When Your Sprayer Belt And The Market Both Snap

Strong yields, premium fiber, and a price that refuses to budge—this season is a study in contrasts. We open with hard numbers: Georgia sits near 70% harvested and ahead of the five-year pace, while USDA’s updated estimate pegs statewide yield around 983 pounds per acre on roughly 830,000 harvested acres. Classing results are bright across the board, with color, staple, strength, and micronaire pushing many bales into premium territory, even as low 60s prices test patience and cash flow.

From there we head to the edges of the map, where a sharp freeze exposed weaknesses in late-planted and deer-damaged cotton. Our field notes from damage trials show how timing, wildlife pressure, and cold combine to shut down unopened bolls. If your fields are mostly open and you’re chasing leaves, a lean defoliation program at lower rates can finish the job now that temperatures have moderated. We also swap cab-seat lessons from a long day of overheated hydraulics, frayed belts, and roadside close calls—a reminder to winterize equipment, respect the road, and plan safe routes home.

Pest pressure took a turn as well. The frost likely knocked back whitefly reproduction by wiping host plants, while jassid counts on yellow sticky cards stayed highly variable, often tied to proximity to defoliated cotton and roadside goldenrod. We explain what the cards are telling us, why adult feeding isn’t the same as reproduction, and how county agents and collaborators are helping map hotspots across South Georgia. Looking ahead, we’ll bring more targeted guidance to county meetings this winter and spring, so tell your agent what you want covered, from variety selection to jassid thresholds and late-season timing.

We also take a moment for the people behind the pickers. If stress is heavy—tight margins, long days, or uncertainty—reach out. County agents can connect you with resources, and peers can be the extra strands in a cord that won’t easily break. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a quick review so more growers can find it.

Transcript

Introductions & Episode Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Bringing you all things cotton production and pest management. This is the Talking Cotton Podcast with the University of Georgia Cotton Team. Let's get into the whys of putting on, throwing off, and cutting out. Hey, today's November the 19th. Welcome back to the Talking Cotton Podcast. My name is Camp Han. I'm Phillip Roberts.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Sarah Hobby.

Statewide Harvest Progress & USDA Numbers

Yield, Quality, And Market Price Reality

Variety Trial Results And Ginning Bottlenecks

SPEAKER_01 0:34

That's it. The end. No, I'm Sarah Hobbit, just Sarah Hobby. President present and accounting for. All right. So um, real quick little update on the crop here. We just spent a little time looking. Hey, we finally have a crop progress report. We do. After 40 something days, right? It's been two podcasts, I think, maybe three since we had a crop report. Yeah. So uh that nasty little message on the USDA website is gone. But um they've got us at 70% harvested, which is ahead of the five-year average. Um, they've got us at 70% harvested, which is uh ahead of the five-year average, which is 65%. And with the weather being the way that it is, that's not surprising. Not surprising at all. Wide open. Um, and then like I said, uh I believe it was two weeks ago, it felt like things were picking up. And uh that has held true, uh, especially with all these variety trials and things like that, starting to get some stuff uh there at the gin. We're running out of room for samples at the gym. That's how much has been harvested. So Dr. Roberts has a hundred and something he can't put nowhere. They're in a wagon, they're in a way they're in a covered trailer, they're in a trailer. USDA also came out with their uh latest projections on this crop. They did uh up our yield estimate, and uh I think it's a good thing they upped our yield estimate because I thought their first number was wrong. Um, I still think this number's a little low, but we'll see. So they've got us at 830,000 acres harvested, a yield of 983 pounds to the acre, and then that puts us at 1.7 million bales uh for 2025. So we'll see uh if that holds true. We still got a little ways to go here. It's about time for Dr. Roberts to start his little spreadsheet where he starts keeping track of uh the number of bales classed and the number of acres and and tallying up our final yield. But uh speaking of bales that have been classed, it looks like the quality is really good this year. Uh 90% of our crop has been classed as a 31 or 41 on color, 36 staples, uh 31 strength, 4.6 on the micronare, three leaf, 81.6 uniformity, and that puts us at a premium of 193 points. And thus far, they have classed 487,350 bales in the state of Georgia. So um things are moving, things are moving fast, got a lot going on. Um, we did I did say something about the variety trial just a second ago, and we were talking about it before we got started. The all the yields on the variety trial are looking really good right now, and I think that's a reflection of the overall crop uh in the state. I I think we've got a really good one. Uh most of the people I talked to are very pleased. Uh, the only thing that they're ill about is that it ain't worth more than 63 or 65 cents or whatever. So um really could have used a higher price, especially with the crop that we have, but it is what it is, and so we're gonna make the most of it. But um, overall the crop is really, really good, and so uh very happy about that. But we're we're gonna finish up today, Dr. Roberts. I think that's right. So we we got started on our last farm yesterday and then uh gonna get back out there after lunch and do a little bit more. But um, that cotton was pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

