Built-in traits provide path to improve cotton ROI potential
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As you consider cotton varieties to plant this season, remember the age-old advice about building good character: “It’s what’s inside that matters most.”
Traits and technologies in your cottonseed provide opportunities to help increase profitability and return on investment (ROI). These intangible benefits are sometimes overlooked, but many producers are discovering new PhytoGen® cottonseed varieties with built-in traits such as nematode resistance and herbicide tolerances that help protect their crop, gain efficiencies and improve yield potential.
Brian Alumbaugh farms 6,000 acres of cotton, rice, soybeans, corn and wheat near McCrory, Arkansas. Over the last three seasons, he’s increased his cotton acres each year because of his success with PhytoGen® W3FE varieties and the trait technologies available in the seed.
Alumbaugh first planted newer PhytoGen brand varieties for their industry-leading resistance to root-knot and reniform nematodes. Some of Alumbaugh’s fields have a three-pronged challenge: nematodes that damage roots, sandy soils that don’t hold water, and limited irrigation capacity. PhytoGen W3FE varieties with nematode resistance helped all three issues, protecting roots and allowing plants to make better use of available water.
“PhytoGen W3FE varieties are a great fit because of their nematode resistance. They are more drought tolerant and forgiving on fields where we have nematodes and the irrigation is a little off,” Alumbaugh said. “It helps from an expense perspective because we don’t have to water as much, and that also saves us time on irrigation maintenance. The return on PhytoGen cotton is better all around.”
Alumbaugh has grown PhytoGen brand varieties since 2022 and produces between 1,300 – 1,500 pounds per acre – as high as 1,600 pounds per acre – on fields with adequate irrigation.
He also says PhytoGen varieties with nematode resistance have helped lower nematode populations and improved his soils for better ROI on other crops. He planted PhytoGen® brand PHY 411 W3FE on a field for two years and then rotated the field to soybeans. That field previously yielded about 35 bu/A, but the soybeans yielded 77 bu/A following PHY 411 W3FE.
“PhytoGen is helping maintain our soils and their productivity for other crops,” Alumbaugh said. “We doubled the soybean yield in that field after planting PhytoGen – that’s a big deal for any farmer.”
Another benefit to his bottom line is the Enlist® cotton trait, which he says fits better with his multi-crop operation where rice and soybean fields are often adjacent to cotton. Rice is considered a compatible crop with the Enlist® weed control system, and Alumbaugh plants Pioneer® Enlist E3® soybeans so he can spray Enlist® herbicides over his soybeans and cotton.
“PhytoGen cotton with the Enlist trait has really changed the game so we can grow cotton more easily around our rice and Enlist E3 soybean acres,” Alumbaugh said. “You can load the sprayer with Enlist One and go right from cotton into soybeans with the same tank. That keeps you from wasting chemicals, and you’re saving fuel by not having to go back and forth to the shop.”
Alumbaugh said his weeds have been “very controlled” and the ease of application makes life a little less hectic during busy summer weeks when he’s managing multiple crops.
“In my experience, the Enlist system is the easiest weed control system to use since the glyphosate-resistant crops came out in the 90s,” he said. “I like the fact that Enlist One is a stable product. It doesn’t move after you spray it. I’ve been spraying Enlist One in PhytoGen cotton for three years and Enlist soybeans before that, and I can tell you it’s a very good system.”
As he plans for the upcoming season, Alumbaugh may increase his cotton acres for the fourth year in a row, planting PhytoGen varieties for their built-in traits and ROI potential.
“PhytoGen makes growing cotton easier with the technologies in these varieties. It pencils out better than other options, and it’s a very consistent cotton. You can take it to the bank,” Alumbaugh said. “We get all of that, and we couldn’t ask for better support from our local PhytoGen rep. It’s the best in the business.”
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AGRONOMY
Find information on yield and more in the PhytoGen Cottonseed Agronomy Library.