Agricultural News
New Canola and Cotton Varieties Coming From Croplan
Mon, 09 Mar 2015 16:41:02 CDT
Canola and cotton farmers can look forward to some new technology in the near future. Croplan is among the companies that will be releasing new varieties in 2015 and 2016. This makes for an exciting time for growers. Radio Oklahoma Farm Director Ron Hays caught up with Winfield spokesperson Greg Birdwell. Click or tap on the LISTENBAR below to listen to their conversation.
The winter canola varieties from Croplan will be released on a limited basis in the fall of 2015 and by fall 2016, farmers will see a big change in winter canola varieties for Oklahoma. Birdwell said certainly after all of the weather events the past four or five years in Oklahoma, variety development has slowed as researchers have put a bigger focus on winter hardiness. After several tough years, Birdwell said it doesn't matter if a variety yields a lot, unless it can sustain the cold weather.
"We have to be able to have a stand out there, we can't harvest anything if we don't have stand," Birdwell said.
Cotton growers can also look forward to some advances in varieties. Dow will release Enlist, which has tolerance to 2,4-D and glyphosate. Monsanto will release Xtend, their dicamba-resistant cotton technology. Croplan will also have two new varieties for production in 2015. Birdwell said both will have the Xtend technology for use with dicamba. Currently the Environmental Protection Agency is re-reviewing dicamba use, so while farmers will have genetics, Birdwell said it will be 2016 before farmers can use dicamba on the crop. Having new cotton varieties will greatly help farmers with pigweed, marestail along with the growing problem of resistant weeds. Birwell said weed resistance is a huge issue across Oklahoma, so it will be good to get some new tools. Birdwell said he doesn't want to go back to the 1980's or 1990's where weeds were a major problem, which requires a lot of labor to remove. With larger farms and fewer farmers, he said cotton is battling for acres, so farmers need these tools to continue growing cotton.
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