Looked good. Yeah, it looked good. Don't know how it weigh, but I took a picture. It looked really good to you.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Well, I don't know if it's that good. Probably not, but it looked good. It looked good. The the thing that was interesting though, we were picking some of that uh deer damage stuff that um Maggie's been working on the last couple years. And I mean that that uh cold weather a couple weeks ago hammered it pretty bad. And it it was wild to see it. And that's why we planted that study late. We did an early plant in a late, and uh that one the freeze hit it hard, and it was like hardly anything open on some of that stuff that uh we simulated feeding two or more times. It was incredible. I mean it was nothing. We was unloading in bags and it'd just be a bunch of leaf in there. Like it was it was unreal. Yesterday it'd be green bowls and leaves in there, basically.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

It seemed like you know, the the loss is gonna be much more severe. Yeah, and I guess due to that early frost. But probably.

Deer Damage Study And Freeze Impacts

SPEAKER_01 5:15

But that's what I told Maggie yesterday. I said, Yeah, we're gonna have to sit down and look at this and look at probably growing degree days and stuff like that. But um, that's good information though. Absolutely to know that hey, not every year is gonna be the same. Sometimes it'll work out fine and others it won't. That's right. You know, so um certainly interesting stuff. Um, Dr. Roberts, what uh you getting calls about anything, man? Nope. Nothing. That cold weather.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Well, I helped out some. Um it probably helped some uh if you're referring to jazz. Well, just whatever. Yeah. But no, the cold weather, because we don't have to talk about jazz. Yeah. You know, it it was a killing frost in some areas. Yeah. And uh and that's a good thing. I think here it was. Yeah. You know, when we think of pests like white flies, for example, you know, we killed a lot of host plants where white flies were reproducing on. And and that stopped those immatures from from reaching maturity to continue developing during the winter. And uh you know, we still don't know all the host plants for jazz. But I'm sure we killed some where there could have been reproduction, so it helped. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

It'd be interesting to see what the cards say.

Cold Weather Effects On Whiteflies And Jassids

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Well, yeah. So uh for people who don't know, we uh Sarah has been doing this for many years, but we run cards, little yellow sticky cards, every week across several several areas of South Georgia. Uh we have some county agents who also are running cards, so that's a good thing. One of the things we uh uh started counting in addition to the white flies on the cards were jazzets. So we haven't run those this week. We haven't run them since the you know, we got cold. So it's just gonna be really interesting to see what kind of impact we had.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Um now we've warmed back up. So it'll be interesting. We need to get those cars pulled, but um it'll give us some indication of where we are. I mean we had to have impacted them. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

I mean, two weeks ago it was still some traps were really, really high.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Yes, jazzed? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

No, white flies specifically. But not as high for jazz, yeah.

Sticky Cards, Host Plants, And Goldenrod

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Yeah. But it it's it's kind of interesting. Uh the cards that uh that we monitor just here out of Tifton, um, a lot of variability in jazz. Like you may have a card with less than 10 and a card that literally you couldn't stick another one on there, and we're having a hard time counting white flies, which is the original objective. And you know, it probably has to do with the proximity of a cotton field that was defoliated. And you just have this mass migration out of a field of cotton. And you know, a lot of people saw these things, and uh you know, when we were picking cotton camp, you know, up until yesterday we would have jazzeds all over the picker. Yeah. I didn't see a jazzed yesterday. I looked. You did. I didn't look. I I did, and not a single one. Yeah. But now that frost had earned Well, and there ain't no regrowth. There's no regrowth on this cotton.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

