COTTON GROWER MAGAZINE - April 2008

MARCH was Women's History Month and Cotton Incorporated's Public Relations team created a great deal of press interest about two very significant U.S. cotton producers - Alabama's Larkin Martin and California's Diann Prechel-Shearer.

Both are something of an anomaly - women in a male-dominated profession. Prechel-Shearer serves on the Board of Cotton Incorporated and Martin on the Cotton Board, and both women are writing their own chapters in the pages of U.S. cotton history.

After receiving their college degrees, both were called back to the farm after their fathers became ill. Now Martin is the managing partner in Martin Farms, and Prechel-Shearer is a partner with her father in Cotton & Baily Farms, and additionally with her brother in Prechel Farms.

Both rely heavily on modern technology to balance farming with eco-consciousness - an important issue with both women. By successfully doing so, Martin and Prechel-Shearer are rewriting history in a centuries-old agrarian business.