Americot: Gaining Ground
December 3, 2010 
By any measure, 2010 was a banner year for Americot cotton varieties. The company nearly doubled their market share totals over the previous year, up to 6.2% nationally and 10.28% in the Southwest.
The formula for that success is pretty basic, according to Terry Campbell, Americot’s General Manager.
“We provide quality planting seed,” says Campbell, emphatically. “We’ve proven that to growers over and over again. And then secondly, we’re offering it at a very good price.”
A key component in providing quality planting seed is offering up multiple desirable characteristics with each variety. “We’re unique in that we often combine characteristics that the competition doesn’t have,” says Campbell, citing the company’s varieties that offer traits like verticillium wilt tolerance to go along with impressive fiber quality and yield numbers.
A big part of Americot’s success this season was a new variety, NexGen NG 3348 B2RF, a Bollgard II Roundup Ready Flex variety. The semi-smooth leaf, early-medium maturity cotton seed found a home on more than a few acres on the Texas High Plains.
“It’s got great early season vigor, great yield potential, and it’s storm proof with verticillium wilt tolerance. The things that growers are looking for, it has them,” says Campbell.
But while NG 3348 was the company’s biggest seller over the 2010 season, a pair of newcomers is creating the biggest buzz within the company heading into the 2011 season.
NexGen 4010 B2RF and NG 4012 B2RF will be available on a limited basis for the first time in the coming year. Both are mid-season maturing varieties that are smooth leaf and have verticillium wilt tolerance.
Campbell says the difference in the varieties is that the 4012 is slightly more indeterminate and longer, and it often has a more open canopy, which can make for a better fit in dryland situations. Yield numbers for the two varieties are very similar, and their fiber quality has proven to be impressive.
“Our fiber quality properties are excellent, with opportunities for premiums on fiber strength,” says Americot plant breeder Tom Brooks. “They mic well in West Texas. Length can be 36 plus, and we’ve seen some at 37 and 38 last year.”
In the Mid-South and Southeast, Americot AM 1550 B2RF continues to find its way on to more farms each year. The Bollgard II/Roundup Ready Flex cotton is a semi-smooth leaf variety.
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