That's the other thing.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

So it's it it it's it's gonna be interesting um to see how everything works out. I I do know I've had agents send me pictures of adult jazz on various plants. And a lot of people are looking. Yeah, like on radish, for example, we have a lot of radish. Uh we're monitoring that very closely, but all we've observed on radish is adults. And the adult jazz in reality can feed on about anything, but you know, we're interested in what plants they can reproduce on. Polyphagus. Polyphagus. Feeds on many host plants. I know some words. That's a big one. But the other, you know, one of the weeds and Sarah picked up on this weeks ago was uh Goldenrod. Yeah. I was in Midville last week. I guess it was last week. Two weeks. Two weeks. Yeah. Two weeks. I was there last week. Well, you were there the week. They were still on Goldenrod. So there's a lot of goldenrod out there. A lot of goldenrod. Just on the side of the road. Yeah. In the woods. That's right. Hopefully a lot of it in the woods. Hopefully the goldenrod's gonna die. Yeah. But then where they go. Yeah, then where they go. So we got a lot of questions.

Jassid Podcast Recap And Extension Network

SPEAKER_01 10:08

A lot of questions, a lot of questions. Yep. But I'll be ready to get done. Hey, Dr. Roberts did a podcast and I finally listened to it on uh what's it called? I see dead plants. Yeah, and it was all about Jassids. So if you want to listen to Dr. Roberts and Dr. uh Isaac Escaval. He's talking about uh yeah, he's out of Florida. He's located in Quincy. You want to hear them talk all about Jassids, that's a good place to go listen to them. It was actually uh pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Yeah, and it's it's a good review. I think we did that podcast probably in early October. Yeah. Still in the heat of it. Still in the heat of it, but you know, we talked about this insect all year, how it's an evolving situation. Like we always referred growers, consultants, everyone, industry to you know, to be in touch with our county agent. That was our uh mechanism to deliver information. It worked well. County delivery still works, Dr. Han. It does. It does, actually. And uh so some we've learned stuff since that podcast. But it's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

We all learned that Dr. Roberts does not like insects. No, I don't like insects. That was uh that was a little uh kind of rambling. Uh but it was a good one. If you want to hear about Jassage for an hour, that's a that's a good one. That's a whole while. We we went to uh Midville last week and I hadn't listened to it yet. And me and one of my student workers uh listened to it, and I it got done. She scouts a little bit up in Middle Georgia and um got done listening. I asked her, I said, You learned something? She said, I did learn something. She said that was very interesting. And I've kind of forgot the whole summer was a blur, really, but I forgot that she wasn't working here. So then I had to go back and explain everything that like happened. You know, looking back, it's it's interesting to look back and see how it all played out in in real time and just like living it, you know. But um long days. Yeah, yeah.

Defoliation Decisions After A Frost

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Forced Miss Hobby into retirement. Yeah. No, it prolonged your employee. It prolonged it, hey, and I'm still grateful to Sarah. I mean, she stayed on a couple more months because we were she felt sorry for him. No, no, she felt a commitment. Yeah. Um I mean, and that's had some skin in the game. She had skin in the game, and and we had a problem, and uh, you know, we did everything we could do. So I'm grateful that she stayed on. I mean, a couple more months and and we got it done. Yeah, and uh but anyway, yeah, uh that's uh you know, I'm not getting a lot of calls. I still still get a few pictures. Yeah, that cotton pictures? Yes. Yeah.

Safety Story: Roadway Incident And Lessons

SPEAKER_01 13:07

And we're looking we're looking for pictures of some really good cotton. Uh if you got some, send them. Yeah. Because Dr. Roberts needs a new picture. He's been showing the same picture at the end of his slide since 2012. Since 2012, and we need an updated picture. Need a new picture. So if you got a picture of some really good cotton, what was the yield on that cotton? It was 22. 22, 2200. It was good. If you got cotton and made 2200 and looks really good, 2200 or more and looks really good, send it to Dodder. Yeah. So well, what about you, Dr. Han? Uh, not not getting many calls about anything. I did get a text about defoliation this week, which was kind of interesting because we talked about um, you know, it didn't freeze everywhere, right? I guess. And so there's still some folks that are trying to figure out what to do. Um, you know, kind of as I as I mentioned earlier, some of this cotton around here that wasn't open ain't gonna open. Right. And I mean, I talked to John Bennett earlier this week, and he told me that uh in Wilcox County, he told me that he walked in the field and he could smell it, you know, smell that sour. Yeah, he said it was sour. But then Jennifer Miller texted and she she wanted to know what to spray, and almost all the bowls were open. They were just trying to get some leaves off. And I figured that's probably what most people are gonna uh be looking to do if there's still leaves on it.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Well, I was kind of surprised. I looked at some cotton we planted really late Monday. I looked at it this Monday. Yeah, there was a bloom. There was a bloom on it. But uh but the thing that surprised me wasn't wasn't that. Uh but the cotton's not dead. Yeah. I mean, it was 27 degrees here.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

And uh you think it's got anything to do with the proximity to the ground? Uh very likely. I was just curio I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

I mean it has to be asking a question. I don't know. I mean it's knee high. Yeah. But I thought it would have been graveyard dead. So I I'm not surprised. There are areas where there may be some leaves still on the plant when we want to get off.

