Institutions don’t last 100 years without dedicated employees
Oct 22, 2009 10:15 AM, By Ron Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff
Chronology of the center’s cotton breeding program:
• 1910s – Evaluation of diverse germplasm
• 1920s – Discovery of mutants significant to High Plains adaptation
• 1930s – Storm proof lines
• 1940s – Collaboration with Texas Tech on fiber and spinning
• 1950s – Bacterial blight resistant lines and Blightmaster release
• 1960s – Drought tolerant and early maturing lines: CA 491
• 1970s – Abiotic stress resistant lines: Ca 1012
• 1980s – Plains cotton Improvement Program and focus on fiber quality improvement: 116 germplasm releases for high fiber strength
• 1990s – 161 releases for fiber quality, 47 releases for Verticillium wilt tolerance, three releases with cold tolerance, three releases with drought tolerance
• 2002 – Super fiber quality nursery and 15 releases with minimum 1.25 inch length and 36 grams per tex
• 2003 – Greenhouse complex for wild cotton screening; thrips, drought, salt aphids, nematodes, Verticillium wilt, and seedling diseases; 11 releases for yield component and 10 for cold tolerance
• 2005-2009 – Discovery of new resistance sources for Verticillium wilt, thrips, salt and black root rot; 10 releases for super fiber quality and two for nematode resistance.
Moore said 356 Upland and 11 Pima cultivars were released from 1970 through 1995.
John Gannaway oversaw the Plains Cotton Improvement Program, which began in 1982 as a renewed focus on fiber quality in adapted germplasm. Moore said the effort was crucial for the High Plains because of the perceived low quality of cotton from the region, adoption of rotor-type spinning, and new premiums for fiber properties.
“The effort was producer-initiated with a regional check-off to address fiber quality issues in the High Plains,” Moore said. Check-off is voluntary and administered by Plains Cotton Growers, Inc. The program funds breeding, systems variety trials, disease and spinning research and allows for a long-term, focused research effort.
Gannaway retired in 2009 and turned the program over to Jane Dever. Extension agronomist Randy Boman conducts the systems variety trials, which help farmers identify good varieties for specific growing conditions.
Cotton research has included crop residue disposal, planting, cultivation and harvest.
“Refinement of harvest research conducted by Alan Brashears at USDA-ARS led to improved efficiency and quality, especially bark reduction,” Moore said. “Ginning research at USDA-ARS allowed preservation of improved quality developed in breeding.”
Moore said Roy Baker, Gary Barker and Weldon Laird were instrumental in ginning research.
He said improving cotton genetics and production techniques is crucial not only for the region but for the U.S. cotton industry. “High Plains production accounts for more than 30 percent of all U.S. cotton,” he said. “And today, the High Plains is recognized as a source of high quality fiber.”
He said collaboration has been key with cooperative research from “breeding to spinning” from AgriLife, Texas Tech, Fiber and Biopolymer Institute, Cotton Incorporated, and USDA-ARS.
But efforts have not been directed just on sorghum and cotton. One of the first research efforts targeted grape production. The first grapes were bearing by 1911 and Thompson’s seedless grapes were available in 1915.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Bill Lipe initiated viticulture research, evaluating varieties and rootstocks, vine spacing effects on vigor and quality, cold hardiness and evaporative cooling to delay budburst for frost avoidance.
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