Join the 2025 STEP Cotton Competition!

Hardeep Singh, West Florida Research & Education Center, Vivek Sharma, UF Ag Engineering, and Olive Stewart, West Florida Research & Education Center

Think you have what it takes to grow the best cotton in Florida? Put your skills to the test in the 2025 STEP Cotton Competition and compete for cash prizes while gaining valuable industry recognition! Hosted by the University of Florida’s West Florida Research and Education Center (WFREC), this competition is back for its 2nd year, and we’re looking for farmers, crop consultants, and industry professionals to take on the challenge. Anyone is welcome to build a team (or work alone) to prove their production expertise and take home the prize!

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What is the STEP Cotton Competition?

The STEP Cotton Competition is an innovative initiative aimed at engaging farmers and other agricultural stakeholders in friendly crop management competitions focused on input use efficiency and profitability. The program creates a shared learning experience for growers, industry representatives, policymakers, researchers, and extension agents. The goal is to improve crop management and increase the adoption of Best Management Practices (BMPs) to sustain agriculture and protect water quality. More information about the program and its mission can be found at https://step.ifas.ufl.edu/.

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Why Join?

Showcase Your Skills: Demonstrate your expertise in cotton production using the latest technologies and management practices.
Connect with Peers: Engage with fellow farmers, industry professionals, and UF researchers to exchange ideas and strategies.
Gain Valuable Insights: Learn about agronomy, crop management, precision agriculture, and sustainability in a real-world setting.
Win Prizes & Recognition: Compete in categories like highest yield, efficiency, and profitability for a chance to win cash awards!

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Competition Timeline

March (Team Recruitment): Gather your team! Teams can include farmers, consultants, industry professionals, extension agents, or researchers.
April (Orientation & Training): Attend a kickoff session to get resources, training, and insights into competition rules.
May-November (Field Work & Data Collection): Teams make seven key management decisions to optimize their cotton production, while the WFREC crew implements those choices, collects data, and reports on the progress.
November-January (Data Analysis): Our research team will analyze the results and provide detailed performance reports.
February (Awards Ceremony): Winners will be announced and honored at the annual banquet!

You Could Be a Winner!

The competition winners will get cash prizes from our sponsors. Check out the winners from last year’s STEP Cotton Competition (shown in Figure 1).

Figure 1. The winners of the 2024 STEP Cotton Competition.

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How to Get Involved

Ready to join? Sign up online by using the link below. Sign-up deadline: APRIL 20th. Don’t miss this opportunity to compete, learn, and make a real impact in sustainable cotton production. Get your team together and sign up today!

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2025 STEP Cotton Competition Registration

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If you have any additional questions, you can reach out to:

Hardeep Singh – hardeep.singh1@ufl.edu | 405-762-2539
Vivek Sharma – vsharma1@ufl.edu | 402-419-1687

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Hardeep Singh

Assistant Professor- Cropping Systems Specialist at UF-WFREC

Dr. Singh’s research focuses on utilizing a systems approach to enhance and evaluate the sustainability, profitability, and delivery of ecosystem services of traditional agriculture (row crops) and emerging cropping systems. His research program focuses on developing improved integrated crop fertility management tools and technologies for increasing the sustainability of cropping systems in the Southeast. Much of his work centers on nutrient mineralization and improved nutrient synchronization to increase nutrient use efficiency and reduce losses to the environment. Additionally, his work incorporates enhanced efficiency fertilizers, precision agriculture applications, crop physiological responses to fertility, and utilizing cover crops for improving soil health. Although his focus is on crop fertility, program remains responsive to critical industry needs. This necessitates research on critical topics that affect existing and novel cropping systems for the region, such as disease management, genotype evaluation, basic agronomy, phenology tracking for modeling purposes, and precision agriculture applications.