For the past 25 years, Tom Wedegaertner has been the Director of Cottonseed Research at Cotton Incorporated. Prior to that, he worked for a trade association representing the cottonseed processing industry. His career now spans 37 years of cottonseed industry involvement.
At Cotton Incorporated, he manages a research program designed to discover innovative ways to increase the utilisation and value of cottonseed, the number one byproduct of cotton production. The cotton plant actually produces more seed than it does fibre. The seed is an important source of revenue for cotton farmers, since it represents about 20 percent of the value of the crop. The biggest barrier to increasing the utilisation and value of cottonseed protein has always been the presence of a naturally occurring chemical defense mechanism that evolved in cotton and is distributed throughout the cotton plant.
This toxin is known as “gossypol” and it is toxic at some level to all animals and some insects. Tom has devoted much of his career to searching for a technology that would mitigate the toxic effects of gossypol. The genetic elimination of this toxin from cottonseed protein is now possible. This breakthrough technology has the potential to be a total game changer for both the cotton and aquaculture industries.
Growing up on a small livestock and rice farm, and having a butcher for a father, is what stimulated Tom’s passion for animal agriculture, whilst animals have always been a large part of his life. He holds graduate degrees in animal nutrition and marketing from Colorado State University and the University of Memphis.
