St. Louis, Missouri, USA
May 4, 2022
Bollgard® 3 ThryvOn™ Cotton with XtendFlex® Technology variety candidates and Bollgard® 3 XtendFlex® cotton lines being evaluated for the Class of ’23
The Deltapine®, seed brand’s New Product Evaluator (NPE) program kicks off its 15th season in 2022, celebrating a milestone of helping raise yield potential and improving production across the Cotton Belt. During this momentous year, the Class of ’23 cotton variety candidates under evaluation will include an especially diverse lineup of maturities and pest trait platforms.
“It is exciting to kick off the 15th season of the Deltapine NPE program evaluating 13 potential cotton varieties for the Class of ’23,” said Eric Best, Deltapine cotton product manager. “The cotton variety candidates being evaluated this season showcase the diversity of elite germplasm and strength of the Deltapine cotton breeding and development program, which allows us to test this many products across a wide range of germplasm backgrounds, biotech trait platforms, maturity, and native trait combinations. Each of these variety candidates has the potential to be in a Deltapine bag for planting in 2023.”
Deltapine NPE growers across the Cotton Belt will have the opportunity to evaluate four Bollgard® 3 ThryvOn™ Cotton with XtendFlex® Technology cotton variety candidates in stewarded field trials. These four candidates range from early maturity to mid-full maturity and have the potential to increase the Deltapine Bollgard 3® ThryvOn™ Cotton with XtendFlex® Technology product offering. Pending regulatory approvals*, ThryvOn® Technology will be the industry’s first biotech trait to provide protection against tarnished plant bugs and thrips species.**
In the West Texas region, the Deltapine Texas cotton breeding program investments are paying off as more candidates with regionally adapted genetics are advanced into the NPE program. The southwestern NPE growers will evaluate two Bollgard 3 XtendFlex and two XtendFlex cotton variety candidates showing outstanding performance potential in this region. For the midsouth and Southeast, there are five Bollgard 3 XtendFlex variety candidates to evaluate this season, including two lines with root knot nematode resistance. The five candidates range from early maturity to mid-full maturity and will have high yield potential similar to the past two classes of Deltapine® brand commercial cotton varieties.
“New Deltapine cotton varieties and trait platforms are being adopted by U.S. cotton growers faster than ever because of the trust and confidence they have in the NPE program,” Best said. “Nothing advances in this program unless it offers an improvement or something extra over current Deltapine products in the market, and each new cotton variety is evaluated and approved for performance by the Deltapine NPE growers. It’s a true test of performance that has helped raise yield and performance standards in the cotton industry.”
Since its inception in 2008, the Deltapine NPE program has become an industry standard for involving cotton growers in pre-commercial cotton variety evaluation and commercialization. Milestones of the program since 2008 include:
· Launch of DP 1044 B2RF in 2010 – the best-selling cotton variety in Texas for four years
· Bollgard II® XtendFlex® cotton varieties launched in 2015
· DP 1646 B2XF launched in 2016, which quickly became the top-planted variety in the U.S.
· Bollgard® 3 XtendFlex® cotton varieties launched in 2018
· Class of ’20 and ’21 cotton varieties raise the bar on Bollgard 3 XtendFlex performance potential
· Deltapine Bollgard 3® ThryvOn™ Cotton with XtendFlex® Technology cotton varieties advanced in 2021
NPE growers involved in the program have trust and confidence in new Deltapine products. Here is what NPE growers had to say going into year 15:
Nick McMichen in Alabama said, “Our farm’s yield potential has increased significantly since 2008, there is no doubt. From DP 0912 B2RF to DP 1646 B2XF to DP 2012 B3XF and now DP 2127 B3XF — the varieties released through the NPE program just keep getting better.”
Coley Bailey in Mississippi said, “The NPE program has allowed me to adopt new varieties quicker and plant more acres to them because I have the confidence that they can perform, and the variety performance is getting better when you look at where we were in yield potential in 2008 compared to today.”
Jason Rackler in West Texas said, “The NPE program has allowed growers to work with the Deltapine team to identify the various challenges we face on our West Texas dryland and irrigated acres. As a result of this partnership, Deltapine continues to focus on delivering variety candidates that fit our diverse region. We look forward to continuing this partnership for the next 15 years.”
Johnny Griffin in North Carolina said, “With the NPE program we have managed to switch to better biotech traits in cotton without suffering a yield drag, and when we switch to a new trait the yield potential is stable and even improves on our farm.”
Neil Lee in Georgia said, “The Deltapine® NPE program has become something the industry tunes in to for information on new cotton varieties to plant. Local growers stop by NPE plots and the gin to ask about the varieties because they are confident in the real-farm information being collected on these new cotton varieties.”
Ralph Kellermeier in the Texas Southern Rolling Plains said, “The NPE program has put growers at the table, allowing us to evaluate and identify cotton varieties that fit our tough, dryland acre, as well as the highly productive irrigated acre. We’re looking for consistent performance in tough conditions on many of our fields and this program has helped us find the right varieties for those acres.”
More than 200 NPE growers across all regions of the Cotton Belt will plant and evaluate large-scale plots of Deltapine Class of ’23 variety candidates this season, growing and managing them through harvest. Their feedback will help determine the Class of ’23 cotton varieties which will be announced in December.
For more about the Deltapine NPE program, visit Deltapine.com/NPE.
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