The industry’s first Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton variety with root-knot nematode (RKN) resistance and a high-performing early to mid-maturity cotton variety were named to the Deltapine Class of 17 during the ninth annual New Products Evaluators (NPE) Summit.
DP 1747NR...
By Bob Hutmacher
Extension Specialist/Agronomist
University of California
Despite the continuing impacts of a long-term drought in California, quite a few cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley saw some good to excellent yields in 2016. The exceptions were certain...
Monitoring soil moisture and scheduling irrigation doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective, as one Texas High Plains grower finds.
By Vicky Boyd
Managing Editor
When it comes to soil moisture monitoring, David Carter of Levelland, Texas, likes to keep...
Delivered As Promised
The menu of cotton varieties from which to choose in 2017 includes a host of high-yielding, good quality selections. To help you get started, seed companies from across the Cotton Belt provided information about their headliners on...
New Mississippi Facility Exceeds Wildest Dreams
By Carroll Smith
Editor
Tucked away in Noxubee County, Miss., about 1½ miles down Deerbrook Road, Bogue Chitto Gin Inc. is an impressive testimony to area producers’ faith in cotton. The 25 stockholders settled on the...
Cotton producers in West Texas got a sneak peak at up to a dozen potential new varietal releases during Deltapine's annual field day at Blaine Nichols Farm near Seminole.
Nichols and his father, Mark, are two of about 200 producers nationwide that participate in Deltapine's NPE, or New Product Evaluators, program. For the past 10 years or so, the Nichols have planted advanced experimental lines in large 3- to 5-acre plots.
They farm the plots as they would their commercial acreage, with each plot being harvested, graded and milled separately.
Come December or January when the data on the experimental varieties has been disseminated, NPE producers participate in a conference call to vote on the varieties they think should be released.
Between the experimental and commercial varieties, the Nichols have about 20 Deltapine large-scale plots on their farm this season.
Mark says they continue to participate because of the benefits the NPE trials provide the industry. Blaine says he's anxious to see how the new XtendFlex system will work once the low-volatility formulation of dicamba is registered.
The varieties have been engineered to contain genes that impart resistance to both glyphosate and dicamba herbicides sprayed over the top.
Although the Nichols have several XtendFlex varieties on their farm, the plants were only sprayed over the top with Roundup. Blaine stays on top of weeds using the Roundup Ready system as well as several different residual herbicides. He also has adopted a zero-tolerance approach to weeds, but he says controlling Palmer amaranth and Russian thistle as well as a host of others is a constant challenge.
Texan Named In Faces Of Farming And Ranching
A Texan has been named one of the eight finalists in the third class of Faces of Farming and Ranching by the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA).
Texas Farm Bureau member Jeremy Brown...
ARKANSAS
Our cotton crop is much improved going into July compared to its status the first of June. The July 11 National Agricultural Statistics Service Crop Progress and Condition Report for Arkansas reported cotton flowering or setting bolls ahead of...
Cotton Ginning Cost-Share Signup Deadline Ends Aug. 5
The National Cotton Council reminds producers eligible for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new Cotton Ginning Cost-Share program they have until Aug. 5 to sign up. There will be no deadline extension. USDA...
The Cotton Research and Promotion Program continues to support Western cotton growers with research programs specifically tailored to the region through Cotton Incorporated’s State Support Program. This program allows regional cotton organizations to have direct input into the funding...
By Carroll Smith
Editor
Matt and Sherrie Miles come from multi-generational Arkansas cotton families. Although cotton is in their blood, they farmed only 180 acres last year. In 2016, they embraced the crop once again by planting 3,300 acres. “Cotton...
Seven-plus bales was the high.
Cotton yield and quality records are made to be broken, and that’s just what FiberMax cotton growers did in 2015 to qualify for the elite FiberMax One Ton Club. During a celebration in Lubbock, Texas, Bayer recently honored 127 members who qualified for the One Ton Club during the 2015 crop year. The 2015 qualifiers included 40 new members and 87 returning qualifiers, making the total number of FiberMax One Ton Club members 848.
The highest yield for those who qualified for the FiberMax One Ton Club in 2015 – 3,717 pounds, or 7.7 bales, per acre – was recorded on 32 acres by Vance and Mandie Smith, of Big Spring, Texas. The seven-year members of the One Ton Club topped their previous record by 400 pounds per acre. For the Smiths, that’s more than six times the Texas average in 2015, which was 614 pounds per acre.
The highest acreage winners, Eric and Christy Seidenberger, of Garden City, Texas, averaged 2,054 pounds per acre on 564 acres.
What makes the numbers posted by the 127 FiberMax One Ton Club members more remarkable is that 2015 was marked by rains that delayed or prevented cotton planting in some areas, notes Jeff Brehmer, U.S. product manager for FiberMax cotton.
Hands-on operators continue the family legacy.
By Carroll Smith
Editor
Ginger and Sharion Croom spent a portion of their childhood growing up in a small white farmhouse that stands about 100 feet from the shop at L&G Farms in Southeast Missouri. After...
ARKANSAS
Establishing a healthy stand of cotton is the first step toward a successful season. Cotton does not tolerate difficulties encountered during its first weeks of growth very well. Variety selection and seed quality have a lasting effect on the...
In poker, when the chips are low and the stakes are high, a player may decide to take a risk and go “all in” to stay in the game. Farming has sometimes been compared to gambling. You put up...
