Anaheim, California
January 9, 2001

Delta and Pine Land Company announced the introduction of two new early-maturing Roundup Ready® cotton varieties for the 2001 growing season: Sure-Grow 521R and Paymaster PM 1199 RR. The announcement was made today at the New Developments in Industry session of the 2001 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in Anaheim.

"Analysis of yield data from 2000 indicates that PM 1199 RR and

Sure-Grow 521R are the top-yielding early-maturing Roundup Ready varieties on the market today," says Dr. Dave Albers, D&PL’s technical services director for the Southwest and western United States.

Sure-Grow 521R is an early-maturing, hairy-leaf, Roundup Ready variety that will be available in excellent seed supply in 2001. The broadly adapted variety has medium-to-tall plant height and its seed size generally ranges from 4,300 to 4,600 seed per pound. Seedling vigor has been observed as excellent and storm resistance of open bolls is rated very good.

Sure-Grow 521R has good disease tolerance and outstanding yield performance. See tables 2 and 3 for the results of the 1999 and 2000 D&PL and official variety trials.

"Disease reaction of Sure-Grow 521R shows good tolerance to both Fusarium wilt and Verticillium wilt," says Albers. "Bronze wilt has not been observed in this variety."

PM 1199 RR is a very early maturing, medium-to-short height, hairy-leaf Roundup Ready variety that will be available in limited quantities for the 2001 growing season. This variety, which performed exceptionally well in the Northern Delta, has very good seed vigor and a seed size ranging between 4,600 and 5,300 seed per pound. It also has a very good fiber quality package. Verticillium wilt tolerance has been observed as good. Storm resistance to open bolls is fair. Bronze wilt has been observed in this variety.

"Yield performance of PM 1199 RR has been outstanding throughout its testing, particularly in the Northern Cotton Belt," says Albers. "When compared to conventional and transgenic varieties at 17 locations across the Cotton Belt, PM 1199 RR out-yielded ST474 by 57 lbs./acre and DP 436 RR by 111 lbs./acre. In yield tests of early-maturing Roundup Ready varieties, PM 1199 RR out-yielded DP 436 RR by 29 lbs./acre across the 32 Beltwide locations, and by 56 lbs./acre in the 16 locations in the Northern Cotton Belt (N. Ark., N. Miss., Tenn., N. Ala., N.C., and Va.)."

In a combination of official state variety tests and company agronomic trials during 2000, PM 1199 RR showed a lint yield advantage over Stoneville’s ST4793R by 20 pounds, while Sure-Grow 521R showed a 15-pound advantage over ST4793R.

Sure-Grow 521R was developed at D&PL’s research facility in Leland, Miss., and was selected from two lines of Sure-Grow 125R. PM 1199 RR was developed by the backcrossing procedure with its recurrent parent H1330.

Delta and Pine Land Company is a commercial breeder, producer and marketer of cotton planting seed, as well as soybean seed in the Cotton Belt. For more than 80 years, the Mississippi-based company has drawn from its diverse germplasm base to breed superior plant varieties. Delta and Pine Land has offices in seven states and facilities in several foreign countries and trades under the NYSE symbol DLP.

The full text of this and other presentations can reviewed at www.deltaandpine.com/html/beltwide

Company news release
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