Seed Company Review: New Name, Strong Varieties Lead Armor into 2021
November 30, 2020 These days, a lot of folks would love to push the reset button on 2020 – and most certainly not for good reasons. But sometimes the opportunity to reset makes so much sense, it can literally change things for the better.
Enter Armor Cotton, the cottonseed company formerly known as CROPLAN.
In late June, WinField United announced that it was moving its proprietary CROPLAN cottonseed business to its Armor Seed Company brand, allowing the company to consolidate its southern seed business under one well-known regional name. WinField acquired Armor in 2017.
“Armor has a lot of brand equity and brand awareness in the Mid-South,” says Robert Cossar, Cotton Product Manager for Armor. “They’ve done a great job marketing their brand. Growers recognize it. This gives us a chance to readjust and market our cotton business differently. And with our business shifting from Minneapolis to Jonesboro, AR, it gives us a lot more southern focus.”
The company also features some strong varieties to match that focus. In its second full year in the market, Armor 9608 B3XF continues to provide great yield performance for growers based on early yield data from the south Delta, south Delta and parts of the Mid-South.
“It’s just a good all-round variety that fits in a lot of places,” says Cossar. “It’s a variety that we’re keeping on some of our better ground and has done really well competing with the top varieties in the marketplace. It has shown extremely high gin turnout, typically around 43-44%. Farmers who planted it last year told me it looks good in the monitor but looks even better when they get their gin sheets back.”
Another second year variety is Armor 9210 B3XF, an early-mid variety that fits well in the north Delta and parts of Texas. Cossar describes it as a showy variety – but not one that’s extremely loose – with good yield potential, bacterial blight resistance and Verticillium wilt tolerance. Fiber has demonstrated staple length in the 38-39 range, with 31 strength.
“Those two varieties are really our flagship varieties,” explains Cossar. “They were grown on more acres this year and will continue to grow in sales in 2021. The rest of our lineup fills in around them, including Armor 9598 B3XF for west Texas and our old reliable Armor 3885 B2XF which continues to provide consistent performance in the south Delta and south Georgia markets.”
Armor has three new varieties in test for possible 2021 introduction. One is a Texas-only variety with a fit from south and central Texas up into the Panhandle. Another is an early-mid maturity variety with a solid disease package for bacterial blight and Verticillium wilt. And the third is a true full season variety targeted for south Georgia and the south Delta. Preliminary yield and fiber data already in hand looks very promising.
“We’re excited about our new opportunity and about where the cotton market is hopefully going,” says Cossar. “We didn’t take a yield step back by moving to Armor. We’re right there being competitive from both a yield and fiber standpoint.”
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