Seed companies offering new trait packages for increased acreage

With U.S. cotton producers indicating they plan to increase their acres of the crop in many areas in 2017 U.S. seed companies have stepped up to the plate with an increased number of new varieties.

Many of the new offerings will contain the latest herbicide trait packages, which, for the first time, can be sprayed – legally – with new formulations of the products aimed at helping growers fight herbicide-resistant weeds. Others will have new Bt traits.

Bayer, for example, will provide four additional options, two FiberMax varieties and two Stoneville varieties, to its high-quality, high-yielding lineup of cottonseed for the 2017 season, the company announced.

“Our breeding focus is on providing the science growers need to complement their exemplary management skills; it’s a collaboration that growers can rely on to enhance their profit under today’s pest pressures,” says Jason Wistehuff, Bayer product manager for FiberMax and Stoneville cotton.

In addition to high yield, the new varieties will also feature new primary characteristics and traits that are important to growers this year, such as bacterial blight resistance and worm-resistance traits.

Bacterial blight tolerance

“Increased pressure from bacterial blight and lepidopteran pests escalates the need for disease-resistant varieties and worm-resistant traits,” Wistehuff says.

Three of the varieties released this year also are armed with either the TwinLink or TwinLink Plus trait, both of which provide season-long Bt protection from a broad spectrum of major lepidopteran pests, including tobacco budworm, pink bollworm, cotton bollworm and beet armyworm. TwinLink Plus is a three-gene trait; TwinLink is a two-gene trait.

Each of the new varieties from FiberMax and Stoneville is equipped with exclusive Bayer herbicide-tolerant traits: GlyTol and LibertyLink.

The new FiberMax varieties:

FM 1888GL. An early/medium maturity variety that offers outstanding yield potential and consistent performance in the High Plains. FM 1888GL offers bacterial blight resistance alongside the weed control traits West Texas growers need to control weeds: GlyTol and LibertyLink. This variety starts strong with great early season vigor, features good storm tolerance to hold the bolls, and finishes with high gin turnout and great fiber quality.

New Bt traits

FM 1953GLTP. An early/medium maturity Glytol LibertyLink TwinLink Plus variety that provides bacterial blight resistance and enhanced protection against bollworm and fall armyworm. FM 1953GLTP has shown excellent yield potential and fiber quality across a wide range of environments. Bred for the South Texas growing environment, this variety also has shown a wide adaptation for the Rolling Plains, Eastern Texas and Oklahoma.

The new Stoneville varieties:

ST 5020GLT. A medium maturity variety that delivers bacterial blight resistance in the best fiber package available in a Stoneville variety. Bred for the Eastern Cotton Belt – including the Southeast, Delta and Mid-Atlantic, ST 5020GLT offers excellent early season vigor and strong yield potential, with stable yield and fiber quality across a wide range of environments. ST 5020GLT delivers the exclusive Bayer weed- and worm-resistance traits growers need to manage their crops for high yield: TwinLink, to provide season-long resistance to a broad spectrum of worms; and GlyTol and LibertyLink to control herbicide-resistant and tough weeds with the unique mode of action provided by Liberty herbicide.

ST 5517GLTP. A later, medium maturity variety with the industry-leading three-gene Bt technology of TwinLink Plus. ST 5517GLTP provides excellent early season vigor and standability, bacterial blight resistance and good storm tolerance. Growers can look to this variety for exceptional yield potential and fiber quality across a wide range of environments – from Virginia to the Rolling Plains of Texas and Oklahoma.

Seven New PhytoGen varieties:

Dow is planning to introduce seven new varieties under its Phytogen brand with the Enlist cotton trait and WideStrike3 Insect Protection for the 2017 growing season. These new varieties complement the current PhytoGen offering that includes very early to mid- and full-season varieties, as well as Acala and Pima varieties.

