Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”
North Carolina cotton growers will vote April 1 on whether to continue the checkoff program that supports their industry. The referendum would authorize an assessment of up to $1 per bale of cotton sold. However, the N.C. Cotton Producer Association’s board of directors plans to continue the assessment at the current level of 80 cents per bale. The assessment would be in effect for another six years.
The checkoff program supports improvements in cotton production, marketing and research. It also promotes the general interests of North Carolina’s cotton industry.
All North Carolina cotton producers who planted the crop in 2015 and intend to plant cotton this year are eligible to vote in the referendum at their county Cooperative Extension office April 1. Polling hours will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
If approved, the assessment would continue to be collected by the gin and submitted to the NCDA&CS. The department then would send the assessment funds to the N.C. Cotton Producers Association, a nonprofit organization based in Nashville, N.C.
North Carolina ranks fourth nationally in cotton production. According to USDA statistics, North Carolina growers produced 522,000 bales of cotton on 365,000 acres in 2015. The average yield was 686 pounds per acre.
To listen to Commissioner Troxler and Rhonda discuss the cotton growers referendum, click on the audio player below.
[Audio:/wp-content/uploads/Troxler_3-29-16.mp3|titles=Today’s Topic for March 29]
Southern Farm Network is a division of Curtis Media Group.