The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 08, 1999, Page 4, Image 4
When
Cotton’s
No Longer
King
Story and Photos
BY JUDSON DRENNAN
The Carolina Reporter
Wre live from one year to the
next. We don’t know if
we ’re going to be able to
farm another year. We started out
in debt this year, and the way it looks,
we’re going to end in debt.... I heard
my husband make this comment the
other day, you know he said, ‘ You
think God’s looking down and help
ing you, and sometimes as a farmer,
you almost want to question
where God is.”...
- Christine Bickley, cotton farmer
When Christine Bickley married
a cotton farmer, she understood the
hours were long, the pay was low and
the work was hard. But she knew that
come harvest, there would be money
to square up debts. And in good times,
there would be enough left over to put
a little in the bank.
But times aren’t good. This will
be the Bickleys’ third bad harvest in
as many years. And with the price of
cotton down at 50-cents-a-pound from
its average of 70 cents, Bickley is won
dering if there will even be a harvest
next year.
mces are Killing us. wun pnces
like they are right now, we won’t even
break even,” she said.
Bickley is the S.C. chairwoman
of the National Cotton Wbmen’s Com
mittee, an advocate group for Amer
ican cotton products. She and her hus
band, Kenneth, farm 900 acres of
cotton in Orangeburg and Calhoun
counties with their daughter and son
in-law. Much of the land they farm
used to belong to Kenneth’s father,
but some they rent from friends and
neighbors.
Bickley said it takes her $450 an
acre to grow unirrigated cotton, and
each acre has to produce one-and-a
half to two bails of cotton to break
even; irrigated cotton takes at least
two bails to
break even. But
Bickley doesn’t
expect she will
get two-thirds of
what she needs
from her irri
gated fields.
And some of
her unirrigated
fields have been
nearly destroyed
by the drought.
But the drought
isn’t the only
thing hurting
11C1 WUUII.
“Wfe’re having problems with seed
rot, too. Everybody’s panicky about
seed rot. It’s a disease where the cot
ton bolls rot before they are ready for
harvest. We have white flies like you
would not believe. These elements are
tearing up the irrigated cotton. Cot
ton likes heat, but it does not like
'extreme heat. So even if it is irrigat
ed, it’s struggling,” she said.
And the bank isn’t far behind.
Bickley said she used to get loans on
her name alone, but for the past two
years, she and her husband have had
to mortgage everything they own.
They’re still trying to pay off a loan
taken out after a bad harvest in
1977, and it looks like this year’s har
vest will put them further in debt. She
said that as the price of cotton falls,
so do her hopes of keeping the farm
another year.
; “It is scary to know that come
January, the bank might sell us out be
cause we can’t make ouf payments.
Yet we have worked all these years
paying all this interest to the'banks,”
she said.
“What’s going to happen to this
country if the American people don’t
wake up and stand up for farmers? The
average American will tell you they
don’t care because it’s not affecting
them. But that’s so stupid. Everybody
in the United States is affected if the
farmers go out.
“I mean, I could cry, I could sit
down and cry because I hear people
right here in my own hometown
that will look at me and they’ll say,
‘You chose what you wanted to do in
life, and if you don’t like it, get out of
it.’
“But how do you quit? You’ve
got so much investment in it.
You’ve got the love of the land. It’s
something that’s instilled in you. It’s
something you’ve done all your life.
How do you quit?”
Lowder Farm
Cotton’s knee-high this year, and
that worries Clayton Lowder.
Lowder is chairman of the S.C
Cotton Board. He and his brother farm
750 acres in Oswego. None of it is ir
rigated. They also have a feed-and
seed store and a cotton gin that process
es about 3,000 acres of cotton from
their neighbors’ farms.
Not all of Lowder’s cotton is knee
high. The best of it comes up to his
waist. He said all of it should be up to
his chest by now.
As Lowder walked through his
rows of cotton, he stomped down stalks
of pigweed, a fast-growing weed re
sistant to chemicals that soaks up what
rain does fall. He stooped down, looked
at one of the cotton plants and shook
his head. His dog, Rebel, watched him
from the back of the truck.
“Ridin’ by, this cotton looks fan
tastic, but look at this,” he said, point
ing to small, unopened bolls on the
branches of one of the taller plants.
“The picker’s not gonna get this. And
even if it did, these aren’t gonna
amount to
much of noth
ing.”
He said the
bolls were on
ly one-half to
two-thirds the
size they should
be, and the
fibers weren’t
going to be long
enough to bring
a good price at
market. He said
much of the
cotton was
ikuu iucm.u, u vuuuii
use to describe cotton that doesn ’t get
enough water to mature properly.
Hard-locked cotton has low-quality,
short fibers, and isn’t easily harvested
by the cotton-picking machinery.
“Believe it or not, I think I’m the
only one around here that is optimistic,
and by that I mean I think we’ll get
400 to 500 pounds of cotton an acre,”
he said.
But Lowder said even if he gets
500 pounds of cotton, he’ll still lose
$150 an acre.
“The other day, a friend of mine
asked me, ‘How much cotton you got
planted?’ and I said, ‘Too much,’ ‘cause
if I hadn’t planted any, we would on
ly had to pay rent on the land. Last
year, I broke even. This year’s gonna
hurt real bad,” he said.
