NEWS IN BRIEF

Baldwin & Shell names Copas president, CEO

Scott Copas has been named president and chief executive of Baldwin & Shell Construction Co., succeeding Bob Shell, who has been named chairman of the board, the company said in a news release.

“My vision is quite simple. Take a solid foundation built by Bob and the past management team and re-align the organization for a new strategy,” Copas said in a release on the company’s website.

Copas was hired in 1977 and by 2012 he became chief operating officer of the company.

The Little Rock-based company was founded in 1946 by Werner Knoop, Phillip Baldwin and Olen Cates. Bob Shell joined the firm in 1950 and became president and chief executive after Knoop’s death in 1983.

Past projects include Barton Coliseum and Barnhill Arena at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

  • Jack Weatherly

Arkansas growers set record per acre yields

Arkansas growers set records for per acre average yields for soybeans, corn, rice, cotton and grain sorghum in 2013, the National Agricultural Statistics Service reported.

Average rice yields hit 7,560 pounds per acre, up 1.2 percent; soybean fields yielded an average of 43.5 bushels per acre, up 0.5 bushel; corn yields hit 187 bushels per acre, up 9 bushels; and grain sorghum hit 102 bushels per acre, up 18 bushels per acre or 21 percent. Overall corn production, at 163 million bushels harvested from 870,000 acres, also set a record, as acreage devoted to corn in Arkansas rose 25 percent, the service reported Friday.

Cotton, which set a yield record of 1,149 pounds per acre, saw overall production shrink to 730,000 480-pound bales as farmers harvested 305,000 acres, which the service said was the fewest harvest acres on record.

The 2013 per acre yield, however, exceeded the 1,114 pound-per-acre mark set for cotton in 2004.

  • Glen Chase

Arkansas stocks fall

5.63; two drop 3%

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 5.63 to 327.07 Monday.

“The major averages finished firmly in negative territory following comments from the president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve suggesting further tapering of asset purchases will take place this year,” said Bob Williams, senior vice president and managing director of Delta Trust Investments Inc. in Little Rock.

The weakest performers were Murphy USA and Dillard’s, both falling more than 3 percent, Williams said.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 23 on 01/14/2014

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