Sprayer Breakdowns, Field Fixes, And Finishing

Late-Planted Cotton Performance And Plans

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah. So there's some of that out there. And I mean, really, you know, we're kind of in a point now where we don't want to be spending a whole lot of money where we don't have to. And if you got all your bowls open and you just want to get some leaves off, we can go with one product or two to handle that. Um, of course, with it warming back up, we ought to be able to use some lower rates to do some stuff like that. Um, but I mean, really, for all practical purposes, this crop is done. And I mean, we just need to. If you got leaves on it, let's get the leaves off and then let's go get it. Except for this stuff that Dr. Roberts is talking about that was planted in August. So, you know, let's get the leaves off of it, let's go get it. Um, you know, it was funny. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about safety on equipment and stuff. You you remember that, Doctor? We did. It was one day later that I had my little incident. It's important. Safety is so important. Sarah, I don't know if you've heard this story or not. Tell it. I'm gonna tell it. So I was all right, so it was Thursday before this freeze. All right, Dodd Roberts had done gone off deer hunting and he missed. But he's back on the board. Back on the board. Healed two the other day, so that's good. But um I I said, all right, I gotta go spray this cotton. So hop on our 6700, good piece of machinery when it works, um, and started driving. But I as I was mixing up, I mean, I was putting a chemical in the tank. I said, today is just not gonna be it's just not gonna go good today. I just had a feeling about it. But I put the stuff in the tank anyways, and I started driving. And so I start driving and I get uh over the two bridges on the way to the pond or farm for anybody who's been out there. And uh once I get over the second bridge, that alarm starts going off in that C700. Same problem we had been having earlier this summer, hydraulic oil overheated. Said, okay, pull over on the side of the road in the ditch and let it cool off for about five minutes. And I said, All right, I'm gonna start going again. So start going again. Get a little bit further down the road, get up by David Hare Road up there, and it overheats again. So I pull over and I stop and I set myself a timer on my phone, and I'm sitting there waiting, and I can hear this car coming up behind me. I had a door open because it was hot, it'd be hot in there if you left the door closed. But I had a door open, so I could hear this car coming up behind me, and she tried to go around me just a hair, and then this other person comes around to curve, and both of them are going pretty fast. So this young lady tries to get around that car, goes off the road, comes back in, overcorrects, spins around, and flips over, winds up in the ditch on the other side. Okay. I'm sitting in this sprayer, I just watched this whole thing happen. It didn't hit me, it could have, but it didn't. And so I get down off the sprayer, I'm on the phone with 911. I'm like, hey, y'all need to send somebody, like all this stuff. Young lady walked out of the car, not a scratch on her. You know, the window was busted out, car was certainly totaled, the axle was snapped and all kind of stuff. But it was it was unreal to see it happen. And it was uh not, I guess not funny, but it was just ironic that the day before we were talking about safety on equipment, being careful moving up and down the road and doing all this stuff. And I I've had people do some stupid stuff around me while I'm driving, but never something like that. And so, hey, just be careful out there. Be careful and if you're a if you're a just civilian or whatever, if you're not in agriculture and you live on these roads where people are moving equipment, hey, leave a little early because it's like we don't need to be running late and making stupid decisions and doing stuff like that because people get hurt. I'm just glad you can tell the story.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Yeah. I mean, you can tell the story because there's a happy ending. I mean Yeah, everybody walked away.

