Adam Kay speaks to Dr Greg Constable, Senior Cotton Breeder with the CSIRO about some of the new varieties that we can expect to see this season as well as some of the new technologies.  In the varieties, there are some new conventional and Bollgard II® varieties and as far as technology goes there is the Bollgard® Roundup Ready® Flex and Roundup Ready® Flex as well as the new LibertyLink® cotton.

Greg Constable starts by explaining a little bit about the new conventional varieties.

Greg  can you update us on new conventional varieties for next season?

Well there is not a lot of conventional varieties in the market these days but we have Sicot 81 now ready for release.  That is an enhancement of the current Sicot 80 and the way that Sicot 80 has been adopted in the industry, more on the dryland side, Sicot 81 has really been developed with that in mind. It has much better, longer fibre length which is great in dryland conditions and slightly higher yield under dryland conditions too.

So is the season length the same as Sicot 80?

Yes, a very similar plant type. The Fusarium resistance is about the same so it is a pretty good package.

And what areas is that going to fit in dryland?

I would be looking more in the Northern/western side.  I wouldn’t be thinking of that as a variety for late sowing on the eastern sides.

If we move on to the Bollgard II®’s, can you let us know what is new in Bollgard II®? 

Yes again, Bollgard II® on its own hasn’t got a big market share although we are still doing some variety development there because we have had a lot more time to work on that. At the moment there are some really exciting things coming through in the next couple of years but right now we have Siokra 24B.  Siokra 24 as a conventional has been out there and we think this Bollgard II® version is far better. Its not totally Siokra 24 I must add but it’s a fantastic plant type under dryland conditions and we think there is a potential for it to be applied in Central Queensland for whitefly conditions.

So when you say that it is an okra leaf variety.  Can you just explain the linkage there?

Yes absolutely.  Siokra 24B is an okra leaf and there is some host plant resistance to whitefly in okra types as there is with mites in other districts too and we just think it is an opportunity.  The performance of Siokra 24B in our trials at Emerald has been great.

And its season length up in Emerald in the irrigated system? 

Particularly as an okra type it is earlier maturing that what we are probably use to with the full season types like Sicot 80 and Sicot 71 for example so where it has been in trials so far its often been penalised and not being able to be taken off when it was ready so it is slightly early maturing but the fibre is great, lower micronaire than some of those other Bollgard II®’s so that I think should be a good thing in Central Queensland.

And when we take it onto the dryland, the areas of adaptation for this variety? 

It’s pretty good I think.  We just mentioned Sicot 81 conventional; I think the Siokra 24 can go into a little bit shorter season than that because okra leaves tend to finish very quickly and again I would be looking at that in most districts as long as it is not too late in the Eastern side.

And if we move on to some of the new technologies that are coming through, can you let us know what you have been working on and what we can expect for this coming season?

Well we have been working hard Adam.  The Roundup Ready Flex® material has been in Australia now for a few years and we are ready and you are producing seed now of the first families that we had put together which originally had crossing in St. Louis.  There a few families potentially available.  We are still working on our data and we are actually still harvesting. We hope to have at least two Bollgard® Flex varieties and a couple of Flex alone varieties this coming year in the Sicot 80, Sicala 60 and Sicot 43 type backgrounds.

So they would cover most growing regions for growers to have a bit of a look at this new technology?

Yes certainly. I don’t think there is any place that wouldn’t be reasonably well covered for something to look at as a variety adapted to their region.  The Sicot 71 family in the Bollgard® Flex is only a year or so after that but Sicot 80 can cover the North, the West and the dryland and the Sicot 43 can cover the South.

And just Roundup® Ready Flex alone.  Any varieties coming in that?

Yes a couple.  The Sicot 80 and probably the Sicot 43 so again we have got a fair coverage there of the area. The Sicot 80 can cover the dryland and North and West.

And then you have got the Liberty Link® technology you have been working on, can you let us know a little bit about that?

Yes, we have got plenty of traits.  The Liberty work so far has got to a point where you have had some limited seed of Sicot 80 Liberty and there will be limited available seed of that.  There are some other varieties behind that in the program and there is a Bollgard Liberty stack happening as well so there is some of that available to see.  It is an interesting option for people with different weed problems and different maybe Roundup volunteers etc.

So for people that are not familiar with LibertyLink®, can you just explain what that is?

LibertyLink® is Bayer’s herbicide tolerance gene.  It confers resistance to the chemical clled Liberty or Basta or glufosinate-ammonium and it has a very wide window of application available to it. It has been commercial in the US now; they are coming into their second season.

That ends this week’s Web on Wednesday.  If you would like any further information about these new varieties and new technologies please don’t hesitate to contact any of the CSD Extension and Development Team.  The Team will be on hand at the CSD stand at the Cotton Trade Show to answer any enquiries you do have.  

Also the Trial Results are going up onto the Web as soon they are picked and ginned so please have a look at the Web to update yourself with how the varieties are going.