Understanding the Geospatial Performance of Cotton Varieties Across University and Seed Company Evaluation Trials in the United States.

Every year hundreds of universities, extension services, seed companies, and seed associations across the US cotton growing areas conduct independent trials to compare cotton variety performance. The intent of the trials is to provide growers with information for selecting the best varieties for their growing areas and agronomic practices.  Extensive information on the agronomic practices and field characteristics of each of these trials is recorded.   By accumulating the multi-year individual variety yield data, along with agronomic and field characteristics of each trail, one can associate this information to the nearest latitude and longitude coordinates and employ advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to study the geographic dispersion of cotton variety yield across the United States.  Using interactive filters one can isolate locations into groups of specific water management regimes, planting dates, soil textures, and other yield factors.  While many of these trials lack replication and other experimental requirements, the sheer volume and diversity of agronomics makes a comparative evaluation of varieties using the data useful. This report will highlight results using an internally complied repository of Cotton trial data for the US and results of analysis performed using our proprietary GIS software.  The paper provides evidence that today’s elite cotton varieties have superior performance regardless of the geographic area and across a diversity of agronomic practices.