Winterizing Equipment And Season Wrap

County Meetings, Feedback, And Planning

Rural Stress, Resources, And Community Support

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Everybody walked away at the end of the day. Because I would I mean, I thought something had seriously happened. Well, it did. Yeah, well, but more seat seatbelt. Yeah, yeah, wearing a seatbelt. So it's uh, you know, it was a a good ending that uh everybody walked away. Okay, so but my story's not done. All right. So I get back on the sprayer and I go to ponder and I start spraying and uh it overheats again. So I stop and I get off and I'm looking. There's this belt on there that does it does the fan and the alternator and everything on the front, and I and it was fraying. So I said, I called up Trey. I said, Trey, I said, I don't know if I can finish with the way that with the condition this belt is in. And he he said, Oh, he said, All right, well, I'll go get one. Go up to our store here, sold their last one yesterday, said sure they did. So I had to send one of my group, they were studying for an entomology exam. I had to send one of my group to uh Osilla, pick one up. Of course, I didn't do a good job. They got there and they didn't know what they was getting. They just said, hey, I'm here to get a belt. And there's a bunch of belts hanging on the wall. So we got that figured out. Go back out there. Should have been an easy fix. No. Two hours later, finally got it on there. Luckily, Trey knows who to call if we're in a pinch. So um we called somebody, they sent a schematic, we got the belt on there, all good. Okay. Well, then fire it back up and start looking, and the main drive belt is in bad shape. Like bad shape. It's got it's got three strands on it, and one of them's in real bad shape, the other two look okay. And I said, Well, Trey, I said, I got one acre to spray right here, and I'm gonna spray it, and then we'll reevaluate what we're gonna do. So I spray it, and then I get over there to the to the well there at the pond farm, Trey sitting there, and I get off and I said, What you think? And he said, I said, you think I can make it home? He said, I'm gonna stay right here with you the whole way. And I said, Okay. So start driving back home, get about halfway, and the one strand of that three-stranded belt broke off. And I and I pulled over, we got the belt out of the road, and I looked at it and I said, I said, hey, Trey. I said, there's still some belt here, man. There's two. Two out of three. And he said, you had two good ones. He said, now it's all you got. And he he said, look, he said, here's what you do. So you take it easy. Said, we ain't trying to win no races. I said, yeah, I said, yes, sir. And I said, but look now, Trey. I said, we we got these bridges up here. I was like, what are we gonna do if this if this belt snaps off while we're on these bridges? I don't know. We just start going. And I said, okay. Start going. Had had two acres left to spray. I mean, it was the last cotton of the year. So pull back into this last field, right? I mean, right here close to campus. Click on the pump and the agitation, nothing. Nothing. I mean, this is at four in the afternoon now at this point, you know. So I'm sitting there, I'm ill. This one guy just is driving by, he wants to talk about robots and whatever else he sees on the experiment station. I'm ill. I I don't want to talk about all that. And Trey figured out that the belt, when it broke, tore some of the wires loose that connect to the pump. So hey, I'm very fortunate that Trey came and helped me that day. Because if he didn't, I don't know what I would have done. We wouldn't have I wouldn't have sprayed. You'd have still been there. I'd yeah, I'd have been in a ponder, probably. I'd have, I'd have, that belt would have broken, I'd have not known what to do. But uh we got it fixed and we got all that cotton sprayed, and and of course it had done been a day, and Trey said, You want to just leave it here? I said, We're this close. And I said, if I can't make it back to the gin in the next 30 minutes, we'll just leave it. And so made it back to the gin. But it was a day. It was a day spraying that cotton.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

That's a long day.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

We got it done though. It was, it was a long day. Um, but hey, we got it done. So, and uh yeah, we're picking all that cotton, but at the end of the day, this late, this that late plant of cotton out there, I I don't know, Dr. Roberts. I thought it was gonna do better. A ponder? Mm-hmm. I don't know what to weighed up. I just look I just unloading some of them bags. Oh, we've had heavier, I guess. Nah, it was planted June 11th, so I mean it's two plus. Yeah. There's not much, yeah, not much better. No, not for June 11th, but I mean it it looks good though. But it's beautiful. So I like that showy cotton, you know. I do, I know you like it. A lot of that's probably one of your favorite varieties. I was thinking that while I was driving to Picker yesterday. It cleans. Uh-huh. Yeah. No storm, so it's it's uh it c it picks real clean. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

But uh it's still good cotton. But uh a lot of our farms we're getting into shape, though. And that's a good farm.

