Charlie Burmester’s 

Charles Burmester, known to cotton producers throughout the Tennessee Valley as “Charlie,” became one of the leading authorities on cotton production in a roundabout way.

He grew up on a small family farm in Cullman County. Though they grew a few acres of cotton on the family farm, potatoes were the staple crop. Being a small cotton producer mandated that the cotton be picked by hand, which provided considerable inspiration to get an education and find a way to make a living that did not involve picking cotton. However, his cotton picking abilities paid off later and helped him get started in his 20-plus year career in cotton research and extension.

Charlie earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in agronomy from Auburn. His graduate research work was done on forage nutrition, specifically looking at fertility requirements for new forage varieties being developed at Auburn.

His combined knowledge of cotton production and soil fertility made him a logical choice for a combined research-extension position in the Tennessee Valley to conduct on-farm tests to verify cotton fertility recommendations. Though he did some work with other crops, cotton was, and is, the dominant row crop in the Tennessee Valley, so he naturally began to work more and more with cotton.

Since these on-farm demonstrations were small by design, they had to be picked by hand. Hence his cotton picking capabilities that he learned growing up on the family farm, made him more efficient than most at harvesting his plots. As his knowledge of cotton production grew, so did his popularity with area growers.

When long-time Extension Cotton Specialist Sam Eich retired, Charlie replaced him, but maintained a 50% research appointment as well. “Most of my research is now done here at the Tennessee Valley Research and Extension Center, and the split appointment is a tremendous asset, because in many cases it gives me the opportunity to ‘practice what I preach,’ ” Burmester noted.

“Without a doubt the toughest part of my job now is keeping up with the new technology that is used in cotton production. So far, we have been able to stay ahead of farmers, but we have seen the lag time from when new technology is available for research until it becomes a part of production diminish from several years to one or two years in many cases. With new varieties, for example, we no longer get three or four years to look at them before they are released, ” he concluded.

One bright spot for cotton production in the Tennessee Valley is the increased use of irrigation—the problem is not enough water. At least, not enough available water. “For many years, we heard, ‘irrigation won't pay in cotton,’ but with new varieties, new irrigation technology, and better information on how to use irrigation, it does pay in cotton,” according to Burmester. In dry years, irrigated cotton regularly produces over a bale an acre more than dryland cotton.

Charlie, along with a team of researchers at Auburn and the Tennessee Valley Research and Extension Center, has developed some creative applications of irrigation water stored in a holding pond at the research center. Some results of this work are reported in Wise Watering–Cotton Irrigation Research Finding Ways to Quench Crop Thirsts of this issue of Highlights. Other cotton articles in this issue of Highlights include Is That Really Cotton?, The Winners Are...Farmers, Consumers, and Industry Benefitting from Adoption of Bt Cotton, and Fungicides Are Worth the Money!