‘We’re Making More Money with PhytoGen’
Georgia cotton producer says PhytoGen® brand varieties have helped his farm produce higher yields with lower crop protection costs for better overall profitability.
Georgia producer Chris Hill says PhytoGen® W3FE varieties have given him tools to increase yield, lower crop protection costs and simplify weed management on his cotton-and-peanut operation.
The soil at Roland Hill Farms has provided for six generations of the Hill family in Twiggs County, Georgia. As Chris Hill carries that legacy into the future, it’s ironic that one of his biggest assets is also a major challenge.
“For decades, we’ve had reniform nematodes in these soils that have held us back on yield, especially in dry years,” Hill said. “Nematodes make drought stress worse, and we go through droughts almost every season in Georgia.”
Hill tried many crop protection solutions through the years, including soil fumigants and aldicarb. Those products raised input costs by nearly $100 an acre and required extra trips across the field. Hill also added corn into his rotation because corn is not a host for nematodes. Even then, the reniform populations kept growing.
“We knew what our problem was but we couldn’t find a good tool to solve it,” Hill said.
After discussing options with his retailer and the local PhytoGen field agronomist, Hill decided to plant PhytoGen® brand varieties with built-in resistance to reniform and root-knot nematodes. For years he had heard that nematode-resistant varieties didn’t have high-end yield potential, but his reps explained that the newer PhytoGen varieties were different.
The proof came from the gin after harvest: PhytoGen® brand PHY 411 W3FE yielded 1,600 pounds/A — without any nematicide treatments.
“That’s better than we could yield with the competitive varieties plus nematicides, and I saved $100 an acre on crop protection,” Hill said. “We’re making more money with PhytoGen. That’s the bottom line.”
In addition to higher yields and lower crop protection costs, Hill also significantly decreased reniform populations in his soils. Before planting PhytoGen varieties, soil samples showed 5,380 reniform nematodes per 100 cc of soil. After one year of planting PhytoGen brand varieties, the same field showed only 700 reniform nematodes per 100 cc.
“We are moving in the right direction, and I think we can get these numbers even lower with these PhytoGen varieties,” Hill said.
In 2024, Hill planted PhytoGen brand PHY 475 W3FE, PHY 411 W3FE and PHY 415 W3FE, which have resistance to both reniform and root-knot nematodes. He believes the root-knot resistance also is helping his peanut yields.
Hill rotated peanuts onto a field planted to PHY 411 W3FE the previous year. Those peanuts were 1,000 pounds heavier than any other peanuts he planted last season, and he believes it’s because PhytoGen brand varieties lowered the root-knot population.
“Year in and year out, we average about 5,000 pounds on our peanut acres. That’s the peanut yield we can make on our farm,” Hill said. “But we hit 6,000 pounds per acre on the field that followed the PhytoGen variety. I think the root-knot nematodes have been holding us back more than we realize on our peanuts.”
Three generations of Hills work together at Roland Hill Farms: from left, Chris Hill; his father, Billy; and his son Caleb. Chris said they’re ‘making more money with PhytoGen’ because of higher yield potential and lower input costs, compared to previous cotton varieties.
Beyond nematodes
Another advantage with PhytoGen® W3FE varieties is the Enlist® weed control system, which enables Hill to manage weeds without a dicamba-based system. Producers growing cotton and peanuts have long dealt with the challenge of 2,4-Db applications drifting from peanuts into cotton. With the advent of dicamba-tolerant cotton, growers had to also worry about dicamba from cotton moving into peanuts.
PhytoGen W3FE varieties and peanuts work well together because growers can spray Enlist® herbicides in cotton even if peanuts are downwind, since peanuts are considered a compatible crop with Enlist herbicides.
Growers can spray Enlist One® herbicide on their PhytoGen W3FE varieties, triple rinse the tank, and then spray 2,4-Db on their peanuts — and never have to put dicamba in the tank.
As for weed control, Hill said Enlist One tank mixed with glyphosate keeps his fields clean.
“We were pleased with our weed control, especially on our big three weeds: pigweed, grasses and morning glory,” Hill said. “The Enlist system makes it simpler with peanuts. You can spray Enlist One herbicide, and you don’t have to worry about cleaning dicamba out of your sprayer.”
As Hill plans for next season, he says the yield, nematicide savings and peanut compatibility make PhytoGen a better choice for his cotton acres.
“We’re going to be wall to wall PhytoGen next year,” Hill said. “It’s easier, simpler and yields as good or better than anything else out there.”
To learn more about PhytoGen cottonseed, go to PhytoGen.com/Yield.
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