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Central Arkansas | Not growing seed increase, I guess we got lucky because we've been beating bushes for years trying to find a conventional variety that we like. The weed control program wasn't much different from stacked gene cotton. Reflex on fresh beds mid April, trifluralin incorporated on top of the fresh bed in mid April, fluometuron (cotoran) broadcast behind the planter, prometryn (cotton pro) plus MSMA directed @ 5" and gromoxone plus diuron under the hood, then Valor plus gramoxone under the hood and diuron directed @ about 12". We were very fortunate to get the Reflex rained in and plant around April 20.
The bollgard and widestrike portions of tech fees are bargains, but the RR portion is almost useless because of pigweeds. We had very high bollworm pressure in all susceptible crops the last two years. Why are worms always worse in very dry weather? We spent more on insect control because of two bollworm applications, but spent quite a bit less on weed control because of tech fee savings. Is the increased worm pressure the new normal because of the increase in corn acres, or will we revert to historically low to medium pressure in central Arkansas? During weevil eradication, we went three years without making any insecticide applications.
There is the aggravation factor of having to interrupt irrigation, price shop for insecticides, and schedule applications.
UA48 is a pretty good variety also, but it has been my single best field and my single worst for some unknown reason. Fiber quality is off the charts. Americot is planning to put traits in it.
I resent paying RR tech fees to the tune of about $50 per acre when pigweed control is the issue for us. I haven't found a straight BGII or straight Widestrike variety that I like, although PHY 440W has done pretty well on some dryland fields.
Conventional fields were more weed free than RR fields. LL fields were very clean.
My thinking is that on July tenth, an automatic shot of Prevathon would be a good thing on conventional cotton. Moth flight hits July 10- 15 every year. It is supposed to have thirty days residual control.
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What Cotton Variety performed the Best? or worst?