Broader range of varieties

“We’re excited to follow the success of PhytoGen brand PHY 490 W3FE with this broader introduction of W3FE varieties,” says Hank King, U.S. leader for PhytoGen. “With both the Enlist cotton trait and WideStrike 3, these new PhytoGen varieties will help growers eliminate resistant weeds and tough-to-control pests,”

The Enlist cotton trait provides tolerance to glufosinate as well as glyphosate and new 2,4-D choline, the active ingredients in Enlist Duo herbicide. Enlist Duo was recently registered for use on Enlist cotton.

WideStrike 3 Insect Protection is the first three-gene insect trait technology that offers improved protection against cotton bollworm. Combined with the Enlist cotton trait, new PhytoGen W3FE varieties provide full tolerance to glufosinate.

In addition to thousands of breeder trials, PhytoGen brand varieties are rigorously evaluated in numerous company and university trials across the Cotton Belt.

Two of the new 2017 varieties—PHY 220 W3FE and PHY 300 W3FE—are very early and early maturities, bred for the unique conditions of the Southwest. They join the three varieties introduced last year specifically for West Texas that provide Verticillium wilt tolerance.

Other new varieties range from early to mid-maturities, and are bred to fit areas across the Cotton Belt from South Texas to the Mid-Atlantic. The five new varieties—PHY 330 W3FE, PHY 340 W3FE, PHY 380 W3FE’ PHY 450 W3FE, and PHY 470 W3FE— all contain native traits that provide resistance to bacterial blight.

A long-time leader in the Pima market, PhytoGen also introduces another new Pima variety with the Genuity Roundup Ready Flex trait for California, PhytoGen brand PHY 888 RF.

New Monsanto Class of 17

Monsanto announced the commercialization of its new Bollgard 3 XtendFlex Cotton, the first commercial cotton product ever with full federal approvals for the trait and in-crop herbicide system to combine three modes of action for both lepidopteran insect control and herbicide tolerance.

The introduction of Bollgard 3 XtendFlex technology marks a major milestone for innovation in cotton, giving growers access to best-in-class germplasm while providing enhanced, season-long protection against damage caused by key lepidopteran pests, and the ability for in-crop use of dicamba.

Bollgard 3 XtendFlex technology is built on the proven and effective success of its predecessors. Containing a third protein, Vip3A, that provides a third mode of action in addition to the Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab Bt proteins found in Bollgard II. The introduction provides three unique proteins and modes of action, helping provide better insect control while increasing the longevity of the technology.

“This product has been highly anticipated by growers, and we are excited to bring Bollgard 3 XtendFlex technology to the marketplace,” said Jessie Christiansen, Monsanto Cotton Team lead. “This launch is the latest example of Monsanto’s continuing commitment to bringing new and innovative cotton products through our pipeline, offering new benefits and solutions to growers that feature elite germplasm and enhanced protection against key pests—including armyworms and bollworms—that will enable them to produce the best crop possible.“

A limited release of Bollgard 3 XtendFlex to select NPE growers is planned in 2017, with a full- scale launch planned for 2018.

Root-knot resistance

Those will include the industry’s first Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton variety with root-knot nematode resistance, DP 1747 NR B2XF, and a high-performing early- to mid-maturity cotton variety, DP 1725 B2XF,

The nematode resistance (NR) breeding trait provides season-long control to cotton plants by enabling strong root growth and reducing RKN populations in the soil profile. In New Product Evaluator plots and Deltapine market development trials, DP 1747NR B2XF outyielded both DP 1454NR B2RF and DP 1558NR B2RF, two standards for yield potential in RKN-resistant varieties.

DP 1747NR B2XF has shown comparable yield potential to the best-yielding commercial varieties on the market today in fields with and without RKN pressure. An added benefit of DP 1747NR B2XF is that it offers the weed control benefits of Bollgard II XtendFlex technology, part of the Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System for Cotton.

DP 1725 B2XF is an early- to mid-maturity variety that has shown exceptional yield potential in the Mid-South and Southeast. It is a variety that offers improved fiber quality over DP 1522 B2XF and has shown an improvement in yield potential as well.

