"Larry Caldwell" wrote in message
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snip
Exactly. If GM cotton does not perform as advertised, you will find out
in a hurry. Farmers will listen to seed salesmen once, but the real
proof is in the bottom line.

Even the first time we only try a little.

I'm glad to hear that the beneficial insects thrive on Bt Cotton. That
sure beats applying enough insecticide to kill everything.

We have been working on insect control strategies all my life to preserve
beneficial insects. There is no way to raise dryland cotton that averages
300 pound to the acre and spend much money on spraying. Twice in my lifetime
boll weevil have run cotton out of my part of the world. One year the gin
ginned 708 bales of cotton and ten years later it ginned 25,000.

We have been trying to develop a program to eradicate the boll weevil for
40 years and finally enough farmers have gone out business that the ones
left have a big enough investment to cooperate in a early spraying to get
the over wintering weevil and late spraying to kill them before they can
hole up for the winter and agree to binding laws that force spraying if you
have boll weevil. We are even giving a free ride to the organic cotton
growers by not forcing them to spray in the spring and fall and giving them
the choice of either spraying or taking the same money that they would get
from crop insurance to plow up their cotton if they become infested with
boll weevil which is a better option than the non organic farmer who has to
spray or plow up with no payment and crop insurance wouldn't cover it.

The boll weevil eradication program , BT and Round Up Ready cotton change
the whole way cotton is being farmed. By going to no till we convert cotton
from being one of the most environmentally unfriendly crops to doing less
damage to the environment than any crop that requires tillage. It still not
as good for the ground as Alfalfa but it all but stops or may reverse
erosion if there is any water that backs out on the ground that has silt in
it. It reveres the loss of organic matter in the soil. Invertebrates quickly
repopulate the soil.

All you need to do is add water to have a sure winner. And I am working on
that every where I can.

Even if you don't go to no till it reduces the number of trips over the
feild by a third or a fourth. When they come out with cotton that can be
sprayed with Round Up any time it will cut the number of trips even more.

Gordon