Virginia cotton farmers wary as season nears

Cotton prices have been breaking records for the past couple of months, but that not thrilling some farmers in southeastern Virginia, according to Southeast Farm Press.

“People who haven’t planted cotton in the past are looking to get into it. Some who have been out for a few years are looking to get back in,” said Gary Cross, vice-chairman of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Cotton Advisory Committee. “So everyone’s assessing their operation to see if there’s anywhere that cotton would be the best, most profitable fit.”

However, Virginia farmers aren’t sharing in the current record prices, which have been above $2 a pound for the raw product for several weeks.

The typical Virginia cotton producer locked in a profitable price of 65 to 70 cents a pound last year, and most have already forward-contracted this year’s crop at much lower prices than what’s trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to Southeast Farm Press.

British to excavate War of the Roses graves

The Battle of Towton – fought during England’s War of the Roses - was likely the bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil, yet it it’s also one of the least known. That’s about to change.

Archaeologists believe they have located burial pits from the 1461 clash, a battle that claimed 28,000 lives, and will begin excavation this summer.

Work is to begin in June, at a site 12 miles south of York between the villages of Saxton and Towton where the battle took place. Experts have identified as many as five different mass burial sites and believe they could yield the remains of several hundred men, according to The Independent.

This week marks the 550th anniversary of the Battle of Towton, an event so bloody that almost 1 percent of the English population was wiped out in a single day. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 soldiers took part in the battle between the Houses of York and Lancaster for control of the English throne.