A hometown High Cotton kind of celebration farmprogress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from farmprogress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Veteran farmers, innovators, marketers, industry leaders are all apt descriptions of the 27th Class of High Cotton winners.
These producers, recognized annually by Farm Press and The Cotton Foundation, are honored for growing quality, sustainable U.S. cotton.
The 2021 honorees, nominated and selected from across the Cotton Belt, are as follows: Southeast- Jerry Lee Hamill, Enfield, N.C.; Mid-South- Doug Scott, Sikeston, Mo.; Southwest- Robbie Robbins, Altus, Okla.; and Western- Hansen Ranches, San Joaquin Valley, Ca.
Success factors
This year s High Cotton winners credit crop rotation, technology, field variety trials, and soil health management, along with their families and employees for their success.
Todd Fitchette
From left, Erik, Phil, and Nis Hansen. The family has sustainably farmed cotton and other crops in the same lake bottom region that patriarch Nis Hansen first tilled in the late 19th Century.
As a sixth generation of Hansens waits in the wings, history suggests that combined, the five generations of family before them created a farming legacy. They did so by successfully and sustainably farming cotton and other crops in the same lake bottom region of the San Joaquin Valley that Hansen Ranches patriarch Nis Hansen first tilled in the late 19th Century.
Brothers Phil and Erik, and their cousin, Nis Hansen, oversee the day-to-day operations of a diverse farming operation that includes upwards of 10,000 acres of high-quality, extra-long-staple Pima cotton known for its strength and ability to mill fine clothing and linens. It is their dedication to sustainable farming practices, a strong business acumen that continues to focus on environmental
Jerry Lee Hamill of Enfield, N.C. is the 2021 High Cotton winner for the Southeast. Jerry Hamill has been extremely successful and continues to produce bountiful cotton crops in a very efficient, sustainable manner.
Jerry Hamill has been successfully and profitably producing cotton in North Carolina for more 52 years so he must be doing something right.
That’s one clear take away from the many cotton industry peers who nominated Hamill for the 2021 High Cotton Award for the Southeast; he does all he can to produce the best crops he can with the goal of perfection. His peers know that Hamill does things right, which has been the key to his success in both the good years and lean years.