Memphis, Tennessee
January 29, 2009
Monsanto announces the
launch of the Cotton
Community, a new online web site designed to encourage
farmer-to-farmer exchanges on topics such as variety performance
and agronomic practices. The site was put together as part of
the on-going commitment to provide cotton farmers with in-depth
information on the latest Deltapine® Class of ‘09 varieties and
is anticipated to have broad utility on the farm as farmers will
shape the site’s direction.
“The cotton industry has long been considered a community and
we’ve traditionally shared information with neighbors to make
our farms more successful. This web site will build on that by
enabling farmers across the Belt to connect through one portal,”
according to Keylon Gholston, Deltapine product manager. “This
brings together the unprecedented experience from our new
product exposure plots with the Class of ‘09. With such an
innovative testing program, we wanted to develop innovative ways
to provide cotton farmers access to this information. The idea
grew and we have now launched our Cotton Community and farmers
are talking about their experiences in 2008 and plans for 2009.
They are discussing their experiences with the Class of’ 09 and
this information will be beneficial to other farmers during the
2009 crop year.”
By going to www.CottonCommunity.com, a farmer can track variety
performance, connect with fellow farmers, learn about new
products and share information in an easy-to-use format. The
online community is one effort to improve agricultural
production by facilitating information exchange between farmers
and also provides a platform for the company to share
information.
Brian Effer, marketing communications manager, has led the
site’s development. “Cotton farmers are very active on the Web.
At the same time, we are seeing social networking sites like
Linked-In and Facebook broadening their reach. Although many had
thought networking sites were simply fun for students to engage
in, the demographics and utility of sites has grown and the
impacts are very positive for users. We felt the next logical
extension was
www.CottonCommunity.com.”
More than 100 farmers planted the new Deltapine Class of ’09
cotton varieties in 2008, generating lots of performance
information on the new products. Many of these farmers already
have profiles posted on the Cotton Community talking about their
experiences. Their comments have been posted on the site and can
be searched by variety name, state, soil type or maturity. All
farmers can log on and exchange information on the performance
of varieties and other agronomic topics with fellow farmers, as
well as connect with Deltapine local field advisors and
technical development representatives.
“We introduced the Cotton Community during a meeting with the
Class of ‘09 farmers at Beltwide,” Effer explains. “Since then,
we have had a lot of information added to the site with more
than 300 farmers now in the system with information about the
2008 season. Profiles, comments on their crops, videos, and
various written materials provide a great platform for us to
grow from. We anticipate use will increase further as we have
farmers participating in testing of the Class of 2010.”
Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of
technology-based solutions and agricultural products that
improve farm productivity and food quality. Monsanto remains
focused on enabling both small-holder and large-scale farmers to
produce more from their land while conserving more of our
world's natural resources such as water and energy. To learn
more about our business and our commitments, please visit:
www.Monsanto.com.
Deltapine is a trademark of D&PL Technology Holding Company LLC.
My Future in Cotton is a trademark of Monsanto Technology LLC.
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