Dennis Palmer: Top-notch producer earns Far West High Cotton Award
By CnAgri
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“My favorite time during the cotton season is picking cotton it’s white and beautiful. It represents the payoff at the end of the year.”
Palmer is the winner of the 2016 Western Farm Press High Cotton Award. He will receive the award at the Farm Press High Cotton Breakfast during the 2016 Farm & Gin Show in Memphis, Tenn. in late February.
Cotton a challenge, gamble
“Cotton farming is a challenge and a huge gamble which motivates our family to solve different problems every day. It’s never boring,” says Palmer, 61.
The 5th generation cotton farmer is a humble, faith-based man – with a capital H and F. He’s also a ‘VIP.’ While Palmer does not view himself as a very important person, the family’s farm moniker is VIP Farms – the initials from his father’s name - Verle I Palmer, who passed away in 2012.
The Palmer operation is located in the desert in Graham County in southeastern Arizona. The farm is at 2,900 feet in elevation, encircled by the Pinaleño Mountains. The farm sits at the base of the 10,700-foot tall Mount Graham.
Last year, the Palmers farmed about 5,000 acres, including 3,200 of furrow irrigated Pima and Upland cotton, plus 900 acres of desert durum wheat. The Palmer farm is spread across 25 miles in the fertile Gila Valley.
