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RESEARCH FOCUS LEADS D&PL TO MAKE CHANGES
SCOTT, MS - "Over the past several years, there have been major shifts in
cotton production and acreage. These shifts and anticipated trends prompt
us to reevaluate our business. We have found that we can better serve our
farmer customers by adding to our research efforts in Texas and the
Southeast while refocusing efforts in the Mid-South and Arizona," Steve M.
Hawkins, president of Delta and Pine Land Company says.
Hawkins announced in August that D&PL would open new research stations in
the Texas Rolling Plains and Georgia to provide breeding and testing
support to these booming production areas. Today's announcement provides
insight into the program leaders for those locations.
News of refocusing efforts involves two changes. In Arizona, the breeding
program currently housed in Casa Grande will move its offices to the more
modern station in nearby Maricopa. Research and testing will continue to
be done at the Casa Grande and Maricopa sites. In the Mid-South, the
program at Stuttgart, AR will move to the company's headquarters in Scott,
MS as the Stuttgart facility is closed. One of the current cotton
breeders from Stuttgart will now head our program in progress in Leland,
MS.
Delta and Pine Land Company is a commercial breeder, producer and marketer
of cotton planting seed, as well as soybean seed in the Cotton Belt. For
more than 80 years, the Mississippi-based company has used its extensive
plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop
superior varieties. Delta and Pine Land has offices in seven states and
facilities in several foreign countries.
BREEDING RESEARCH INTEGRAL PART OF D&PL
Scott, MS – Soon after Delta and Pine Land Company was formed in 1911, breeding research came to the forefront. The first breeding program was started in 1915, conducted under the leadership of Early C. Ewing, Sr. with the goal of improving varieties available to farmers. Through the years, many things have changed as research efforts grew to include other regions of the Cotton Belt. The customer focus has remained. Now, the company has efforts in picker, stripper, Acala and Pima cotton as well as soybeans with all programs utilizing the latest techniques to create varieties for maximum performance.
“We need to develop varieties that meet our customers’ changing needs so D&PL research objectives are forever being refined,” says Dr. Bill Hugie, the company’s vice president of research. “As a research department, we need to predict what those needs will be in 10 years and begin the development now to meet those goals.”
Steve M. Hawkins, company president says, “D&PL has led the industry with advanced research and high standards of product performance and quality. Our research department continues to reach current goals and set new ones by setting clear objectives both Beltwide and locally.”
National objectives cross all of the picker programs that are located in Hartsville, SC; Leland and Scott, MS; Maricopa, AZ and locations to be determined in Georgia and the Texas Rolling Plains. Those objectives include increased yield, improved fiber quality, improved nematode and disease resistance all while testing for variety stability to ensure consistent performance over time and locations.
The localized objectives for picker programs include the following:
Mid-South - early maturing varieties and increased nematode resistance
Southeast – drought and heat tolerance
West/Arizona – increased seed size and turnout
There are some similar objectives regarding increased yield and improved fiber quality for the stripper program headquartered in Hale Center, TX that will soon be joined by the new station in the Rolling Plains. However, increased storm resistance and verticillium wilt resistance combine with earliness as stripper-specific objectives.
Acala and Pima varieties are developed through a cooperative program with Olvey & Associates in Arizona. This program focuses on developing high yielding Acalas and Pimas with superior fiber quality.
Soybean variety research is also an important area for D&PL’s research department.
“Our soybean programs are in Scott, MS and Hartsville, SC are striving to provide customers the best varieties for Southern conditions,” Hugie says. “We have developed a very successful soybean product line and have a deep pipeline we will continue to work with and add to in the coming years.”
Increase yield and yield stability are the primary objectives in the soybean programs. Breeders also work to develop varieties with multiple pest resistance, herbicide tolerance, output traits and agronomic traits specific to the region supported by the program.
