Print This PageReflections about Life on a South Texas Cotton Farm
Scott Baucum Looks Back
Scott Baucum remembers what it was like to lose a cotton crop as a kid. Today, as Trait Stewardship Lead for Monsanto, he uses that knowledge to understand his customers and the challenges they face. Scott reflects about his life growing up on a cotton farm.
I grew up on the rural south plains of Texas. My father farmed cotton and managed a farmer's co-op elevator, cotton gin and ag supply where he sold planting seed, farm chemicals, fertilizer and tires. My mother taught public school. I remember my mom and dad standing together watching a hail storm beat the cotton crop into the ground and discussing how her (off-farm) income was important to making it through these kinds of years.
Experiences like that help me today to understand what our customers need, the things they think about and the risks they take every season. This, in turn, helps me to better understand the importance of our role in bringing solutions to their farms that address these continuing needs.
This kind of upbringing forces early maturity and can build an incredible work ethic in young people.
I remember scouting fields as a college intern for the Texas Pest Management Association (Texas extension service) and seeing firsthand the devastation that can occur from unchecked insect infestation. One mid-July evening as we were ending our scouting day, we drove by a 300-acre cornfield belonging to a farmer who decided just that year to not hire a scouting service. The next morning we drove back by that field only to find 300 acres of four-foot-high stalk spikes -- all that remained of a night of armyworm feasting that resulted in the total loss of that crop.
To this day, I have never seen such devastation of a crop. I will never forget the damage insects can do and how important a role crop protection inputs can play in helping farmers produce a crop. I am proud to work for Monsanto to bring products to market that assure growers both risk management and ongoing R&D to meet the needs of tomorrow.
Growing up on a cotton farm meant hard work and responsibility at an early age. This kind of upbringing forces early maturity and can build an incredible work ethic in young people. Bringing that experience to Monsanto only means meeting expectations, as many people who work here grew up the same way. Many of us learned early how to work hard and to expect hard work from others.
I also learned the importance of working together to bring a project in under pressure, just like we did to get a crop in on time and before the weather hit. I am indeed blessed to work around so many others who value a hard year's work and who pull together with a team spirit to accomplish what would otherwise be impossible goals.
