculture as well, and so that's what we're here to talk about with respect to cotton specifically. But to do that I've garnered a few experts across the cotton belt. So first is Cody Bessant, the CEO of Plains Cotton Growers, based out of Lubbock. Taylor Sills, executive Director of the Georgia Cotton Commission, based out of Perry, georgia, and then Taz Smith, the Vice President of Producer Affairs with the National Cotton Council, based out of Memphis, tennessee. So welcome, guys, and greatly appreciate y'all being here with us today.
Groundwork for Improved Safety Net
Speaker 4Now, now there was a lot of stuff that kind of went into. Before we get into the impacts of the one big beautiful bill and the impacts on cotton growers, I really want to talk about a lot of the groundwork that was kind of laid ahead of this, because it there was a lot of push from our grower organizations to improve the safety net. I mean there was obviously a lot of priorities that we wanted and got a lot of those, but we had to illustrate that point to these folks so that they understood the importance. And so I'm going to kind of hand it off to Taylor and Cody to talk about some of the work that was done before this bill was passed to illustrate the need for that improved safety net. So, taylor, I'll start with you and then we'll kind of jump to Cody.
Speaker 5Well, thank you. Thank you for having us all camp. I think this is a good. Good time to talk about this topic is right before we get into harvest, but if you think back, the last farm bill was passed in 2018. All our organizations look a little bit different, but it's without question that all of us across the belt are in trouble.
Speaker 5Taz and his group, with the ACP, convened a farm policy task force and, guys, you may not believe this, but we met next week, three years ago. That's how long ago this process started and at the time there were concerns don't get me wrong but they weren't near as dire as they are today and they were back in last September, and we spent a fair amount of time talking about different topics. Taz and his group researched a lot of the ideas that people came up with, how attractive they may be to Congress, and a lot of what we do at the commission is work with people like you and, as it relates to this topic, dr Yang-Chuan Liu is a cotton economist there at Tifton and figure out how these things will affect our growers and how the problems that they face and what solutions there can be for them. I'll let Cody talk about some of the rest of it and their aspect on the ground.
Speaker 6Yeah, so it's been a really unique last couple of years. As Taylor mentioned, we started really investing in a lot of time and effort of rebuilding farm policy across the board collectively together. And that's what's so important for people to understand is you've got an organization like ours that's based out in Lubbock, texas, that covers the panhandle southern high plains of Texas, but we work hand in glove with Taylor and other organizations across the US and more collectively in conjunction with the National Cotton Council and ACP, and so we've really been very good and very diligent about how we have constructed this farm policy to make it work for everybody across the board. Is it perfect for everybody? No, but it is a beautiful based policy that is going to be very significant as it goes forward. And that's what's really unique about the cotton industry compared to any other industry and I'll attest to this is that it engulfs all seven segments that collectively combine together and come together on one unified voice, and it's all said and done so by example.
Speaker 6We have different issues. In our area. We've experienced massive drought for the last three or so years, so that's been a very big impact to us as compared to taylor's area or even the far southeast that have been more succumbed to hurricanes and tropical storms, and so it's a really broad based approach of how do we develop a policy over time that will have the most meaningful impact, that addresses the severity of mother nature essentially in regard to that and cost of doing business. It's different aspects of cost doing business in the mid-south than it is in the southwest and so how do you, how do you merge that and combine that and marriage that I guess best way to put it um, overall. So we're we're so proud, honestly, of the work that's been done between all collective groups.
Speaker 6The cotton industry in itself is in such a beautiful place. It's so united, so genuine in the fact that we know that we're struggling in different arenas, given where things are at today, but we're so uniform in regard to having to address those issues together and that's sometimes atypical or untypical, I guess best way to put it um and how we address those issues. Also, up there, I'll let taz kind of kind of pivot and talk about some of the results. But we're so proud of the work that's been done on behalf of all the industry and it's taken all of us collectively to be able to do this. I've said this in multiple settings. Advocacy is a very large team sport. It's like a big football team and everybody has been pushing and rowing in the same boat and advancing that green line, if you will, together, especially in the cotton industry.
