Kevin Brinkley discusses the advantages of transporting cotton by rail versus trucks.
Monday, April 5, 2021, the first shipment of U.S. cotton bales was loaded into containers at Plains Cotton Cooperative Association s (PCCA) new rail facility in Altus, Okla., en route for Southeast Asia. Every train has just under 20,000 bales of cotton on it, said PCCA CEO and President Kevin Brinkley. That schedule will vary throughout the year, depending on what sales have been made. But every one of those trains has got 20,000 bales headed for somewhere in Asia.
PCCA s transportation expansion benefits its grower-owners. The bottom line is we re building access to major ports, and therefore, major export markets, by having a rail located here in Altus.
Robbins named 2021 High Cotton winner for the Southwest
Last fall, Robbie Robbins harvested his 62nd cotton crop. Five picker balers, accompanying equipment and employees converged on his Altus, Okla., farms to harvest 6,000 acres of cotton a stark contrast to the mules he worked as a young boy on the family farm or his first five-acre cotton crop produced as a junior in high school.
Robbins credits his success to soil tests, variety test plots, a good entomologist and irrigation. Early in his career, he said Extension agents played a major role. “They helped young farmers grow, learn and do better.”
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