Fiber Quality was the topic of many presentations and discussions during the 2001 Beltwide Cotton Conferences. Representatives from virtually every segment of the industry provided comment on the topic, looking for a possible industry-wide solution. That emphasis continued in the technical sessions as Delta and Pine Land Company technical personnel provide insight on the topic looking at it from different perspectives. The company is presenting data which was generated by trials D&PL has run with farmers as well as independent university data.

Dr. Tom Kerby, vice president of technical services for D&PL, said research like this is a natural result of the company’s emphasis on supplying farmers with sound agronomic information. "We have increased research and technical services in the past several years in order to conduct more trials and gain better insight into the complex trends in topics like fiber quality. But generating the data is not enough by itself. We appreciate opportunities to present our findings and participate in discussions with our customers and others in the industry, and a public forum like the Beltwide is particularly productive."

Saturday morning, January 13^th, in the Cotton Improvement Conference (Pacific Ballroom Salon D beginning at 11 a.m.), technical services personnel had four separate presentations of research, tapping both internal and university data. Those papers included the following:

• "Fiber Quality Trends Across Years and Varieties" presented by Dr. David Albers – According to Dr. Albers, "Trends in fiber properties of the U.S. cotton crop are impacted by numerous factors, including both the varieties planted and environmental stresses encountered each year. In this paper, two statistical methods were utilized to determine the impact of year and variety on fiber quality parameters: trend line analysis and partitioning the variation from different sources by analysis of variance. The analysis of variance approach determined that the contribution of year to year variation to staple length and micronaire was greater than the variation due to variety planted. On the other hand, fiber strength was much more dependent on the variety planted, than on yearly variation. Two example states were used to assess changes in varieties planted over the past 6 years. The number of varieties planted in GA has more than doubled between 1995 and 2000, while the number of varieties planted in MS has remained relatively constant at near 12 varieties to plant 90% of the acres. The shift in variety selection from 1995 to 2000 has resulted in fewer acres in both states of varieties with staple length greater than 35 (32’s inch) planted, fewer acres of varieties with strength greater than 30 g/tex planted, and different shifts in micronaire between MS and GA: fewer acres in GA planted to varieties with 4.4 to 4.6 micronaire and MS planting more of the varieties in the same range of micronaire. These changes in the fiber quality of the varieties planted indicate that fiber quality may not be the primary variety selection factor. Varieties are likely being selected by growers based primarily on yield, maturity, and profitability."
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• "Yield and Fiber Quality Comparisons Between Transgenic and Conventional Varieties" presented by Dr. Ken Lege – Dr. Lege explains the research saying "We compiled lint yield, staple length, micronaire, and strength data for all plots in D&PL agronomic services trials and state official variety trials across the Cotton Belt for 1998 through 2000. We included data on four families of technology: DP 20 family (DP20, DP20B, DP420RR, DP422B/RR); DP 51 family (DP51, DP428B, DP425RR, DP451B/RR); DP 5415 family (DP5415, NC33B, DP448B, DP32B, DP5415RR, DP458B/RR) and the DP 5690 family (DP5690, NC35B, DP5690RR, DP655B/RR) since these four lines are the only ones which have all four technologies available commercially and span a wide range of maturities. In the USDA-AMS planted varieties report, these varieties comprised 29.85% of US acreage in 2000. While some differences exist for lint yield and fiber quality between transgenics and conventionals, the differences are not consistent among variety families for specific technology types and, in most cases, differences are small and not economically noteworthy."
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• "Fiber Quality Stability of Significant D&PL Varieties Over Years and Locations" presented by Dr. Kerby – According to Dr. Kerby, "Growers and consultants have been presented new technologies and new varieties at a pace that has previously been unprecedented. Some of the new varieties have the majority of their test data collected during the past three years. Six varieties that have been common in tests between 1994 and 2000 demonstrate that fiber length has been particularly short in these same varieties during the past three years compared to previous years. Fiber strength during the past three years has trended down, while micronaire was very high in 1998 and 1999. Balanced head to head data previously reported demonstrates transgenic varieties had equivalent fiber quality to their recurrent parent. The rate at which technology has been adopted has resulted in more varieties with technology replacing the parent varieties in recent years. For new varieties introduced in the last 3 years, length, strength, and micronaire would not be perceived as being equal to their parents which were primarily tested prior to the last three years. This observation raised questions regarding the ‘stability’ of these new varieties. A statistical procedure was used to compare the individual variety performance to the mean of all varieties at a location (a particular environment). An estimate of ‘stability’ is possible as individual variety response is compared to the mean of all varieties at a test location across many environments. Five families of Deltapine brand varieties (DP 20, DP 50, DP 51, DP 5415, and DP 5690) were compared to their technology versions (Bollgard, Roundup Ready, and stacked) across hundreds of environments (regions and years). Stability measures for 25 individual Delta and Pine Land Company varieties are part of this work and, as expected, individual varieties show some variation in fiber quality, and in responsiveness across diverse environments. For the five families of varieties, technology versions were practically identical to their parents. These data strongly indicate no difference in ‘fiber quality stability’ of transgenic varieties when compared directly against their recurrent parents across environments that produced everything from inferior to superior fiber quality."

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 used its extensive plant breeding programs drawing from a diverse germplasm base to develop superior varieties. Delta and Pine Land (NYSE: DLP) has offices in eight states and facilities in several foreign countries.

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