Speaker 4Yeah, so real quick. I mean a lot. You know you talked about everybody's working together and and I mean that even goes back to a lot of the visits that were done last year right, it wasn't just the cotton groups working together either, it was like everybody, everybody in agriculture knows that, hey, we got problems, you know, and of course we're gonna fight for cotton, right, because we're we work in cotton. I mean, cotton is a lot different than some of these other commodities that are grown where we are and also in other parts of the country. So it's, you know, a little more volatile, a little more susceptible to some of this stuff you're talking about in terms of drought, hurricanes, things like that.
Coalition Building Across Agriculture
Speaker 4And so you know, in my mind, we may need a little more help than some of these other groups. And so, you know, and certainly in this current climate, we want to do everything we can to help our guys to stay in the cotton business. I mean, you know that's really what we're fighting for here is trying to keep our guys in the cotton business. But will y'all touch on just kind of the input increases that were portrayed to some of these folks in DC to kind of get this point across that. Hey, we have got to improve the safety net for these guys because that's really in my mind, that's what got their attention in terms of looking since the last farm bill. Let's touch on a few numbers if y'all don't mind.
Speaker 5Well, camp last summer, the industry. I think there was a recognition and taz will correct me if I'm wrong that there wasn't going to be a farm bill in 2024. So you know, at that point we pivoted as an industry, led by the cotton council. Obviously, on the economic assistance front, um, and I I a call in July from Frank Howell, who's one of our colleagues at the Delta Council there in Stonewall Mississippi. I know he had talked to some of the rest of us about getting. He knew that our group at University of Georgia, or your group at University of Georgia rather, excuse me, you're on the team Taylor Did some pretty thorough enterprise budgets and what we did with Frank and Andrew and these extension economists was to go back, take those enterprise budgets, plug in the yield numbers that we had and the average received prices to show what loss there was, and from 18 to 23, it was like $300-some-odd million in Georgia and then in cotton for 24 and 25, the projections then and what was realized ended up being worse, I'm sure, but it was hundreds of millions of more dollars.
Speaker 5And while TAS and the group at the National Cotton Council did a lot of stuff, cotton specifically, that support from university extension, impartial third-party economists really pushed the ball over, especially for that economic assistance that was received. But TAS can go into more about what they've done, but specifically here in Georgia, I mean, I know that that study in particular meant a lot.
Speaker 7Yeah, Just to piggyback on what Taylor said. It's a tribute to Taylor and Cody, but all the regional and state groups across the belt. I don't know at this time last year that members of Congress understood how dire the situation was. Growers were obviously real antsy about the economic environment. We've seen a dramatic, I mean since 18,. We've seen dramatic I mean she's 18, we've seen a dramatic increase in input costs. You know we've benefited a little bit from the market side coming out of COVID. But you know, once things kind of calmed down from the kind of increased demand we saw out of that, you know things have kind of the price environment really really dropped but the personal costs have stayed higher and continue to increase.
Speaker 7But Georgia Cot Commission had a well, Georgia growers, in partnership with the Southern Cot growers, at their mid-year meeting last year had a sit-down visit with Congressman Austin Scott and he did not I mean things weren't good good but he didn't understand how serious it was that growers literally were not going to get financed next year unless some assistance came from Washington. You know everybody understood there was going to be an extension. The client was not there to pass a new farm bill but I think members of Congress thought that was going to be okay, we could get this passed, we can get this done next year. But that was going to be unacceptable for growers across the belt and I think that meeting got his attention. Our American Cotton Producers meeting had Congressman Don Davis in our summer meeting and then robbie binnick, our our vice president of washington operations, along with some other groups, other commodity groups across the belt, last september did a big fly into dc.
Speaker 7Um, basically all the commodity organizations and I. I talked to a lot of growers. I was in a meeting with some other producers. Um, I talked to a lot of growers. I was in a meeting with some other producers corn grower from Missouri, corn grower from Nebraska they had never they were, all you know, had been around their industries for a long time. Missouri guy was really involved in American Soil and Marine Association. The corn guy was very involved with National Corn. I've never seen a meeting. We've all been in a meeting with Congress. At one time all of us said we've got to have some help. I really think that laid the ground work to get the assistance we got at the end of the year through the American Relief Act with economic assistance plus disaster assistance, $30 billion total.
