Lubbock, Texas
March 4, 2009
Cotton growers on the Texas High
Plains are accustomed to wind and sand, but 2008 created spring
weather that was extreme even by their standards. In spite of
the adverse conditions, many High Plains growers, including Joel
Drake, produced a profitable crop with FiberMax® cotton
varieties from Bayer
CropScience.
“We had a hot, windy spring after the cotton came up — the wind
just kept blowing and blowing,” said Drake, who farms about
2,500 acres near Meadow and Ropesville. “When the early frost
came, it set us back again, and I would say it was one of the
roughest years that I remember.”
With FM 9180B2F and FM 9063B2F, Drake produced 2,112 lbs/A and
1,960 lbs/A on his two irrigated plots, and joined the FiberMax
One Ton Club™ for the third year in a row. Drake credits his
drip irrigation, consultants and intensive management techniques
with the success, but he said he couldn’t have done it without
the two FiberMax cotton varieties.
“FiberMax is a go-getter — the varieties on my farm kept
producing when everything else had hit a stopping point,” Drake
said. “FiberMax varieties just keep on loading up. With the
weather last year, I didn’t think my cotton was going to do
anything — didn’t think it had time to make anything — but it
never quit.”
Steve Nichols, Bayer CropScience U.S. agronomic manager, agreed
with Drake that FiberMax varieties reach their maximum potential
when growers implement best management techniques and
incorporate technologies such as drip irrigation. Nichols said
FiberMax varieties continued to outperform other varieties in
both yield and quality in 2008 Texas Cotton Agronomic
Performance (CAP) trials, which are managed by growers in
conjunction with Bayer CropScience.
“This year’s CAP trials in Texas proved what 66 percent of
cotton growers in the Southwest already believe — that FiberMax
provides top yield and fiber quality for successful farming
operations,” Nichols said. “And when managed aggressively in a
high-input scenario, 17 of our FiberMax varieties have produced
more than 2,000 pounds of lint per acre.”
Last year on his FiberMax One Ton Club acres, Drake applied 200
units of nitrogen per irrigated acre and made three applications
of mepiquat chloride with rates ranging from 16 oz/A to 24 oz/A.
He added that weed and pest management are equally important.
Looking to the 2009 season, Drake is already hoping for more of
the same successes.
“Both FM 9180B2F and FM 9063B2F are excellent varieties,” he
said. “I hope to be planting as much of these varieties as I did
last year — and maybe more. I have been growing FiberMax
varieties for seven or eight years, and they provide us with
excellent varieties.”
For more information on the complete 2009 lineup of FiberMax
varieties, contact your local Bayer CropScience field
representative or visit
www.CottonExperts.com.
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the
fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer
CropScience AG, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of
about EUR 5.8 billion (2007), is one of the world’s leading
innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop
protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant
biotechnology. The company offers an outstanding range of
products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable
agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer
CropScience has a global workforce of about 17,800 and is
represented in more than 120 countries.
Always read and follow label instructions. Bayer®, the Bayer
Cross®, FiberMax® and One Ton Club™ are trademarks of Bayer. |
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