Lubbock, Texas
October 15, 2008
Stoneville® cotton seed
varieties are recognized across the Cotton Belt for their early
emergence and seedling vigor, and this year, growers and
consultants are seeing the advantage at harvest.
West Tennessee grower Eugene Pugh said his crop of new ST
4498B2RF has high yield potential despite tough weather
conditions.
“Even with cool, wet planting conditions and the midseason
drought that we experienced in West Tennessee, the early season
vigor and stand establishment of ST 4498B2RF got my crop off to
a great start,” said Pugh, who farms about 4,000 acres of cotton
near Halls, Tenn. “When the plants come up with strong vigor
they can fight insect pressure better, and we think this gives
us better boll retention later in the season.”
Pugh planted about 600 acres of ST 4498B2RF on irrigated and
dryland acres, and said his boll retention rate ranged from 92
percent to 95 percent. He planted the variety on varying soil
types from the Mississippi River flood plains to the Tennessee
hills.
Pugh’s consultant Billy Beegle from Dyersburg, Tenn., agreed
that the early season vigor helped overcome difficult weather.
He consults on cotton acres throughout the Mid-South in
Tennessee and the Missouri Bootheel, and was impressed with the
emergence and boll load of ST 4498B2RF throughout the area.
“At planting, it was barely dry enough to get through the field,
and then it would usually rain right behind the planter,” Beegle
said. “ST 4498B2RF and the other Stoneville varieties came up
growing well this year under those difficult conditions. With
the wet weather, you would expect to see a lot of replants, but
that was not the case with the Stoneville varieties.”
Beegle said varieties that thrived in the early season of 2008
will have a good future in his area. Early emergence means
plants begin to develop bolls faster and set more fruit, which
gives growers a chance for higher yields. In drier midseason
conditions, boll development slows down; but a good, early fruit
set can offset potential yield loss later in the season.
“When you start out early with healthy plants, you are able to
withstand any pests or environmental factors going against you
later in the season,” said Macon LaFoe, Bayer CropScience
Mid-South cotton agronomist. “Negative environmental factors
cause delayed maturity and can impact yield. With good emergence
and early season vigor, you get healthy plants that push through
the season toward maturity and harvest, and this means increased
yields and profitability.”
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the
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Bayer CropScience AG,
a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 5.8
billion (2007), is one of the world’s leading innovative crop
science companies in the areas of crop protection,
non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology.
The company offers an outstanding range of products and
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120 countries.
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Bayer, the Bayer Cross and Stoneville are registered trademarks
of Bayer CropScience. |
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