Speaker 4But that is really a tribute to what the growers, the grassroots community, did across the cotton belt, producers to the state and regional cotton organizations to really get the message out about how dire it was last year, right, right, and you know it's interesting that you bring that up about growers not getting financed and things like that I remember this year, before we even started planting interesting that you bring that up about growers not getting financed and things like that I remember this year, before we even started planting, it was like some of our guys were waiting on some of this hurricane money to come through so that they could go, you know, and it was, but we, we got that and some, some other states got that too, but in Texas, you know, that didn't happen, right, and so again, that goes to illustrate hey, this was a really bad situation.
Speaker 4Of course the hurricane made it worse, but we were able to get that to kind of string things along a little bit Right, whereas in other parts of the country, whether cotton or not, that wasn't the case, you know. So, all right, so Taz, real quick, let's. Let's talk about kind of the overarching impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, what growers can expect, and then we'll kind of get into some of the some of the regional differences on benefits to two growers in in the High Plains versus Georgia, versus the Mid-South or wherever.
Key Provisions of the Bill
Speaker 7Plains versus Georgia versus the Mid-South or wherever you know. We really didn't have a path early on this year for a new formula, but President Trump's election Republicans kept. The House took over the Senate, so there was a push for reconciliation and what that means is Congress can pass. You know, typically in policy measures in Congress, you know it's a majority vote in the House, but typically most policy measures have to have 60 votes in the Senate, called filibuster. Well, policies that have a budgetary impact, if the reconciliation is done, can basically get through the Senate with just a majority vote. And so that's what they, that's what they did, and so it wasn't just ah, it was tax policy and immigration policy and some health care policy, but we were able to piggyback on that to get basically enhanced benefits through commodities and crop insurance benefits. Basically, it's not really officially a farm bill, but it's our commodity. The commodity title is basically being put in place through 2031 and the same through crop insurance. So, but this is a very important provision for producers. I mean, our safety net for seed cotton has now increased from 36.7 cent to 46 cent. So if you look at what your growers projected, this will go into place for 25 crop. So before we got this increase, if a grower had an 800-pound PLC yield he would be projected to get about a $40-an-acre PLC payment, based on 36.7. But with the new 42-season reference price in place he could expect right now, if projections were to hold, about a $125-an-acre payment, so a significant increase from what they would have gotten for 25 crop.
Speaker 7You know one of the challenges that we for our ACP from our ACP farm policy task force. You know the issue we had. The last farm bill was growers. They planted cotton but had seed cotton based acres on their farm. They could not purchase the area-wide cotton policy on a stack, stack the competition plan and enroll those seed cotton base acres in PLC. They couldn't do both, they had to choose. So we wanted to be able to have the option to do both in this new farm bill and so basically what happened was the Congress and the Ag Committee's great leadership Chairman Thompson, senator Bozeman on the Senate side basically made a supplemental coverage option, which is also known as SCO. Basically, just like stacks, growers are going to be able to can purchase that policy and still do it, which is basically we'll have the same parameters and stacks and still do PLC, which would be a great benefit for them. You know you're looking at. You know massive benefits If you'd be able to do both of that instead of having to choose like you have in the past.
Speaker 7Now there's going to be some tweaks for next year. There's a couple you know. The SCO portion will not go into place for 27 crop, but ECO, which is another area-wide policy, the enhanced coverage option, will be basically what growers need to take. They want something similar to the stacks for 26. Then SCO will be in place for 27. But it's a very, very positive change on that front. One of the things as well for 25 camp is growers, and this is for all commodities, not only just cotton. They're going to get the higher of ARC or PLC. So whatever is the higher, whatever if they enrolled in ARC and PLC is the better, is the high. Whatever if they enroll in ARC and PLC is the better option for corn or whatever. Or PLC and ARC is the better option for soybeans, for example. They're going to get the high road, no matter what they chose, just for one year and then 26,. There'll be the annual election again on those commodities.
