Specialists Speaking
Camp Hand / GEORGIA
Going into 2026, my entire county meeting presentation has to do with variety selection. In a year where all growers in my neck of the woods want to talk about is the “J-word” (jassids), why am I spending so much time on varieties? Because 2026 is shaping up to look like 2025, in that it’s gonna be tough to make it work financially. The only way to combat low prices is to make more cotton, and choosing the right variety might be the biggest piece of that equation.
There’s so many things that go into picking a variety — herbicide technology, insect pest packages, and native traits (nematode, bacterial blight, and bronze wilt resistance). That’s all good and great. But at the end of the day, we have got to make cotton. A study done at Georgia in the early 2000s, when the transgenic traits in cotton were first taking off, looked at the economic value of traits compared to conventional management. You know what drove profitability?? Dr. Bob Kemerait’s favorite word — Y-I-E-L-D. Choose the highest-yielding variety.
The biggest lesson I learned in 2024 and 2025 is choosing a variety that is consistent. In 2024, we had a new variety do extremely well in our trial program, but in 2025, it did not perform as well. In 2025, a “newcomer” did extremely well. What does that mean? It means that new variety performed well in 2025, not necessarily that it will do the same thing in 2026. Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t try some new varieties in 2026, but I would plant the majority of my acres in something that performs consistently on my farm and that I’ve had multiple years of experience with.
If you need help with that decision, we conduct a lot of variety research at the University of Georgia through the on-farm program, statewide variety trial program, and industry trials in Georgia as well. Results from UGA testing can be found at ugacotton.com or your county agent can get it for you. As always, if you have more questions, feel free to reach out. We are here to help! ∆
Camp Hand / GEORGIA