Sandy Stewart, LSU AgCenter, Dean Lee Research Station, 8105 Tom Bowman Drive, Alexandria, LA 71302
In recent years the number of seed companies and entities offering commercial cotton varieties has grown, as has the number of cotton varieties available on the market. These increases are partly due to the advent of transgenic technology and intense competition in the cotton seed business. These increases have resulted in more choices of cotton varieties for producers, and also increased activity in field development and testing of varieties. Therefore, there is no shortage of available cotton variety trial information. In addition to Official Variety Tests (OVTs) conducted by universities, possible sources of information could be research and extension on-farm trials, extension demonstrations, company development trials, germplasm screening tests, farmer and consultant trials, and simply testimonials. These various sources can and will exhibit a wide variation in the number of entries, agronomic management, plot size, replication, seedcotton handling, ginning, and reporting of results. Therefore, a thorough understanding of how variety trial results should be interpreted and assimilated is one of the keys to making an informed variety selection decision.
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