Speaker 7Our marketing loan has been increased from 52 cents to 55 cents, beginning in 26 crop. There are also some adjustments in the adjusted world price calculation that will be very beneficial to the grower. They will allow that adjusted world price to be a little bit lower on the global stage. As far as how that's calculated, that will allow for additional market long-gain opportunities and loss efficiency payments for producers. And also the payment limit was increased. So if you get an increase in the reference price, the first question from growers is well, you know, that's great, but what about the payment limits? I mean, it's not going to help if the payment limits don't go up. So the payment limit was increased from 125 to 155. That's going to be indexed to inflation Moving forward. That's very, very positive. It gives growers some more flexibility to benefit these enhanced PLC payments.
Speaker 7And there's also going to be a change that allows, depending on how growers farming operations are set up so they're in a general partnership or if they're LLCs or S-Corps. Those typically have one entities. General partnerships have multiple entities so growers are going to be able to get those. If the LLCs or S-Corps have multiple stockholders, as long as those growers are actively engaged, they'll be able to benefit from multiple payment limits instead of just one payment limit which they have now. There's also a base update. So if a grower currently has more planted acres on his farm than he has base acres, he will have the opportunity to update that new base the base that he's planting over his current base now based off in proportion to his 19 and 23 planted history. So that'll be an option for the growers to bring on some additional base. There is a cap at 30 million base acres on that.
Speaker 7But yeah, that's just just. We have really got, I think, long term. Now we've got some short-term challenges, yeah, yeah, but long term I think we've got from a policy standpoint. We got growers going to be a lot better positioned to take event to benefit, you know, to get the weather, this low market price environment. Now Now, again, the short term, we've got some challenges, but because the first payments won't go out to October 26th for this new farm bill type policy and this big beautiful bill, so we've got to get them there before then. But long term we're in a really good position, I think, for producers.
Speaker 4Yeah no doubt, no doubt. I mean all that stuff, and I mean especially with stuff being indexed for inflation. I mean that stuff and I mean especially with stuff being indexed for inflation. I mean that's a big part of this. You know the the reason we're in the situation that we're in, right, and so it's uh, you know it's not cheap to do what these guys do and and stuff's going up on them too, but a lot of times the prices that they're getting are staying stagnant, you know, or, or I mean it's gone down in the last three years, you know, so certainly.
Speaker 7One of the things, phil and it's how we understand is the economics are not good on the farm, but you know growers are to see that. Member of Congress. I mean it's unprecedented that we get from right before January the 1st until now Right before January the 1st until now Congress has put forth about $95 billion in additional assistance directly to producers American Relief Act, the ECAP payments, the SGRP payments and now the Big Beautiful Bill. So that is those new money that's basically put in to the grower's bottom line and that is a. I mean their efforts and the work of Taylor and Cody contributed to that and don't take that for granted. I mean we know the environment's tough. We've got to do more. We understand that.
Speaker 4But you know these safety enhancements are going to put growers in a really good position long term right and and I mean really what what people, in terms of the general public I don't think understand is this is a national security type issue. You know, if we can't, if we can't grow our own commodities, whether whether it's soybean or corn or rice or or cotton, you know it, don't? It don't really matter At the end of the day, if we're relying on other people for that kind of stuff. It puts us at risk. And so the people in DC obviously understand that, because they that are currently in DC, because they've dumped a lot of money into the improving the grower safety net and the grower bottom line short term Right. So we're, we're, uh, we're certainly grateful for that. And even things like, um, even something like the buying american cotton act, and I I don't even know kind of where that stands right now. But I mean, can y'all kind of touch on that a little bit as well?
Speaker 7yeah, so we. So city D Hyde-Smith, the Senator from Mississippi, introduced that legislation late May. We've got to get. The issue we've got in cotton right now is demand. There's a lot of uncertainty. There's negotiations going on between President Trump and other foreign leaders about tariffs and getting purchase agreements put in place. So there's a lot of uncertainty right now as far as where ag demand, particularly cotton, is going to be globally. But this bill will basically give incentives to importers of cotton through a tax credit to purchase US cotton and we believe that will drive demand away from some of our competitors like Brazil, who have gone on their production. Australia has gone on their production to the US through a direct tax benefit on their corporate income tax based on the amount of US cotton they're bringing to the US. This cotton can be verified. If your growers listen, they're in the US Cotton Trust Protocol. All that protocol. Cotton can be verified through the supply chain, through this verification process called textual genesis that they use. So this is a big win.
