Bollgard III will soon replace Bollgard II in the paddocks of cotton producers Australia wide when it completes the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) approval process in coming weeks.
Monsanto Australia sales lead Mark Dawson said Bollgard III had just passed seed import approvals in China and Taiwan with Korea the final step.
“We don’t anticipate any problems for the three gene variety in the remainder of the approval process,” he said.
“The new variety will be fully commercially available next season- we’ve planted 17,500 hectares of trials and the yields I’ve seen are at least as good if not better than Bollgard II.”
With the first commercial trial of Bollgard III nearing completion on Greg Austin’s property, Kooroowatha, Theodore, results are already looking positive.
Despite 250 millimetres of rain in the last week impacting heavily on yield quality, Mr Austin said the benefits of Bollgard III spoke for themselves.
“Unlike Bollgard II which forced us into a six week planting window with a start and end date, Bollgard III has no planting window at all,” he said.
“Having three genes gives the new variety greater resistance to bugs- with Bollgard II there was always some bugs that got through and mated with others that also got through to become immune.
“We’ve had to plant pigeon peas as a trap crop so that the bugs breed out of that and mate with any that get through Bollgard III, therefore minimising chances of immunity.”
Cotton Australia Dawson and Callide Valley regional manager, Bronwyn Christensen, said the issue with a planting window in the Theodore area was variation in watering systems.
“Many are on a channel system so they’re fairly limited as to when they can get the best use out of their water that they pay a lot of money for,” she said.
“Then we’ve got growers further downstream of the river who use river water and they haven’t got the same restrictions so there’s always bound to be disputes.”
Mr Dawson said the Bollgard III global launch would take place at Narrabri, NSW, next week.
“This is the first time Monsanto has launched a new variety outside the US so it goes to show the level of investment in research and development in agriculture in Australia,” he said.
The probability of increases in yield due to less pest damage combined with the Roundup ready nature of Bollgard III is presenting the new strain as a viable and attractive forward step for the cotton industry in the minds of growers and industry personnel.