All of these programs draw from the latest in technology with transgenic and molecular breeding gaining in importance. D&PL’s transgenic program capitalizes on the successful gains made in the conventional picker and stripper programs by utilizing backcrossing. The molecular program identifies genetic “markers” that are linked to different traits. These markers will ultimately be used to select for the presence and activity of desired traits, thus speeding up the breeding process.
Delta and Pine Land Company is a commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed, as well as soybean seed in the Cotton Belt. For more than 80 years, the Mississippi-based company has used its extensive plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop superior varieties. Delta and Pine Land has offices in seven states and facilities in several foreign countries.
MITCHELL TO HEAD D&PL RESEARCH IN LELAND
Scott, MS – Delta and Pine Land Company’s research program in Leland, MS will be headed up by Jim Mitchell, cotton breeder previously with the company’s Stuttgart, AR facility. The program has introduced a series of highly successful varieties due to the work of legendary breeder Dr. Bob Bridge who died unexpectedly last spring.
Mitchell has committed his entire career to cotton breeding, most recently providing expertise in the D&PL, Paymaster and Hartz breeding programs during his tenure in Stuttgart. Mitchell began his career in El Paso, Texas at the branch station for Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (TAES). Prior to his move to Arkansas, Mitchell worked as a breeder for Stoneville Pedigreed Seed. A native of Marks, MS, he holds bachelor and masters’ degrees in crop science from Mississippi State University.
For almost two decades, Mitchell has focused on breeding better cotton picker varieties in the Mid-South. His new role will focus on varieties adapted for the northern areas of the region, along with Dr. Don Keim’s program for the southern Mid-South.
Delta and Pine Land Company is a commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed, as well as soybean seed in the Cotton Belt. For more than 80 years, the Mississippi-based company has used its extensive plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop superior varieties. Delta and Pine Land has offices in seven states and facilities in several foreign countries.
KLINGENBERG AND REA TO HEAD NEW D&PL RESEARCH STATIONS
Scott, MS – Delta and Pine Land Company announced today that the new research stations in Georgia and Texas will be opened by cotton breeders Dr. Jeff Klingenberg and Dr. Gary Rea. Plans for the new stations were announced in August when the company said it would focus additional resources on research and development efforts.
“Breeding and research are at the heart of Delta and Pine Land and the addition of these two stations and the leadership at them will certainly build on our tradition,” says Steve M. Hawkins, D&PL president. “Creation of new research stations combined with the experience and expertise of these two gentlemen will offer us enormous potential. We will ultimately be able to introduce genetics developed for and tested in these regions and we expect these programs to make a difference for our customers in Georgia, Texas and in fact, the Cotton Belt as a whole.”
Klingenberg and Rea have extensive plant breeding experience and are looking forward to opening the new programs that will place primary importance on breeding new varieties for the regions in which they will be housed, according to Dr. Bill Hugie, D&PL vice president of research. New strains and varieties developed in these programs will participate in the Delta and Pine Land Beltwide testing program that includes research stations located in Hartsville, SC; Leland, MS; Scott, MS; Hale Center, TX and Maricopa, AZ.
Klingenberg, who has been with D&PL’s transgenic integration program for three years, will relocate from Maricopa, AZ to southern Georgia to concentrate primarily on full-season varieties adapted to the Southeast. His efforts will complement those of Dr. Cindy Green located in Hartsville, SC.
Klingenberg helped open the transgenic facility in Maricopa. He has worked with numerous Deltapine, Paymaster and Sure-Grow varieties and has been heavily involved in the Pima transgenic conversion program. Before joining D&PL, Klingenberg worked as a breeder with Seeds West Inc. and at the University of Arizona’s Maricopa Farm Center.
