PERRY — County UGA Cooperative Extension Service agents are an important resource for Georgia cotton farmers. Agents are known for delivering timely and accurate information, which is instrumental for the success of Georgia’s farmers. They also perform community specific research, education and outreach programs designed to help farmers maximize yields and efficiency.
The Georgia Cotton Commission sponsored the King Cotton Awards to recognize outstanding contributions of county agents to Georgia cotton producers. The Senior Award honors agents with 10 or more years of experience. The Junior Award, named the Allen B. Fulford Award, honors the accomplishments and memory of Allen B. Fulford, who served as a county Extension agent and state cotton agronomist. This award credits those with less than 10 years of service.
The awards were presented at the 2023 Georgia Association of County Agricultural Agents Annual Meeting & Professional Improvement Conference in November.
The 2023 Senior King Cotton Award recipient is Scott Carlson of Worth County, where he serves as the agriculture & natural resources agent. He graduated from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and continued pursuing his bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the University of Georgia, focusing on agribusiness and crop science. He began his UGA Extension career in 1996 and has served in Irwin, Ben Hill, Tift, and Worth counties. Carlson has worked with cotton producers and the UGA Cotton Team members through on-farm cotton variety trials for 20+ years. Throughout his years in Extension, he has assisted growers in management decisions including plant growth regulators, fungicide applications, and insect management. In recent years, a main area of focus has been on Silverleaf Whitefly (SLWF) monitoring and sharing treatment thresholds with cotton growers in South Georgia.
The Allen B. Fulford Award winner is Benjamin Reeves, who serves as the agriculture & natural resources agent for Berrien County. He began his career with UGA Extension in 2018, where he first served in the same role in Candler County. Reeves holds annual cotton production meetings for local farmers on topics such as agronomy, economics, and pest management are discussed. Throughout his career, he has conducted and collaborated on several cotton research trials. These include the Statewide On-Farm Variety trials, the evaluation of cotton seed mixing on net returns and evaluating insecticides for cotton aphid control. Reeves holds a bachelor’s in horticulture from Auburn University and a master’s in entomology from the University of Georgia.
The Georgia Cotton Commission is a producer-funded organization located in Perry, Georgia. The commission began in 1965. Georgia cotton producers pay an assessment enabling the commission to invest in programs of research, promotion, and education on behalf of all cotton producers of Georgia.
For more information about the Georgia Cotton Commission please call (478) 988-4235 or on the web at www.georgiacottoncommission.org.