Requiem for the Boll Weevil, Tobacco Budworm
Boll Weevil Eradication Programs (BWEP) started in 1978 in the Coastal states of the Cotton Belt and worked their way westward. The boll weevil is now completely eradicated in most areas. Areas left are in maintenance programs.
In the early ‘90s, an employee of a state BWEP said, “One of these days, we’re going to eradicate the boll weevil, and when we do, we’re going after the budworm.”
The tobacco budworm had become almost uncontrollable in some areas, particularly the Mid-South.
That ended in 1996 with the introduction of Monsanto’s Bollgard, the first Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insect-resistant trait. Bollgard was literally the death of the tobacco budworm in cotton.
Who could even imagine in 1990 that the budworm would be defeated well before the boll weevil? How to eliminate the boll weevil was thinking out of the box; the beat down of the budworm was thinking off the wall. Both BWEPs and Bt were giant leaps forward for cotton production, and both are examples of how timing is everything for out-of-the-box and off-the-wall thinking.
“Bollgard provided the insect protection that led to increased yield, cost savings and trips across the field. There was a huge success with that technology,” says Tom Schaeffer, Monsanto traits marketing manager.
“Then came Roundup Ready technology, which brought the broad-spectrum weed-control performance, application flexibility and just peace of mind,” Schaeffer continues. “Growers liked the technology and quickly adopted it.”
Yes, they did, according to the USDA’s 2009 Cotton Varieties Planted report. USDA says transgenic varieties were planted on 94.8% of U.S. Upland acreage last spring. Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina had 100% of their acreage planted in a transgenic variety. Texas, with over half the country’s cotton acreage, had 90.4% in transgenic varieties.
“Satisfaction with both Bollgard and Roundup Ready technologies continues to be very high,” Schaeffer says.
Monsanto then brought the second generation of both products to market – Bollgard II and Roundup Ready Flex. These and any future traits will be marketed under the Genuity brand.
Other companies as well – Bayer CropScience and Dow AgroSciences, for instance – have the equivalent of second-generation traits and are expanding traits portfolios as fast as research, development and regulatory approvals will allow.
“Our Genuity family of traits is focused on making farmers more successful. We want them to do what they do best, and do it even better,” Schaeffer continues.
Roundup Ready Flex is also under the Genuity brand.
“What we want to bring farmers now is the stacked traits,” says Schaeffer. “So Genuity Bollgard II/Roundup Ready Flex is really the platform we want to offer. It’s the complete system of insect protection as well as weed control.“
In the developmental or research pipeline are products like Bollgard III, lygus protection, nematode protection and drought tolerance.
There are also weed-control traits with different modes of action that will be stacked with glyphosate tolerance, one being dicamba. “There are a lot of possibilities in the research pipeline,” Schaeffer says. “We’re beginning to explore what turns on intrinsic yields. Is there a biotech solution? And there’s fiber quality.”
Adds Janice Person with Monsanto Public Affairs, “We’re able to do genetic selection and we know more about a cotton plant than ever before. We’re testing them in high-drought-stress environments so we can pinpoint which ones perform best dryland or irrigated. While growers may look at genetics and traits separately, at the end of the day they’re going to see a higher performing package than they’ve ever had before.”
Lee Rivenbark, Bayer CropScience Global Head of Cotton Seed and Traits, was with Helena Chemical Co. in the Mississippi Delta in 1995 when the world’s first genetically modified seed was introduced. The Buctril-tolerant BXN system was available in two Stoneville varieties, but was on the market for just less than a decade.
“Bollgard and Roundup Ready came right after the BXN system and it was obvious that producers were going to adopt that technology – better insect control, easier to manage weed control,” Rivenbark says. “The thing I remember most about the first generation traits was how growers were able to move across the field more efficiently with reduced labor.”
That gave growers economies of scale. Those producers who wanted to expand could do so with the same labor and little or no more equipment.
“Now growers are rapidly moving into the second generation of traits, but during this switch, they are beginning to really look at germplasm,” Rivenbark continues. “Growers like the advantages of Bollgard II and Roundup Ready Flex, but in some regions of the country, they wanted to stay with the first generation of traits because of the variety. I learned something from that – growers look at yield and fiber quality first.”
GlyTol is a glyphosate-tolerant trait exclusive to Bayer, similar to Roundup Ready Flex.
“We’ve had it in trials from the east coast to the west coast,” Rivenbark says. “This trait is going to have a wide window of application with a high degree of tolerance to glyphosate with the grower having the option of using whatever glyphosate (brand) they choose. That’s the key – the farmer has the freedom to choose the glyphosate formulation he wants to use with Bayer’s high-performing germplasm and traits.”
GlyTol is scheduled to launch in 2010, with a stack with the Liberty Link trait following. The Liberty Link trait provides tolerance to the non-selective contact herbicide Ignite. The Liberty Link trait is already available in some of Bayer’s FiberMax varieties and can be a tool in glyphosate-resistance management.
“GlyTol stacked with LibertyLink will be the focus in 2011 as we introgress with insect traits,” says Rivenbark. “We hope to have GlyTol/LibertyLink stacked with Bollgard II in 2011. In 2012, we are going to stack GlyTol/LibertyLink with TwinLink. That will give a producer a dual herbicide system with the choice to use glyphosate or Ignite. Then there will be a dual Bt trait that is 100% from Bayer CropScience. At that point, the full trait package will be from Bayer.” Rivenbark says Bayer’s drought-tolerant gene will “hit the market first, or be right there at the same time” as others.
“We actually have drought-tolerant cotton in small, regulated trials today and the initial results show a lot of promise for a producer to continue to grow high-yielding, high-quality cotton that can withstand the elements of reduced water or drought situations,” he adds. “It’s a little early in development to give percentages, but right behind GlyTol/LibertyLink/TwinLink will come drought tolerance and nitrogen utilization traits.
“All of this is on the horizon as Bayer continues to invest in technology to improve fiber characteristics and is working globally with mills to better understand what their needs will be 10 years from now. We have a full proprietary pipeline as it relates to cotton.”
Dow AgroSciences’ PhytoGen brand of cotton seed made a major move into the Mid-South this spring with its PHY 375 WRF coming in as the number one variety planted in the Mid-South. PHY 375 is stacked with Dow’s WideStrike twin-Bt insect-protection gene and Roundup Ready Flex.
WideStrike gives growers another transgenic option to fit different situations.
“What traits brought growers was insurance,” says Dr. Joel Faircloth, Cotton Development Specialist for Dow AgroSciences. “If they couldn’t get in the field to make an application for lepidopteron pests they were covered. It also reduced the number of applications for in-season pests when the boll weevil was out of the way.”
Faircloth has seen traits development from both sides of the aisle – commercially with Dow, and as a cotton Extension specialist in both Virginia (2003-08) and Louisiana (2000-03).
“With WideStrike, number one, it’s always good to bring competition to the marketplace,” Faircloth says. “It also increases your protection from the fall armyworm.”
Looking ahead, he says stacked herbicide traits will play an increasingly important role in resistance management.
And then there’s drought tolerance again, the importance of which, Faircloth says can’t be understated: “I think drought resistance is very exciting. In my opinion, this could very possibly be one of the best traits ever, particularly for growers out west.”