Texas A&M University graduate students grabbed honors during the recent 2012 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in Orlando, Fla. There are 13 cotton technical conferences that convene at this annual forum. 

The speaker/presentation competition at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences is designed to encourage outstanding graduate work in the various disciplines, including cotton breeding, and to promote graduate student attendance. 

The Beltwide Cotton Improvement Technical Conference’s Graduate Student Oral Presentation Competition was swept by Texas A&M graduate students Kolbyn Joy, Artesia, N.M., who took first place; Trey Cutts, Marietta, Ga., second; and Rosa Jauregui, Buenos Aires, Argentina, third. 

Joy received $300 for the presentation “Generation Means Analysis of Fiber Length and Fiber Bundle Strength Using Extra Long Staple Upland, Mutated Upland, and Interspecific Hybrid Germplasm.”

Cutts received $200 for “Parental Selection for Initiation of Segregation Analysis and Improvement of Mutation-Based Herbicide Resistance in Cotton,” and Jauregui received $100 for “Introgression of the Ultra-Low Gossypol Seed Trait into Elite Cotton Germplasm.” 

In the Cotton Physiology Graduate Student Poster Competition, Zach Eder of Victoria won the $200 second-place award for “Cotton Leaf Grade as Influenced by Cotton Defoliation and Varieties.”