Buying American Cotton Act
Speaker 7Now that bill was introduced in the Senate, we tried to get in a reconciliation package among with the big beautiful bill, the farm bill improvements that that the reconciliation package was moving so fast they really didn't have an opportunity. So in September our goal was to get that introduced when the Congress comes back in to a bipartisan basis. We've identified a couple of congressmen to get that done one from Florida, one from California and then we will see what the Congress wants to do. There were some tax provisions that were not included in the Be Beautiful bill and then we will see what the Congress wants to do. Will they do that? You know, there were some tax provisions that were not included in the Be Beautiful bill that need to be done before the end of the year. The chairman of the Ways and Means Committee is Jason Smith. He's from the Boothill of Missouri. He's a cotton congressman, a very good friend of the industry. He wants to see a bipartisan package done Now. If the president decides he wants to do reconciliation again, that will be the pathway Another bipartisan reconciliation package and then we can get this bill included in. That would be the goal. But if that doesn't happen, I think we'll try to get a bipartisan bill done by the end of the year. But we're really excited about this bill. I think we've got some opportunities with it. I think it really is the and this came about Camp.
Speaker 7The council, our president, dr Gary Adams, put together a strategic task force last year because the industry's got challenges right now. Brazil has doubled their cotton production since 2018. Australia has basically doubled theirs over the same period. They're about a 5 billion bale producer, brazil's about 18 billion bale producer now and the US we're about 13, 14 million bales right now on an annual basis. So we've got challenges and we've got to figure out. We also got to get as you all know, we talk about this a lot. We've got to get consumers wearing more cotton, but one of the things we disidentified was the bio-marine cotton. How do we drive some demand away from Brazil, away from Australia, to the US and the bio-marine cotton after this tax credit where importers can do that? So that's a very critical part of getting us into a situation for enhanced demand for US cotton.
Speaker 6Yeah, I'd like to compliment Taz's comments real quick. Is you know, this bill really fits into the mold of this, this America first type of initiative the president and the administration has really leaned into, and so we we fully support it. We know that it would be such a critical factor for enhancing domestic consumption of cotton processes, cotton apparel, and also it complements too some of the other administrative initiatives too. On how do we deal with addressing the concerns and problems, health challenges with microplastics yeah, will help complement those efforts of people need to wear more natural-based fiber apparel because of the health concerns in regard to that Right.
Speaker 5Cam, I think this is a great you and I obviously run in the same kind of circle. Yeah, and we hear all the time when we talk about consumption, you know one-on-one with people that, oh, I can't find cotton at the store. Yeah, y'all talk a lot about it in your podcast. Your recent episode about microplastics directly addresses that concern. We hope that this puts that cotton, in particular American cotton, on the retail shelf directly in front of people.
Speaker 4Right, right, and you know, really that kind of illustrates. You know, these guys and gentlemen and ladies that are in Congress up there in DC. I mean they obviously understand that we need help, right, but there's still kind of, like we've talked about there's still a couple things that have got to get done, and this is one of them, and so I certainly do want to encourage folks to make that phone call Right and tell them say, hey, we need to support this, we got to support our guys, got to support our growers, and so certainly is a little bit more to be done there. But kind of thinking about next steps in terms of not just the buying American cotton act, but we've talked a lot about the one big beautiful bill and how it's farm bill, like policy and Taz I heard you say that and I really like that. But what's kind of the feel right now on a farm bill and I guess the need for one, with all this stuff that's going on and the path forward with something like that?
Speaker 7Well, one thing I'll jump in on this and Cody and Tether can follow up on anything I missed but the economic situation, as I mentioned before, is as bad as still, as ever, and maybe even worse than last year.
