Jerry Rovey grows Upland varieties along the Gila River in central Arizona alongside alfalfa, wheat, and silage corn. Since 2008, Rovey has partnered with Deltapine cotton and its New Product Evaluator (NPE) program to test new varieties under desert conditions.

About 10 years ago Rovey pushed one of those full-season DP varieties with some extra water to yield over seven bales per acre in one plot.

The advent of Bt cotton and technologies like ThryvOn have helped cotton farmers control insects. Coupled with useful advice from Land Grant entomologists, Rovey can control whitefly and lygus much easier because of an understanding of how beneficial insects work. That wasn’t always the case.

“Before Bt cotton we were spraying every four or five days for the Pink Bollworm,” he said. “Sometimes we’d have to spray every three days. We were killing everything, including the beneficial insects.”

“We try to use a minimum amount of chemicals because they’re expensive,” he continued. “We’re also faced with air quality and dust control issues, so we have to be careful.”

 An average season for Rovey will see 3-4 bale yields of Upland cotton.