32 / SEEDWORLD.COM JUNE 2017 Lee Rivenbark, Bayer head of Seeds, North America, says growers are challenged to produce more yield and better quality. She says that with abandonment assumed at 12 percent for the United States, the Cotton Belt’s total harvested area is 9.7 million acres. Using an aver- age U.S. yield per harvested acre of 830 pounds generates a cotton crop of 16.8 million bales, with 16 million upland bales and 760,000 ELS bales. “History has shown that U.S. farmers respond to relative prices when making planting decisions,” Campiche notes. “During the survey period, the cotton December futures contract averaged 70 cents per pound, which is higher than year- ago levels. Looking at competing crops, corn prices were lower than year-ago levels while soybean prices were about 12 percent higher. The price ratio of cotton to corn is more favorable than in 2016.” Cottonseed Producers The world’s leading producers of cotton- seed represent a who’s who list of crop genetics leaders. While no definitive list of the world’s top cottonseed companies can be found, the leaders include in no particular order: DuPont Pioneer, Bayer, Monsanto, Americot Inc., Navdanya Seed Co. (a network of “seed keepers” in India), Biocentury Transgene, Zhongnongfa Seed, Gansu Dunhuang Seed, Grand Agriseeds, Hefei Fengle Seed, Henan Qiule, Longping High-tech, Winall Hi-tech Seed, Dabeinong Technology Group and Wanxiang Doneed Co. In the U.S., major cottonseed produc- ers and brands include Americot, Inc. (NextGen), Monsanto (Deltapine), Bayer (FiberMax, Stoneville), Dow AgroSciences (PhytoGen), Winfield (Croplan). Other common brands include Dyna-Gro and All-Tex. The Deltapine brand of upland cotton- seed was the most popular planted in the U.S. for the 2016-17 season, according to the USDA-Agricultural Marketing Service’s Cotton and Tobacco Program. The Americot brand was the second most popular followed by Bayer’s FiberMax, Dow’s PhytoGen and Bayer’s Stoneville. Transgenic varieties accounted for about 98.7 percent of the upland cotton planted in the United States in 2016. Americot product manager Brad Littlefield reports that the company’s NextGen 3406 was a top-planted variety in the U.S. this year. He attributes the suc- cess of Americot’s NextGen 3406 seed to its adaptability to a wide variety of soil types, planting dates and more. “The variety has performed well across the Cotton Belt from Arizona to the Carolinas,” he says. Giving Growers What They Need “Growers are looking for varieties that perform very well, in terms of yield, and have a premium or better-than-average quality,” says Americot’s Littlefield. “We see a trend in domestic demand for higher quality cotton. “To help growers meet this demand, we try to bring them varieties that will deliver a high-yielding cotton with premium qualities without giving up storm-proofness (i.e.: the lint remains in the boll for a longer period). Like farmers everywhere, cotton growers are looking for good products at a good price that will provide a return on their investment in seed.” Lee Rivenbark, Bayer vice president for North America, says trends in the cot- tonseed market include increasing water- use efficiency in varieties, increasing the availability of disease resistance native characteristics, and providing additional management flexibility for growers to manage pests, including weeks in-season. “What this means for growers and the global community is we will use less pesticide to grow cotton,” Rivenbark says. “Since the introduction of Bt cotton, the industry has reduced pesticide use by 37 percent, including a 42 percent drop in insecticide use.” Rivenbark says the greatest challenge for cottonseed companies is to provide growers with solutions for their agronomic needs. “To do that, we must envision the char- acteristics and traits growers need in the next decade,” he says. “We also constantly work to improve existing traits. “For instance, in 2017 we launched TwinLink Plus, which offers three-gene Bt protection from worms, reduces the likeli- hood that a grower will need to make an insecticide treatment in-season to control economically damaging caterpillar pests, and improves the long-term effectiveness of the trait by employing three genes. We already were working on TwinLink Plus when we introduced TwinLink in 2014, which is why we could move to varieties with the three-gene trait so quickly.” Using an average U.S. yield per harvested acre of 830pounds generates a cotton crop of 16.8 million bales, with 16 million upland bales and 760,000 ELS bales. Margaret Shields, manager of the Bayer U.S. cotton breeding team, visits the Dawson, Ga., Research Center.