Klingenberg grew up on a family farm in Yuma County and later received his undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona at Tucson. He received his masters in plant breeding and genetics from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, and his Ph.D. in that discipline from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
With twenty years of breeding experience in Texas, Dr. Gary Rea will focus on needs of growers on Texas’ Rolling Plains as he opens the region’s new facility. During his tenure with D&PL, Rea has conducted breeding research and testing in the Rolling Plains while working from the Hale Center, TX station, headed by Dr. Richard Sheetz. This move will provide heightened activity in the development of both stripper and picker varieties adapted for the area. Yield, drought tolerance and storm resistance are some of the characteristics which will be high priorities.
Rea’s previous breeding experience has been with High Plains varieties at D&PL as well as other companies. Among the most notable positions he held was breeder at Seed Co. in Lubbock, where he released several varieties. He was also a cotton breeder working on hybridization of cotton for Pioneer.
His crop science education focused on plant breeding and genetics as he completed his masters at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, TX and his doctorate at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK.
Delta and Pine Land Company is a commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed, as well as soybean seed in the Cotton Belt. For more than 80 years, the Mississippi-based company has used its extensive plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop superior varieties. Delta and Pine Land has offices in seven states and facilities in several foreign countries.
DELTA AND PINE LAND COMPANY ANNOUNCES
CHANGES TO TECHNOLOGY LICENSES WITH MONSANTO
Scott, MS – Delta and Pine Land Company announced last week that it has reached an agreement with Monsanto Company to modify the Bollgard and Roundup Ready gene technology license agreements.
The modifications include:
Elimination of the minimum royalty payments and additional royalties that were required to be paid to Monsanto by D&PL if Delta and Pine Land had commercialized cotton seed that contained non-Monsanto technologies.
Permission for D&PL to combine technologies acquired or licensed from third parties with Monsanto technologies into Delta and Pine Land varieties.
D&PL retains all of its rights to Monsanto’s existing technology under these agreements, as well as access to future Monsanto technologies.
“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Monsanto,” said Roger D. Malkin, chairman and chief executive officer of Delta and Pine Land Company. “These changes will enhance our ability to evaluate and commercialize technologies from other providers without having to pay additional royalties to Monsanto.”
Delta and Pine Land Company is a commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed, as well as soybean seed in the Cotton Belt. For more than 80 years, the Mississippi-based company has used its extensive plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop superior varieties. Delta and Pine Land has offices in seven states and facilities in several foreign countries.
CURRENT RESEARCH EFFORTS REFOCUSED TO PROVEN LOCATIONS
Scott, MS – The success of varieties developed from research programs along Mississippi’s Deer Creek and in Arizona is leading Delta and Pine Land Company to refocus additional breeding and testing efforts in the Mid-South and Arizona, according to Dr. Bill Hugie, vice president of research for the company.
“Our research stations provide breeding and testing for the growers in that immediate area as well as contribute to our Beltwide efforts,” Hugie said. “To help us best serve farmers in the Mid-South and Southwest, we will refocus efforts in those areas to the most successful and best equipped locations in the regions.”
In the Mid-South, cotton breeder Jim Mitchell will move from the Stuttgart, AR location to Leland, MS. This will enable Mitchell to work in the proven Delta environment surrounded by significant cotton acreage. Mitchell is being promoted to lead the Leland program as he fills the vacancy left when Dr. Bob Bridge passed away unexpectedly last spring. Rex Manning and Joseph Baugh, Bridge’s assistants, will work with Mitchell to continue the work at that station. As the Stuttgart location closes, the material developed there will move to Scott and those varieties and strains will continue to be tested.
Changes in Arizona involve consolidating the two research offices into the current facility at Maricopa, which has undergone significant enhancement in recent years. Larry Burdett will lead D&PL’s western breeding program from Maricopa while still conducting research and testing in Casa Grande. The Maricopa location is home to several of D&PL’s greenhouses used in its research efforts as well as research led by Terry Weesner.
Delta and Pine Land Company is a commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed, as well as soybean seed in the Cotton Belt. For more than 80 years, the Mississippi-based company has used its extensive plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop superior varieties. Delta and Pine Land has offices in seven states and facilities in several foreign countries.
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