Status of Cotton Precision Farming in Twelve Southern States

This poster presents results from the 2009 Southern Cotton Precision Farming Survey. A mail survey of 13,783 cotton producers in twelve southern U.S. states was conducted from February to March of 2009. States included in the survey were Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

A total of 1,692 producers provided valid responses for an overall response rate of 12.6%. The distribution of respondents by age and cotton acres planted closely matched figures reported in the 2007 USDA Agricultural Census. A total of 1,061 (63%) of respondents were classified as precision farming adopters (e.g. they used at least one information gathering technology, applied at least one input at variable rates, or used GPS guidance). Other results to be included in the poster presentation include cotton producers' perceptions about the value and future importance of precision farming technologies, the perceived benefits of precision farming technologies, and general farm characteristics of adopters and non-adopters.

This poster is one of a series of seven posters that will detail results of from this survey. This poster will present aggregate survey findings across all twelve states, whereas the remaining six posters will present results specific to individual states.