Americot’s varieties

• NG 3699 B2XF is an early-medium maturing variety with excellent yield potential, excellent fiber quality and Verticillium wilt and bacterial blight tolerance. NG 3699 B2XF is suited to plant on the south plains of Texas where early-mid maturing varieties are preferred.
• NG 4601 B2XF is a medium maturing variety with excellent yield potential and excellent fiber quality. NG 4601 B2XF is well suited to the lower Mississippi River Delta - including Louisiana and Mississippi – the lower Southeast, as well as central and South Texas.
• NG 4689 B2XF is a medium maturing variety with excellent yield potential, excellent fiber quality and Verticillium wilt and bacterial blight tolerance. NG 4689 B2XF is well suited to the south and rolling plains of Texas and Oklahoma on both irrigated and dryland acres.
• NG 3640 XF is an early-medium maturing XtendFlex-only variety with excellent yield potential, excellent fiber quality and Verticillium wilt and bacterial blight tolerance. NG 3640 XF is well suited for the south plains of Texas on both irrigated and dryland acres.

Dyna-Gro and All-TEX varieties

• Dyna-Gro 3445 B2XF, an early-to-medium maturity Bollgard 2 Xtend Flex variety, with medium plant height, very good storm tolerance; 4.2 to4.6 micronaire; 1.17 to 1.21 staple and 31 to 35 strength. It is adapted to Texas, the Carolinas and the Gulf Coast states.
• All-TEX Concho B2XF, an early-to-medium maturity Bollgard 2 Xtend Flex variety with medium plant height, very good storm tolerance; 4.3 to 4.7 micronaire; 1.15 to 1.19 staple and 30 to 34 strength. It is adapted to the west Texas and coastal Texas regions.
• Dyna-Gro 3526 B2XF, a medium maturity, medium-to-tall variety with very good storm tolerance; 4.4 to 4.9 micronaire; 1.09 to 1.15 staple and 27 to 30 strength. It is adapted to all in the maturity zone.
• Dyna-Gro 3544 B2XF, a medium maturity, medium height variety with very good storm tolerance; 4.5 to 4.9 micronaire; 1.15 to 1.19 staple; and 30 to 34 strength. It is adapted to Texas, East and Gulf Coastal regions.
• All-TEX Zeus B2XF, a medium maturity, medium-to-tall in height variety with good storm tolerance; 4.3 to 4.7 micronaire; 1.11 to 1.15 staple and 29 to 33 strength. It is adapted to Texas (central/west), New Mexico and Arizona.
• Dyna-Gro 1602 GLT, a medium-to-full season, medium height variety with very good storm tolerance; 4.4 to 4.8 micronaire; 1.14 to 1.18 staple; and 30 to 34 strength. It is adapted to the Delta and Carolina regions.
• Dyna-Gro 2615 B2RF, a medium-to-full season, medium-to-tall, Bollgard2, Roundup Ready Flex variety with very good storm tolerance; 4.3 to 4.8 micronaire; 1.15 to 1.19 staple and 30 to 34 strength. It is adapted to Texas, Southwest, Mid-South south of I-40, Southeast and East.
• Dyna-Gro 3605 B2XF, a medium-to-full season, medium-to-tall, Bollgard 2 Xtend Flex variety with very good storm tolerance; 4.1 to 4.6 micronaire; 1.18 to 1.26 staple; and 29 to 32 strength. It is adapted to Texas south of Lubbock, Delta (west) and the Southeast.
• Dyna-Gro 3635 B2XF, a medium-to-full season, medium-to-tall variety with good storm tolerance; 4.2 to 4.6 micronaire; 1.12 to 1.16 staple; and 31 to 35 strength. It is adapted to Texas, the Mid-South, Delta and the East Coast.
• Dyna-Gro 3645 B2XF, a medium-to-full season, medium-to-tall variety with fair storm tolerance; 4.3 to 4.7 micronaire; 1.13 to 1.17 staple and 31 to 35 strength. It is adapted to Texas, the Mid-South, Delta and the Carolinas.
• Dyna-Gro 3757 B2XF, a full-season, medium-to-tall variety with good storm tolerance; 4.6 to 4.9 micronaire; 1.12 to 1.16 staple and 27 to 31 strength. It is adapted to all in the maturity zone.