Speaker 7So I think, one of the things we're working on, cam, as I mentioned before, this Big Beautiful Build Act, the farm policy benefits are great, but we've got to get growers to that point where they'll get that first payment next fall, and we're going to be working with the administration to see if there's some opportunities to the CCC to maybe get some sort of a trade assistance payment, um, even, maybe, even through Congress, there's an opportunity there, I mean and to see if we can get some sort of a bridge to October. Um, I think, I think, I think that's going to be critical. We actually saw this week um Deputy Secretary of USDA, stephen Baden, referenced this this week. They were looking at some options, but we've got to get. There's just going to be some growers that are not going to make it to 26 without some additional help. No doubt, no doubt, and we've got to do what we can to try to do that in the next, between now and the end of the year.
Regional Impacts and Path Forward
Speaker 4Yeah, for sure, and you know, I know that here in Georgia, I mean, we're dealing with some stuff that we weren't ready for, you know, in 2025. And so already the budget ain't really there to grow it. And then you throw something on like a new insect, pest, right, and it just throws. It just throws everything off and and uh, really, you know, it kind of comes down to you gotta do what you gotta do, right, and which is a bad place to be in the economic situation that we're in. So that all certainly kind of adds to each other. But kind of in terms of a path forward and regional impacts, cody and Taylor, do you all kind of want to touch on some of that?
Speaker 5Well, I mean, the one thing I'll say for Georgia producers is that reference price and it's not just cotton, it's all commodities got significant meaningful increases in reference price and that's a big deal for Georgia producers, of all commodities, because we're a fairly heavily based state. I think there are going to be opportunities for producers to add base, and we'll talk a little bit about this when we get to the end yet, but there's going to have to be some education that goes in into that equation before folks get too too excited about it. Um, uh, that that from the georgia angle, that that's the immediate thing. Uh, and then I think what, what cody's uh crowd will be most interested in, uh is going to be important here as well.
Speaker 6Yeah. So I'd say probably the top shelf top five things I guess that most of our southwest region is probably the most interested in is obviously the increase in reference price. That certainly allows for some cash flow initiatives as we get into refinancing, which we typically will start in our area around January. Right now we're kind of coming off to a hilt where dollars are short. But one thing that has been very helpful just from a historical standpoint, kind of backing up, like Taz talked about, a huge initiative that was ultimately initiated and built out by the National Cotton Council as well as our regional-based groups, was the fly-in that was done in September to really capitalize on the economic assistance. So finishing out that program, I certainly learned a way that disaster-related assistance that was built out for 23, 24 is a big impact to the area, providing that cash flow opportunity going into the end of the year and then figuring out how we, as Taz mentioned, kind of make sure that people are still financially okay going into a new season until these new programs can kick in. One thing that we're very heavily relying upon as of the last several years is stacks, just because that's been a big insurance-based product in this region, fortunately because of the improvements that have been built out through the Farm Bill process, which I will need to give obviously the industry in itself a lot of credit and kudos for doing this, but really even the House Ag Committee Chairman, gigi Thompson, senator Bozeman for moving that needle early on in the discussion. So the House Ag Committee marked up their bill in May to set that, to set that that benchmark essentially, and really had everything in place to be able to move everything forward in conjunction with the industry. So that way we were ready. We weren't sitting back on our our heels and trying to kind of grapple about how to, how to build this stuff out very quickly and non unstrategically. So that that's really why some of this kind of came about is because of the work that industry has been doing for the last couple of years.
Speaker 6The last thing I'll say is, as Taylor mentioned, you know, we're set up to have a pretty decent crop this year. We need one more rainfall, which we're subject to get. Our South Texas cotton brethren is in full harvest right now. We need some heat units. We're a little bit behind, but we are certainly much better shaped than where we've been the last couple of years. The price is such a lingering issue and that's where this issue that Taz mentioned of trying to provide some bridge to meet the financial duress that's still in the countryside to heal up, and then that also expands beyond just the cotton producer-based industry. Infrastructure is a big deal in our industry. I want to mention that We've had a lot of infrastructure that has really been succumbed to financial direst, just like a producer has, even to the event of, unfortunately, foreclosures, and we're trying to utilize a lot of different risk management tools to be able to mitigate this risk and help infrastructure survive.
