This podcast is a visit on the next to last day of a 47 year career with Caroline Gleaton of Texas A&M's college of agriculture and WTAW's Bill Oliver.
A Texas A&M agriculture college employee in College Station wrapped up a 47 year career Friday (February 27).
Caroline Gleaton, for 40 years, is credited with starting and maintaining a database that is used by A&M extension's cotton specialist and other ag economists in their reports and presentations to farmers and ranchers.
A news release from AgriLife Extension says Gleaton's information was used by 15 A&M agriculture economists.
Speaking with WTAW News the day before her final day, Gleaton agreed there will be a whole lot of celebrating and reminiscing, then she added "and a lot of crying."
She said the information she collected allowed producers to learn "why cotton is at this price at this time, what the risks are, what the trends are" in the market.
Gleaton said when she started in 1979, cotton prices were around 62 cents per pound. Thursday's price (February 26) was 60 cents per pound.
She told WTAW News "Agriculture is so important. Your cotton and your grains are all so important. And so many people out there take it for granted. If only they knew the background and what these poor farmers and ranchers go through to have food in the grocery store and to have clothes on your back."
News release from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension:
People helping people. That mantra shared throughout the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service is one that has instilled Caroline Gleaton’s 47-year career as administrative coordinator in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Agricultural Economics.
Gleaton, who will retire Feb. 28, has worked with some of Texas’ most prominent agricultural economists, foremost Carl Anderson, Ph.D, who for decades was considered one of the nation’s leading cotton analysts until his passing in 2014.
Gleaton continued working with the current team of John Robinson, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension cotton marketing economist, and Mark Welch, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension small grains marketing economist.
And most notably, she maintains one of the most extensive cotton marketing databases in the country. Amid trade deficits and high production costs, Gleaton captures market information into the database each week in addition to sending out Robinson’s weekly cotton market update.
An ‘encyclopedia’ of knowledge
Both Gleaton’s institutional knowledge and database contributions have been used in the annual Texas Almanac section dedicated to agriculture’s contribution to the state economy. Another prior publication, Facts About Texas Agriculture, an in-house publication compiled by Gleaton, provided various insights into state agriculture production.
Her career began with AgriLife Extension in September 1979. Cotton prices were around 62 cents per pound. Some of the same market challenges encountered back then exist today.
“Caroline’s drive for excellence is motivated by her interest and concern for the clients we serve,” Welch said. “She does everything in her power to assure that any information we disseminate or program we conduct is as precise and impactful as possible.”Gleaton said she still gets a charge out of answering the phone when it’s a cotton farmer on a tractor in the field asking a question about the markets.
“We are here to help farmers and ranchers, we are helping people,” she said.
Database inception delivered market insights to producersThe cotton database started in 1986 with volumes of historical prices, charts and graphs curated manually – all on paper.“We first had a Dictaphone and typewriter,” she said. “The old agriculture building here on campus was lined with filing cabinets and all full of paper. When we first got computers, I just loved it. We had a Vector computer and worked off floppy disks and a pinwheel printer.”
The database was Gleaton’s idea, one that won over the team of economists who traveled the state giving producer presentations full of up-to-the-minute price risk data and strategies to improve net profits. Those farm meetings proved invaluable through the years. They provided farmers pricing forecasts and non-biased risk management strategies from AgriLife Extension experts.
“I thought it would be great to have numbers so that you could make charts and be able to answer specific questions,” she said. “Carl would ask for a historical outline of cotton prices. I just loved working with numbers and it became a passion.”Even AgriLife Extension economists across the state would call Gleaton.“They’d call and ask, ‘Can you find this for me?’” she said.
Cotton market data finds a homeIt’s staggering how deep the data log goes. Cotton price history dates back to 1790 and depicts supply-demand from the World Agricultural Supply Demand Estimate, WASDE. Daily, monthly and weekly cotton prices are logged as far back as 1986 – all captured by Gleaton’s astute attention to both what AgriLife Extension economists needed in their producer reporting as well as answers to current industry trends.“
(Caroline) has developed the biggest cotton market database on earth,” Robinson said.
Through the years, Gleaton has worked with many other former department economists including Bill Black, Ph.D.; Steven Griffith, Ph.D.; Tom Sporleader, Ph.D.; Wayne Hayenga, Ph.D.; Jose Pena; Jackie Smith, Ph.D.; Ernie Davis, Ph.D.; Danny Klinefelter, Ph.D.; and Jim McGrann, Ph.D.
Others who rose to leadership included former AgriLife Extension associate director Roland Smith, Ph.D., and director Ed Smith, Ph.D.; and Department of Agricultural Economics associate department head and AgriLife Extension economics program leader Mark Waller, Ph.D.
One industry economist wrote in an award support letter, “Caroline is an absolute data bank. Whatever you need, she has it.”The database will be turned over to Robinson to curate for the time being.
Brownwood native to return from Aggieland
The Brownwood native, Gleaton is from a family of eight. She plans to move back to Brownwood to be closer to family. “My mother was stay-at-home and my father drove a Baird’s bread truck,” she said.Gleaton made up for humble educational beginnings with intellectual curiosity and hustle. Her work ethic is widely respected up and down the hall of agricultural economics and outside of Texas A&M.Gleaton has won numerous awards throughout her career, including a Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence and AgriLife Extension Superior Service award.“I only planned to stay here three years, but when you love coming to work, the people who you work with, and get support, plus have the opportunity to learn each day … it’s just been a great place to work.”
