BROOKS COUNTY — Congressman Allen Boyd, being a fifth generation farmer himself, visited BCT (Brooks, Colquitt, Thomas) Gin Co. in Brooks County Monday morning and brought members of his staff with him to tour the facility and gain a better understanding of the agricultural industry.

Boyd brought Press Secretary Colleen Kroll, Administrative Assistant Libby Greer and other staff members from the Washington, D.C., office for a tour of the Brooks County facility and for lunch at the Berlin facility.

“This (ginning) is the most fascinating procedure,” Greer said. “It makes you wonder if this is what Eli Whitney had in mind. When you think about how agriculture has evolved over the years, it’s just amazing.”

Boyd is a cotton farmer himself and is an original stockholder of BCT Gin Co. “I wanted to give them (his staff) a sense of what the agricultural industry is like,” he said. “I wanted them to gain perspective about how we do it and how important this industry is to farmers.”

Van Murphy, general manager of BCT Gin Co., said Boyd was instrumental in starting the organization in 1983 and was a full-time farmer until his career in politics began. “We are fortunate to have him as a congressman. Even though he doesn’t represent Georgia, he represents us as a cotton farmer and understands agriculture very well.”

Murphy said the group toured cotton fields there in Brooks County to see how the cotton is harvested and then toured the facility to see the ginning process.

BCT has a ginning capacity of 45 bales per hour, and Murphy said they expect to produce 80,000 bales with their two gins over a three-month period.

Ginning is what separates the lint from the seed, which creates giant mounds of seeds that are used to produce cotton seed oil and also to feed animals at dairy farms.

BCT ships seeds to an oil mill, Chickasha of Georgia, and ships out to dairies all year. “Whole cotton seed can be sold to dairies for feed,” Murphy said. “The high protein value helps increase butter fat in the animals.”

Murphy said they started out with 36 stockholders in 1983 and now have 72; however, 30 percent of business is done through non-stockholders. The organization has reduced the price of ginning from 9.5 cents per pound in 1983 to 7 cents per pound now.

“We encourage cotton growers to do business with us whether they are stockholders or not,” he said.

They also produce peanuts at the facility in Brooks County and at one in Moultrie. Murphy said they will produce 8,000 tons of peanuts this harvest.

Besides the two cotton gin facilities, there is a warehouse in Moultrie used to store cotton.

The organization employs about 115 total during the season. Planting begins in April and May, and the cotton is harvested from early October through December.

Murphy said Boyd and members of his staff visited about two years ago, but they talk with him regularly over the phone.

Boyd was sworn into office Jan. 7, 1997, as a Democratic member of the 105th Congress representing Florida’s Second Congressional District, which spans 19 counties.

He is one of the three co-chairmen of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative Democrats working to reform Washington politics. As a member of the Freshman Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Task Force, he led the effort to reform federal campaign finance laws and was a key figure in the successful efforts of Congress to reach the historical 1997 balanced budget agreement.

Boyd was appointed in the 106th Congress to the highly coveted Appropriations Committee, and he initiated Coalitions United for a Drug Free North Florida, a project to assist local drug prevention programs.

He served different positions in the Florida House of Representatives from 1989 until his election to Congress, including Majority Whip, Chair of the Governmental Operations Committee and Chair of the House Rules and Calendar Committee.

He currently serves on the Military Construction Subcommittee, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related





Agencies Subcommittee on Appropriations.

Boyd continues to oversee family farm operations.



To contact reporter Susan Veal, please call 244-3400, ext. 254.