Speaker 6Cotton is very unique, as most people will hear and listen to. This is it's kind of a one-trick shot. I've said this in multiple settings. You get roughly nine months to grow a crop and process it, versus our grain brethren, they've got a few different options. They can do wheat, sorghum, soybeans, corn, so they can kind of bounce around a little bit of how they can help mitigate some of the risk. But cotton is a one-trick deal. You either make it or you don't, and subsequent years of tough years really makes it hard for for everyone, and so we're working very aggressively as an industry to to make sure that we survive, right, right, and it makes it, it compounds that right whenever you are producing it in an area where you don't have any other options.
Speaker 4Right, I mean there's, there's a lot of parts of the belt that can plant something else, you know, but there where you are, cody is cotton and that's it, and so if it doesn't rain, then you're out, and so, fortunately, this year, for the first time, and in probably three years, I mean, it looks like it's going to be a good one yeah, yeah, hopefully we'll see. I mean acres are down, but oh, come on cody, come on man, it's gonna be a good one. I'm optimistic.
Speaker 6That's exactly the last thing I'll say, uh, and turn it back over to y'all. You know it's. It's been a tough road ahead. The last three to four years have been very tough, but these guys on here taz taylor, robbie gary, everybody in the cotton industry as a whole has really stuck together and really molded together. These guys are some of my best friends because of what we do together, because we feel the pressure that's going on in the countryside and we're trying to resolve issues on behalf of the membership across all segments. And without us collectively sitting together as we are right now, we would not be in as good a shape, despite some of the challenges we're still facing, than we are today.
Education Roadshow for Growers
Speaker 5So and I I appreciate y'all so much so on the whole, our group has never been more unified, yeah, and that that's because of collaboration. That's because of collaboration, that's because of late night group text that started out about football and ended up about work. I've worked with other organizations and there was always someone trying to get something past somebody or trying to pull it fast, and we don't have that in cotton in the United States in 2025. And I'm very proud of that and I'm very proud of that. We, because of the communication and collaboration we have a general understanding of you know, I tell people ask me how the guys in West Texas get by. I tell them I can't compare it to anything out here because they live on Mars and and they, I think they feel the same about us, except we farm in a lush tropical rainforest. But we understand each other's needs, we understand each other's concerns, we understand each other's issues and that's because of collaboration, right and relationships, and I'm proud to stand with these guys Right.
Speaker 4Right. So real quick to kind of wrap it up, Taz, I want to give a quick plug to kind of what y'all are fixing to start doing in terms of getting out and educating folks. I mean, we talked about there's a good bit of education that needs to happen with some of this, and hopefully this podcast serves as part of that. But we can only talk about so much, right. So what's kind of the schedule? Where are all of y'all going? What's the plan for kind of this roadshow that y'all are fixing to go on?
Speaker 7So we're going to start well, next week we're going to be in La Mesa, seminole, san Angelo, it's going to be in the West Texas area, west Texas area next week and then the second week of September we're going to be in, you know, basically other parts of the Bay Area. So for Georgia, for example, we're going to be and I'll be sending this out and you can share it but September 8th we're going to be in Rome, we're going to be in America this afternoon We'll be in Bainbridge. On September 9th we're going to be in Statesboro, tifton, waynesboro, all that second week with all these days. Specifically, we're going to be in Alabama that week as well as part of that week. We're going to be in Florida as well. That week we're going to be, we'll be in Florida as well that second that week. So it's just going to be. We're going to be across the belt and for I don't know how far this podcast goes, but like in the southeast or on the coastal side Georgia, north Carolina, virginia Robbie Minnick, our VP of Washington operations, will be doing leading those meetings. And in the southwest part of the state Tifton, americas, manor, florida, bainbridge you're going to have. In Alabama, you're going to have Dr Gary Adams, our president, will be leading those meetings, but really hope folks come out.
Speaker 7It's going to be about a two hour session and we're going to have plenty of time for questions. So we're going to have plenty of time for questions. So we're going to go through different. We're going to also go through the basics. We're also going to go through a lot of crop insurance options. You've got to look at choosing from with some of the changes and how the base updates will work for you.
