The moment cottonseed goes into the ground, the clock starts ticking and questions start coming: Will I get a good stand? Will my cotton get off to a strong start? How will spring weather impact my crop’s yield and quality at harvest?

For growers across the Cotton Belt, relying on the early season vigor of PhytoGen^® cottonseed provides answers to these questions and sets them up for excellent yields and fiber quality at harvest.

Tennessee farmer Jay Beaird believes PhytoGen brand varieties provide early season vigor he can count on. Every PhytoGen brand variety he planted in 2017 had an excellent stand with no replants, even in difficult weather conditions. That wasn’t the case with competitor varieties.

“This year we planted one of the new PhytoGen Enlist varieties, PHY 300 W3FE. We planted it, and it rained 3 inches the next day. We just knew we were going to have to replant that cotton, but we didn’t have to replant any of it,” Beaird says. “Then we planted a competitive variety that got a 2-inch rain a couple days later, and we had to replant every bit of it. So the PhytoGen varieties have great vigor.”

Beaird emphasizes that this kind of performance keeps him coming back to PhytoGen. When he’s planning for the next season, he’s confident that PhytoGen will produce yields and grades he needs to succeed in cotton.

“PhytoGen makes it work every year. That’s not true with the competitors. The competition may have a really good year every four years. PhytoGen has never let me down on any farm,” he says.

Beaird says that reliable, take-it-to-the-bank performance is important, especially when farming new or unfamiliar ground.

“I would call PhytoGen a very consistent cotton,” Beaird says. “If you just started renting a farm — didn’t know what the ground was like, didn’t know how it drained — then PhytoGen would be, by far, the easiest decision to make as far as what cotton to plant on that ground.”

More than excellent genetics

Beaird said PhytoGen^® cottonseed offers benefits that extend beyond excellent genetics and seed quality. He said the new PhytoGen W3FE varieties with WideStrike^® 3 Insect Protection and Enlist^® cotton trait provide more pest management options to protect yield and quality. Beaird fights glyphosate-resistant weeds, especially pigweed, on most land he farms, but the Enlist weed control system has helped keep fields clean.

“We sprayed our PhytoGen Enlist varieties one time with Enlist Duo herbicide, and it worked like a dream — just like it’s supposed to work,” Beaird says. “If we didn’t have that technology, there wouldn’t be any way to farm some of these bad fields.”

While bollworms are not typically a major problem in his area, he saw an increase in pressure later in the 2017 season. With an influx of worms, Beaird was glad to have the added protection of WideStrike 3, which performed better than other insect technologies.

“We sprayed some of the competitive cotton for bollworms, but we never did spray any of the PhytoGen varieties with WideStrike 3,” Beaird says.

Beaird also chooses PhytoGen because of the excellent customer service from his PhytoGen representatives. His territory manager and the regional PhytoGen cotton development specialist help him select the best varieties for his specific situations, which leads to better results at harvest.

“The PhytoGen reps go above and beyond what you would expect. Before recommending varieties, they want to look at the field, see how it drains and look at its past history — and then talk about the right variety fit for that field,” Beaird says.

That attention to detail sets Beaird up to thrive, season after season, and keeps him coming back to PhytoGen.

“The vigor of the cotton, the great grades, the yield — it’s all there, which makes PhytoGen cottonseed an easy choice for us to plant.”