A new Web-based feature offered by Stoneville® and NexGen™ cottonseed brands will make it easy for farmers to calculate how much seed they will need to cover the acres they want to plant.

Available at www.stoneville.com and www.nexgencotton.com, the seed calculator is designed to help a farmer or retailer determine how many seed bags, SeedPak™ containers or mini-bulk bags of Stoneville or NexGen brand seed are needed to plant based on planting rate and acreage to be covered.

All a farmer or retailer has to do when using this feature is to select a cottonseed variety, enter the number of seeds per foot of row desired, enter the row spacing in inches, then enter the number of acres to be planted. The calculator then does the math and provides the needed information.

"Given the cost of seed and technology traits, most farmers are really working to make every seed count," says Lloyd McCall, Cotton Germplasm Lead for Monsanto. "This seed calculator takes some of the guesswork out of determining how much seed will be needed, and it should save farmers some time and headaches as they continue to make the transition from 50-pound seed bags to a seed count of 230,000 seeds per bag."

McCall points out that cotton growers in Georgia, for instance, are already down to planting 1 to 1½ seeds per foot of row in some areas. In the Mid-South, a rate of 3 seeds per foot of row is preferred, while in some parts of Texas planting rates tend to be much higher.

"In the past, farmers figured planting rates in terms of the number of pounds of seed needed per acre," McCall says. "Today, cotton growers are watching their seeding rates much more closely. They are actually counting seeds instead of pounds, and this seed calculator will help them be more precise."

Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality.

Stoneville® and NexGen™ are trademarks of Stoneville Pedigreed Seed Company.