2015-03-11, Tracey Carrillo, NMSU Campus Farms Operations

Acting President Ana Mangino struck the bell at 12:13 pm to get the meeting underway and announced that our President, Bill Harty, was in Las Vegas cheering on the Aggies.  Dr. James Bullock gave the invocation and Acting President Ana led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Ross Ramsey substituted for our March song leader, Earl Phillips, and tried very hard to lead us in an a capella version of  “Down By the Old Mill Stream.” Unfortunately the club had a hard time finding the key to unlock the tune.  The “Grip and Grin” followed with Alex Keatts the last minute choice as the Mystery Greeter. 

For the second week in a row, Acting President Ana announced there were no visiting Rotarians, but we did have a number of visitors and Student Rotarians who were introduced.  Acting President Ana then gave a first reading for Katelin Ponder whose classification will be Life Insurance.  A number of announcements followed.  Jodie Brdecko announced that our participation in the Great American Trash Pick-up will be held on April 11.  Ken Van Winkle invited all Rotarians to attend the J. Paul Taylor Symposium on Social Justice next Wednesday.  The topic is the migrant children arriving from Central America.  A number of excellent speakers are scheduled.  Richelle Ponder reported that the Taste of Las Cruces Committee has held its first meeting.  The event will be held on Thursday, June 4.    Not many members seemed to be happy this week, but the Sergeant At Arms did collect a few bucks in the can.       

The Program

March Program Chair Lyn Ames then introduced our guest speaker, Dr. Tracey Carrillo, Assistant Director for NMSU’s Campus Farms Operations.  His topic was entitled “Update on Glandless Cotton Production”. 

Dr. Carrillo opened his presentation by noting that he had worked in cotton for about 25 years.  The goal with his current cotton research is to find new uses for the seed and therefore increase the revenue earned by cotton producers.  He stated that the price of the cotton itself has remained stable for many years and is determined by cotton production on a global scale.  However, the price for the cotton seed can vary greatly depending on its use.  Dr. Carrillo stated that the one problem is the cotton seed gland contains poison.  Thus the need to develop a glandless variety.

Our speaker then went on to discuss how the cotton seed is separated and processed.  One area they are working on is removing the cotton lint from the seed.  Currently the lint is removed by an acid bath, but they are seeking a more environmentally friendly mechanical method.  They are also working on new methods to remove the hull from the seed.  The most promising method is to use a dry ice technique that does less damage to the seed. 

In addition to new methods of processing the seed, the researchers are also looking at new products for human consumption that can utilize glandless cotton seed.  These include snack bars that use less sugar and more cotton seed, soap, a light cooking oil for use in deep fat fryers, and use as a food for fish farms.  Dr. Carrillo reported that they are having great success in using cotton seed as shrimp food.  The department operates a number of saltwater tanks where they grow shrimp using processed cotton seed as food.  The results are great and they are currently building a store to sell the fresh shrimp they grow in their research.  Because the demand for the shrimp is much higher than the amount of product available, they have set up a company, New Mexico Shrimp Co. LLC,  to grow shrimp on a for profit basis. 

After the Program

Our guest speaker drew the winning raffle ticket that was claimed by Jay Jordan.  He kindly returned his profit to the can.  Executive Secretary Lya reported that the can raised $40 for the March of Dimes.  The meeting concluded with the 4 Way Test.

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Submitted by Ron Salak