Brad Heffington - Texas Tech University

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Larry Combest Endowed Chair in Agricultur al Competitiveness
acknowledges that dealing with the weather is
a major part of a farmer’s business, and so he
will take it as it comes.
Heffington said although bad years
come along with the good, he remains thankful
that in 1989 a small town banker took a chance
on him, which allowed him to do what he continues
to love today, farm.
“I was a junior at Texas Tech when some
land became available for me to farm,” Heffington
said. “I tried to get a loan from several
places with no luck. Mr. Lee decided to take a
shot on me, and I am sure glad he did.”
James Lee, of the First National Bank of
Littlefield, must have seen a drive in Heffington
that has continued to grow and prosper to this
very day. Besides striving to learn and remain
educated on seed, fertilizer, and equipment,
Heffington has worked hard to gain knowledge
about the marketing side of his operation.
Heffington, who graduated from Texas
Tech University with a Bachelor’s of Business
Administration and from the Texas A&M
Master Marketer program, uses technical and
fundamental analysis, and stays in tune with
local and world markets. He said being able to
market his cotton has earned him income and
success. He went on to say marketing is a very
important aspect of his business, and he tries to
take advantage of every opportunity he can to
capture the best prices for his cotton.
Heffington earned an average selling
price of $1.08 on his cotton last year, selling
some towards the end for $1.50. He said everything
kept falling in place for him as he grew
and sold his cotton. Rain came pretty steadily,
and prices rose. And although the growing
season may not be as favorable this year as last,
Heffington said he continues to see prices staying
strong.
“If crops remain as dry as they are now,
dryland acres may not be there and our irrigated
production is liable to decrease, which
means prices this fall could stay up,” Heffington
said. “However, those high prices won’t do
much good if we don’t have cotton to sell.”
Heffington said with the rising input
costs farmers have to deal with, they cannot
stand to sell cotton for 60 to 70 cents anymore.
Seed, fuel, labor, fertilizer, equipment, technology,
they have all gotten significantly more
expensive in a short amount of time, making
every cent count to the farmer.
“In order to be successful in farming you
must figure out what pays and what doesn’t,”
Heffington said. “Some technology may cost
Andy Timmons planting grapes.