Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
December 4, 2013
It’s the second year of the Bayer CropScience Cotton Belt Challenge™ an achievement program that recognizes U.S. growers who plant a minimum of 50 acres of FiberMax® and Stoneville® cotton seed and produce high-yielding and high-quality cotton. Growers enter by filling out an official entry form and submitting their gin receipts. Winners will be recognized in two categories: highest yield and highest quality, in 12 different regions, for both irrigated and dryland cotton.
All regional irrigated and dryland winners in the yield and fiber quality categories will receive 10,000 Innovation Plus™ points – a $500 value. From those regional winners there will be two grand prize drawings – one for irrigated and one for dryland – for a custom 4WD Bad Boy Buggies® Ambush® vehicle.
“FiberMax and Stoneville cotton varieties have the germplasm and trait technologies to help growers produce profitable cotton yields and fiber quality,” said Jeff Brehmer, U.S. product manager for FiberMax and Stoneville cotton. “Cotton production varies across the United States, depending on weather, irrigation, soil type, pest pressure and other factors. We want to recognize successful cotton production in diverse regional scenarios, and the Bayer CropScience Cotton Belt Challenge gives growers a chance to be rewarded by region for producing high-yielding and high-quality cotton.”
To qualify, growers must submit their yield and quality results from a minimum of 50 acres and verify their production through gin receipts. Yield is based on ginned lint yield, and quality is based on USDA loan value. If any portion of a field is irrigated, then the entry must be in the irrigated category.
Regions for the contest are:
- California and Arizona (irrigated only)
- Central and Southern Rolling Plains and Trans-Pecos area of the Southwest
- Far North High Plains, North High Plains, North Rolling Plains and Oklahoma
- South and East Texas
- Georgia, South Alabama and North Florida
- Tennessee and North Alabama
- South Arkansas and Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Central Arkansas
- Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas
- Virginia and Northeast North Carolina
- Central North Carolina and South Carolina
In the first year of the Cotton Belt Challenge, growers from California to North Carolina entered the contest. Grand prize winners, Kevin Still of Steele, Mo., and Rondo Farms in Tillar, Ark., each received a customized 4WD Bad Boy® Buggies Ambush® vehicle. Kevin Still won the dryland yield group for the Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas region with a yield of 1,192 pounds with ST 5458B2RF. Rondo Farms won the irrigated yield group for the South Arkansas and Louisiana region with a yield of 1,693 pounds with ST 5288B2F. For a complete list of last year’s winners, visit cottonbeltchallenge.com.
“With two new Stoneville GLB2 varieties released in 2013 – ST 4946GLB2 and ST 6448GLB2 – and newer FiberMax varieties like FM 1944GLB2 peforming well across the Cotton Belt, we anticipate a lot of entries for this year’s challenge,” Brehmer said. “Growers have achieved remarkable yields as they work with our agronomists and sales representatives to plant the right FiberMax or Stoneville varieties on their farms and to fine tune their management practices.”
For more contest information, including copies of the Official Rules and Entry Form, contact your Bayer CropScience representative or go online at cottonbeltchallenge.com. For more information on how FiberMax and Stoneville cotton seed offer the right variety for the right field, contact your regional agronomist, local Bayer CropScience representative, seed retailer or crop consultant, visit fibermax.com and stoneville.com, or call 1-866-99-BAYER (1-866-992-2937).
Bayer CropScience Twitter Page:
http://twitter.com/bayer4cropsus
Bayer CropScience Blog:
http://connect.bayercropscience.us
Bayer CropScience is committed to bringing new technology and solutions for agriculture and non-agricultural uses. For questions concerning the availability and use of products, contact a local Bayer CropScience representative, or visit Bayer CropScience online at www.bayercropscience.us
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