Closing Thanks And How To Stay Connected

SPEAKER_01 24:18

That's some good land out there. Good land. But uh next year we may plant it a little earlier than June 11th because we're putting our seed rye somewhere else. So that might be it might do a little bit better next time. So we got to start planting some cover on some places. Wes called me yesterday. He wanted to remind everybody to winterize all their equipment. If you didn't do that before the freeze, sorry. But um, hey, just be sure to take care of your stuff kind of as we're getting into the winter time. And it, you know, there isn't cold weather in the forecast right now, but it's gonna get cold again. So uh just a reminder to do some of that kind of stuff. Um, this is probably gonna be our last podcast for the year, just because uh I don't know if you can tell it, we're kind of running out of stuff to talk about here, but that's okay. We can talk about stuff all day long. I could sit here and talk for probably another hour or whatever. But Sarah and Dr. Roberts have stuff to go do. So so we're we're gonna uh probably wrap up this year's podcast today, and then what we'll do is something similar to last year where we'll come back and uh record stuff uh prior to county meeting time. Uh be on the lookout for county meeting dates from your county agent, and uh we'll go forward on that. We'll be releasing podcasts throughout the springtime just as kind of our county meeting type updates. And I mean, we've already talked about a lot of the stuff, but we'll kind of go into a little more detail and give give a little bit more of a sneak peek.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Yeah, cotton I mean, last year you had each of the cotton team members. So let me go 30, 45 minutes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

And it was, you know, it's good because you can't go to every meeting and uh growers can't go to every meeting, and then what was that? Well, not every cotton team member can go to every meeting. That's what I was gonna say is a grower may miss the meeting in their county, and uh cotton team members not gonna be at every meeting. Daughter Roberts may be at every meeting this year. Well, because he's uh he's a like and uh but the other thing, you know. Yeah, the annual meeting. What is that? There's ample opportunity last Wednesday in January always.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

But uh you know, we get a lot of feedback from agents and um you know we rely on that. We rely on that a lot to help shape our you know what we talk about at county meetings. So, you know, make sure you're you know our agents they're aware of what's going on in the county. But just make sure if you're a grower, you know, reach out to the agents.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Hey, we we want to talk about this, we want to hear about this. Yeah. And I've had people tell me before I come into a county for a meeting, hey, I've started getting questions about this, and you need to address it. Right. You know, I think everybody knows what people are gonna ask Dr. Roberts to address. That's fine. Need to know what to do, right? Going into next year. But I mean, if there's anything else that you guys want to hear about in the wintertime, just say so. So last thing, and we were gonna do a podcast on this a year ago. I didn't tell Sarah and Dr. Roberts I was gonna do this, but there's a big push by the University and Georgia Department of Agriculture on this uh rural stress and mental health type stuff. And uh just I don't want to go into too much detail, but something happened this past week, hit a little close to home. And so if anybody that is listening to this is is struggling with some stuff like that, there are resources out there for you guys. Um, Dr. Anna Shayette retired with us, and currently the funds are not there to refill that position, but she did a lot of really good work on some of this stuff, doing surveys with farmers and farm families, and um she even helped me out with some of this deer stuff, um, doing some surveys on impacts of growers, and and uh you start to see some of these words uh in some of these surveys like hopelessness and and sleep deprived and um you know just just don't feel like they can keep going and stuff like that. And it's just you don't want to see that kind of stuff. And so um I don't know, it's uh it's just kind of I want to make sure that people that are listening to this know that there are plenty of resources out there for you guys, and and a lot of your county agents have been involved in some of these efforts, and so feel free to call them if you don't know where else to go. Um we were talking about that belt on that sprayer a second ago, you know, and it you had three strands on it and one of them broke and you still had two, you know. In the Bible, it talks about a strand of three a cord of three strands is not easily broken, and it's the same thing with that belt. And so you got people you can call on uh if you're having a hard time, whether it's one of us that's sitting in this room or otherwise one of your farmer friends or or anything like that. And so um, we just want people to know that uh there's plenty of resources out there to kind of help because I know the situation on the farm is bad right now, even though the cotton is really, really good. You know, that it's just a tough, tough time on the farm. There's people that are struggling and uh just want people to know that hey, we're here for you. Uh there's plenty of stuff out there, and uh we're willing to help point you in the right direction on some stuff like that. If y'all have any questions, feel free to reach out to your county agent and give them a little feedback on what y'all want to hear in the wintertime. All right. Thank y'all. Thank you for listening. To this episode of Talkin' Cotton with the UGA Cotton Team. If you have any questions about anything we talked about today, or if there's anything you'd like for us to talk about in the future, please contact your local UGA County Extension Agent. And as always, you can find us on all major podcast platforms. Be sure to like, share with your friends, and subscribe so you can stay up to date.