Speaker 7So how the market loan changes are going to work. So a lot of detailed examples on how this will work for your operation, and we're going to have plenty of time for questions. So please come, this is what it's for. Try to get those questions answered and this implementation process is going to be a little bit of time. So we need to know that there's things we're not thinking about and a lot of times we don't hear that until this grower ask us these questions, or Cody calls and says, hey, y'all thought about this. So this is just as important for us as we like it is for these growers to be there. We really hope folks come out to these meetings in the week of September in the southeast.
Speaker 5Well, I want to applaud them for what they're doing with these education programs. I first got a call about this, I guess in July, and y'all can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's any producer in the country that's going to have to go more than about an hour away for one of these educational sessions that are so vital. This is not as easy as hey. I'm going to update my basement, get a new reference price. There's going to be some options and things involved, and I'm very grateful to the council for what they're doing with this ground effort to get people educated in the countryside.
Speaker 4Yeah, yeah. And so if you, regardless of where you grow cotton I mean, if you're there and you want to know more about what you need to be thinking about, whether it's in Texas, the Mid-South, the Southeast or even up into the Carolinas and Virginia be on the lookout for some of these dates, because this stuff impacts you and we want everybody to be successful and, as mentioned previously, there's obviously more work to be done, but this is a win. This is a win for the cotton industry, and so I'm certainly grateful to the council and to all of our cotton organizations. But real quick, is there anything else that we didn't touch on that you guys want to talk about real quick?
Speaker 7I just want to, ken, I really appreciate you and what you do for Georgia producers. I mean you know the insight you have. I think it's very vital to us at the council and the collaboration you do, and also Taylor and Cody. I mean we can't be successful without folks on the ground and know what's going on and understand the impacts. Yeah, if I got a question about something that's going on in West Texas, cody's the first person I call. If I got a question about something that's going on in Georgia Southeast Taylor's the first person I call. Because we have an idea and we have policies that they put forth for us to implement. But the real world impacts on how we're going to address it with Congress or a regulator or EPA or USDA comes from them.
Closing and Music
Speaker 7And these folks you, camp and Taylor and Cody these folks are passionate about what they do. They're passionate about their competition. I mean I talk to Cody and Taylor all the time about they're concerned about how these guys are going to make it and so what are we doing to help with that? And it's because they care and I just really appreciate you and appreciate them and the collaboration that we all have mentioned before. But I mean it is a. I really appreciate what you do. I appreciate what Tyler and Cody, we're all in this thing together. We're going to get through this. This is going to, you know that song going through hell. Keep on going, but you'll get. We're going to get out at some point and I think we've got some things from a policy standpoint that's going to help growers long term, but also some campaigns we're going to be running through in this five-marathon cotton act, some things from a demand standpoint we hope are going to help the industry weather the and get us back in a better place.
Speaker 4Yeah, no doubt, no doubt, All right. Well, certainly I want to thank Taz Smith with the Cotton Council, cody Besson with the Plains Cotton Growers and Taylor Seals with Georgia Cotton Commission, and I want to thank Cotton Incorporated for their sponsorship of this effort. Thank y'all.
Speaker 1Well, you take all my money. You take all my money, you take all my pride, you take up all my time and then you take me for a ride.
Speaker 2I got cotton, picking Cotton, picking Cotton, growing blue.
Speaker 3Lord, I came't live without you, but living with you Make a man want to lose.
Speaker 1Well, at first you grow so slowly, but I can't make you stop Worry. Worry about you Till I'm tied up in a knot.
Speaker 2I got cotton picking cotton. Picking cotton growing blue.
Speaker 3Lord, I can't live without you.
Speaker 1It's all a part of paying all my dues Hard. To pay it home, I do guitar solo. Well, I sell you off to China For a few cents a pound. You come back with polyester mixed up all around.
Speaker 2I got cotton picking cotton, picking cotton growing blue.
Speaker 3Lord, I can't live without you. It's still the only life.
Speaker 1I'd ever choose. Well, if it was so easy, they'd simply call you corn. You promised me the moon, and then I wish I wasn't born, I got cotton, picking cotton, picking cotton, growing blue.
Speaker 3Lord, I can't live without you living with you.
Speaker 1What am I gonna do?
Speaker 2I'm out. Well, I finally made some money. It's the cotton picking, cotton growing blue.