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National Cotton Ginners Association Announces Award Winners
Charles C. Owens Distinguished Service Award The NCGA also recognized Dr. Greg Holt as recipient of the NCGA’s 2022-23 Charles C. Owen Distinguished Service Award. That award honors those who have provided a career of distinguished service to the U.S. ginning industry. Holt, research leader at USDA’s South Plains Ginning LabTWITTER: @COTTONFARMING
oratory in Lubbock, received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M University and then his Ph.D. in industrial engineering at Texas Tech while working at the ginning laboratory. Over his 24-year career with USDA, Holt has been involved in countless research projects that added to the U.S. ginning industry’s success. Among those studies were post-harvest processing of seed cotton, cottonseed, and cotton gin by-products such as hyDr. Greg Holt, research leader dro-mulch and fuel pellets. Holt also was involved in at USDA’s South Plains Ginning development of the Power Laboratory in Lubbock, was recRoll Gin stand design, gen- ognized as the recipient of the eration of new particulate 2022-23 Charles C. Owen Dismatter emissions data that tinguished Service Award. has been used to improve the permitting process for gins, and the successful design and testing of an improved mechanical delinter that efficiently removes residual lint from ginned seed. More recently, his work has focused on designing detection and removal systems for removing costly plastic contaminants from seed cotton.
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Gene Seale To Lead National Cotton Ginners Association The Memphis-based National Cotton Ginners Association named its leaders for 2023 during its recent annual meeting in Dallas, Texas. The NCGA’s 2023 officers are: president — Gene Seale, Pima, Arizona; first vice president — Richard Lindsey, Centre, Alabama; second vice president — Larry Black, Roscoe, Texas; and third vice president, Brad Williams of Burlison, Tennessee. George LaCour of Morganza, Louisiana, who served as NCGA president Gene in 2022, will serve as NCGA chairman. HarSeale rison Ashley, Cordova, Tennessee, is NCGA’s executive vice president. Seale, who currently is the general manager of the Glenbar Gin in Pima, has been active in the Arizona Cotton Ginners Association and served as its president from 2018-2022. He has served on numerous NCGA committees and subcommittees, including chairing its Safety and Labor Committee in 2022. He APRIL 2023 | COTTON FARMING 19
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Curtis Stewart, a long-time ginner who has provided outstanding service and leadership to the U.S. cotton industry, is the 2022 Horace Hayden National Cotton Ginner of the Year. He was recognized at the 2023 National Cotton Ginners Association’s annual meeting in Dallas, Texas. The annual NCGA award is presented to a ginner in recognition of: Able, efficient, and faithful service to the ginning industry. Continuing those principles exemplified and practiced by Horace Hayden, a former NCGA executive secretary. General manager of Spade Cooperative Gin in Spade, Texas, Stewart has provided dedicated service and leadership to the industry during his career through participation in multiple organizations. He served a two-year term as NCGA president and is the outgoing NCGA chairman. He is a past president of Southern Cotton Ginners, Planters Cotton Oil Mill, and Dumas Cotton Warehouse, among others. A graduate of the National Cotton Council’s Leadership Program, Stewart has served on multiple NCC committees and as a NCC director and director of its export promotions arm, Curtis Stewart, Spade Cooper- Cotton Council International. ative Gin, was named the 2022 He also is a past chairman Horace Hayden National Cot- of the Joint Cotton Industry Bale Packaging Committee. ton Ginner of the Year. A Texas native, Stewart graduated from Texas A&M University in 1982 with a B.S. degree in mechanized agriculture and then worked for several regional cooperatives that included the Plains Cotton Cooperative Association, Farmers Cooperative Compress, and New Home Co-op Gin. He later earned a degree in agriculture engineering from Texas Tech while working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture South Plains Ginning Laboratory in Lubbock — where he continues to assist in various research projects. Stewart later worked as the engineer for Chickasha Cotton Oil Co. in Casa Grande, Arizona, before becoming president of Dumas Cotton Gin in Dumas, Arkansas. He joined the Spade Cooperative Gin in 2011.