Not only does Lowder plan to
take a hit in the fields, he said he ex
pects his gin will only have about half
the business of a normal year. He said
all the cotton farmers in his area have
South Carolina Cotton
I S C'« highest cotton-producrig counties <aoe the largest drou^t problems |
Ann Kennedy The Carolina Reporter
i._i i_i_i _ *_
been devastated by the drought, and a ’
few might not bother harvesting some
fields.
“Farmers are losing money on this
(drought),” he said. “I’m getting con
cerned not only about the cotton
farmer, but about all farmers after this
year and last year. I don’t rightly know
what I’m going to do.”
Hard Times
Both Lowder and Bickley said this
year’s drought was looking like the
last of many straws for cotton farm
ers.
“The drought’s been terrible. Ter
rible,” Bickley said.
They said several years of bad har
vests have put manv farmers in their
areas in debt, and banks are getting
more and more hesitant to lend mon
ey.
Bickley said the bank her fami
ly had done business with for gener
ations finally turned her down this
year. They had to turn to another lend
ing institution for the money to
plant crops.
“Farmers built the banks in this
country, and now they want to tell us
that they don’t want to lend us mon
ey. It’s not fair to the farmers. And
what are we going to do when we can’t
get a loan anymore?” she said.
Lowder and Bickley said the on
ly way to keep cotton farmers from
losing their farms is for the govern
ment to make laws protecting the U.S.
market from foreign cotton.
Lowder is hoping for relief in the
form of a program called Step Two.
Step Two is a bill under consideration
by the U.S. House of Representatives
that would restrict the inflow of for
eign cotton while strengthening prices
at home. “Somebody sets our prices
for us. We have no say on our prices.
And that’s wrong. We should be able
to get a fair price for our product,”
Lowder said.
Bickley said a major factor dri
ving the price of domestic cotton down
is cheaply produced foreign cotton.
She said strict regulations protecting
labor and the environment in the Unit
ed States keep the price of Ameri
can cotton from being competitive
with cotton from other countries. For
example, she said, Mexican cotton can
be produced more cheaply in part be
cause many Mexican farmers haven’t
invested in laige farm machinery. In
Mexico, farm labor is cheaper because
Mexico has no laws requiring farm
ers to pay a minimum wage to its cot
ton pickers.
Bickley said this inexpensive cot
ton is imported into the United States,
devaluing domestic cotton.
“I would say that if we don’t get
the price of the tariffs on import cot
ton up, they’re just gonna flood this
country. They’re flooding this coun
try now,” she said.
She said many retailers would
rather buy products made with cheap
er foreign cotton because it gives a
larger profit margin.
“They love imports because they
can buy them cheap, but they don’t
sell them cheap. They’ve got such a
markup on these clothes, and it’s not
fair. It is not fair that a person can
order something and make a killing
on it when the American fanner is go
ing broke,” Bickley said. “I mean,
somebody’s got to get their priorities
straight.”
Clayton Lowder farms 750 acres of cotton in Oswego. This year's drought could cause him to loss
$150 an acre. He said this field should be up to his chest by now, but severe drought has stunted its
growth.
Christine Bickley said this is her worst field, which is almost not
worth harvesting. Three years of bad harvests have caused Bickley,
like many South Carolina fanners, to wonder if her farm can last
another year. ;
Briefs
■ City Council
The Columbia City Council meets the first
and third Wednesdays of each month at the
City Hall Council Chambers, third floor.
1737 Main St.
■ County Council
The Richland County Council meets the
first and third Tuesdays of each month at
the County Administration Building, 2020
Hampton St.
■ State Fair
comes to Columbia
The State Fair will run through Oct. 17 at
the S.C. Fairgrounds. For more information
about the following events or any other
events, call 799-3387.
• Today - Judging and competitive
events; free state shows; The Tempta
tions, 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday - Judging and competi
tive events; free stage shows; 38 Spe
cial, 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday - Free stage shows, 8:30
a.m., 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., 1:45 p.m.,
2:30 p.m., 3 p.m., 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 5
p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 7
p.m., 8 p.m., 8:30 p.m.; The Oak
Ridge Boys, 4:30 p.m.
• Monday - Judging and competi
tive events, 10 a.m. to noon, noon to
9 p.m.; free stage shows, 10 a.m.,
10:30 p.m., 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., every
half hour from 3 to 8:30 p.m.; Alaba
ma, 7:30 p.m.
■ Antique show
An antique show will be held through
Sunday at the Columbiana Centre. 10
a.m. to 5 p.m. through Saturday, 1:30
to 6 p.m. Sunday. All types of
antiques, collectibles and crystal
repair. Free. For more information,
call 781-1000.
■ Charlie Glasgow
Golf Tournament
The Ronald McDonald House of
Columbia will hold the sixth annual
Charlie Glasgow Memorial Golf Tour
nament on Monday at The University
Club in Blythewood.
The format is Captain's Choice,
with a shotgun start at noon. The tour
nament will end with dinner and a
silent auction.
Anyone can participate by being
a sponsor, entering a team, donating
an item to the silent auction or bid
ding on an auction item.
For more information, call the
Ronald McDonald House at 254
3181.
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