Ag News
Georgia Cotton Commission presents 2023 King Cotton Awards
Posted on Jan 11, 2024 at 12:29 PM
By Caroline Gentry, Georgia Cotton Commission
UGA Cooperative Extension Agents Scott Carlson of Worth County and Benjamin Reeves of Berrien County received King Cotton Awards from the Georgia Cotton Commission (GCC) during the Georgia Association of County Agricultural Agents annual meeting in November.
County Extension 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 GCC 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 Georgia Cotton Commission is proud to salute the excellent work that County Extension Agents do for farmers across the state.
Carlson serves as the Agriculture & Natural Resources Agent in Worth County. 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 more than 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, Reeves, 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.
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