Cotton Farm Tour de Force

 It was a glorious blue sky, sun-drenched fall day in the Valley filled with endless photo opportunities last Thursday.

SCP Director Marcia Gibgs (center) welcomes tour group.

For more than two dozen women and men from across California, there were more than enough props for their fancy digital cameras and cell phones: Brown, green and white fluffy cotton bolls ready for harvest, a cotton picker working the field and raw fiber speeding through heaters, cleaners and bale presses at a cotton gin.

Xerces Society's Kat Price talks about a perennial hedgerow.

Hand-spinners, sustainability advocates and fashion brand representatives were among the Cotton Tour participants chatting with farmers, a UC farm advisor and other industry experts to get a rare behind-the-scene glimpse of the state’s cotton industry.  Sponsored by the nonprofit Sustainable Cotton Project, this annual Cotton Farm Tour de Force drew rave reviews once again.

Here’s a glimpse of the whirlwind day.

Capturing fluffy cotton fiber ready to be harvested.

Cotton is certainly the fabric of choice.

Cotton picker ready to unload a round module.

Recording the harvester in action.

A rare treat was hand-picking colored cotton.

Growers Mark Fickett (left) and Frank Williams.

UC Farm advisor Dan Munk talks about cotton plants.

Getting a close shot of milk weed at a perennial hedgerow.

Cotton grower Dan McCurdy describes a harvester's spindles.

Watching a cotton picker in action at McCurdy's field.

Posing with branches of a colored cotton plant.

A tound cotton module is a perfect backdrop for pictures.   Photos by Gilbert Mohtes-Chan