Seed Company Review: New Varieties Lead the Way for BASF in Cotton

Several new varieties for 2020 have shown great promise and success for BASF’s FiberMax and Stoneville brands on both a regional basis and across the Cotton Belt.

FiberMax

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“In south Texas, the Coastal Bend and Upper Coast, FM 1953GLTP really performed well this year,” says Kenny Melton, BASF Western Region Agronomic Manager. “It’s a 3-gene variety that growers in those areas like because they have more insect pressure, and fiber quality has been good. This year, growers in those areas had good rains and good moisture, so they weren’t concerned about having a short staple/high mic situation. And, they had some phenomenal yields as well.”

Another new 3-gene variety – FM 2398GLTP – was also noted by Melton as one of their top varieties across the South, following a solid performance in 2019 in the company’s Agronomic Performance Trials (APT).

Moving north across Texas, FM 2398GLTP really fit irrigated and limited irrigation acres across the Rolling Plains and High Plains. “This year, limited irrigation was darn near dryland,” says Melton, “and it did very well. FM 2498GLT also showed a good fit on dryland acres on the High Plains.”

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Melton is also high on FM 1621GL, a great yielding variety with solid fiber quality that has found a surprising home in fields south of Lubbock, likely due to the root knot nematode (RKN) tolerance it provides. “I think a lot of people don’t really realize that they have nematode issues, and it always impacts yields somewhat,” says Melton. “I think it’s a big driver for the success of 1621 in that area.”

Also new for 2020, FM 2202GL is a strong yielder that’s highly tolerant to Verticillium wilt and resistant to bacterial blight. Melton compares it to insurance. “You never know what the year’s going to be like for blight,” he says, “so it’s good to have that resistance in the field.”

Stoneville

Stoneville brands picked up market share during 2020, according to USDA’s 2020 Cotton Varieties Planted report, continuing to grow its footprint beyond its traditional Southeast and Mid-South markets. One of the key varieties driving that growth is ST 4990B3XF, one of several new Bollgard 3 XtendFlex varieties introduced this year.

“ST 4990B3XF is a primary focus for us across the eastern Cotton Belt,” says Scott Asher, BASF Eastern Region Agronomic Manager. “It’s a smaller stature plant that growers tell us is easy to manage, and it’s doing well on higher productive ground in a lot of places across the Belt. It fits from the Southeast all the way to the Rolling Plains and south Texas.”

Asher also notes that ST 4550GLTP is an early variety that’s highly adapted from the eastern Cotton Belt to south Texas and the Upper Coast. Also in the east, ST 5471GLTP showed consistent performance from the mid-Atlantic to the Southeast, while ST 5610B3XF fits the full season, non-irrigated acres in the Southeast. Another early maturing variety – ST 4480B3XF – has worked well in northern areas from the Texas Panhandle up into Oklahoma and Kansas.

Looking to 2021, BASF is testing four B3XF varieties and several new GLTP varieties, including one with root knot nematode resistance.

“We hope to be able to advance several out of this class, because they look to have specific target areas based on maturity and plant type that will allow us to broaden our footprint,” says Asher.

“We know there’s a large interest in the Xtend technology,” adds Melton. “We want to fill that niche with some very promising options.”

 

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