The Deltapine seed brand’s New Product Evaluator program kicks off its 15th season in 2022, celebrating a milestone of helping raise yield potential and improving production across the Cotton Belt. The class of ’23 cotton variety candidates under evaluation will include an especially diverse lineup of maturities and pest trait platforms.
“It is exciting to kick off the 15th season of the Deltapine NPE program evaluating 13 potential cotton varieties for the Class of ’23,” said Eric Best, Deltapine cotton product manager. “The cotton variety candidates being evaluated this season showcase the diversity of elite germplasm and strength of the Deltapine cotton breeding and development program, which allows us to test this many products across a wide range of germplasm backgrounds, biotech trait platforms, maturity, and native trait combinations. Each of these variety candidates has the potential to be in a Deltapine bag for planting in 2023.”
Deltapine NPE growers across the Cotton Belt will have the opportunity to evaluate four Bollgard 3 ThryvOnTM Cotton with XtendFlex Technology cotton variety candidates in stewarded field trials. These four candidates range from early maturity to mid-full maturity and have the potential to increase the Deltapine Bollgard 3 ThryvOnTM Cotton with XtendFlex Technology product offering. Pending regulatory approvals, ThryvOn Technology will be the industry’s first biotech trait to provide protection against tarnished plant bugs and thrips species.
In the West Texas region, the Deltapine Texas cotton breeding program investments are paying off as more candidates with regionally adapted genetics are advanced into the NPE program. The southwestern NPE growers will evaluate two Bollgard 3 XtendFlex and two XtendFlex cotton variety candidates showing outstanding performance potential in this region. For the midsouth and Southeast, there are five Bollgard 3 XtendFlex variety candidates to evaluate this season, including two lines with root knot nematode resistance. The five candidates range from early maturity to mid-full maturity and will have high yield potential similar to the past two classes of Deltapine brand commercial cotton varieties.
“New Deltapine cotton varieties and trait platforms are being adopted by U.S. cotton growers faster than ever because of the trust and confidence they have in the NPE program,” Best said. “Nothing advances in this program unless it offers an improvement or something extra over current Deltapine products in the market, and each new cotton variety is evaluated and approved for performance by the Deltapine NPE growers. It’s a true test of performance that has helped raise yield and performance standards in the cotton industry.”
Since its inception in 2008, the Deltapine NPE program has become an industry standard for involving cotton growers in pre-commercial cotton variety evaluation and commercialization. Milestones of the program since 2008 include:
• Launch of DP 1044 B2RF in 2010—the best-selling cotton variety in Texas for four years;
• Bollgard II XtendFlex cotton varieties launched in 2015;
• DP 1646 B2XF launched in 2016, which quickly became the top-planted variety in the U.S.;
• Bollgard 3 XtendFlex cotton varieties launched in 2018;
• Class of ’20 and ’21 cotton varieties raise the bar on Bollgard 3 XtendFlex performance potential; and
• Deltapine Bollgard 3 ThryvOnTM Cotton with XtendFlex Technology cotton varieties advanced in 2021
NPE growers involved in the program have trust and confidence in new Deltapine products.
For more about the Deltapine NPE program, visit www.Deltapine.com/NPE.
