ThryvOn Cotton Gets Green Light for '23
Bayer's ThryvOn Cotton Passes Regulatory Hurdles Ahead of Planting Season
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (DTN) -- North Carolina cotton grower Kip Roberson hoped Bayer's newest cotton technology, ThryvOn, would clear all remaining regulatory hurdles in time for him to plant more acres to it in 2023.
On Tuesday, he got his wish.
"We are thrilled to announce the commercial availability of ThryvOn technology, the industry's first cotton biotech trait of its kind," said Lindsey Battle, Bayer trait marketing and launch lead for regional crops, in a Feb. 7 company news release. "Tarnished plant bug and thrips species have become some of the most economically detrimental pests in U.S. cotton farming. This new technology provides built-in protection against these pests along with providing growers additional options and flexibility in how they manage their fields. We are excited to provide growers greater access to this technology in 2023 and beyond."
Tarnished plant bugs are piercing-sucking insects that feed on cotton squares, flowers and young bolls. Injured squares and bolls will often shed from the plant, leading to reduced yield potential. Thrips also feast on young cotton plants with piercing-sucking mouthparts. They attack leaves, leaf buds and small squares, which can damage plants and cause loss of the plant terminal. According to the Mississippi State University Cotton Crop Loss Report, yield losses and insecticide application expenses while combatting these pests totaled $351 million in 2021.
The ThryvOn cotton Bt trait, MON 88702, expresses the protein mCry51a2. It protects young cotton plants from thrips species through oviposition reduction or deterring the pests from laying eggs on plants and reproducing. For tarnished plant bugs, the protein causes mortality in small nymphs, but not 100% mortality. It can reduce future generations of the insects.
According to Bayer's news release, the ThryvOn technology reduced average season-long injury from thrips and plant bugs during the 2021 and 2022 Bayer Ground Breakers Field Trial program, allowing for a stronger start to cotton plants and improved yield potential.
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In 2022, Roberson, who tends roughly 2,400 acres total, planted around 600 acres of ThryvOn cotton on his family's North Carolina farm as part of the field trial program. He was pleased with the technology's performance.
"Some of my neighbors were having trouble with thrips, but I never sprayed an ounce of Orthene or anything for thrips on the ThryvOn acreage," he told DTN at the Deltapine New Product Evaluator (NPE) Summit this past December. "On the rest of my cotton, we did Admire Pro and Velum in furrow, and I only had 30 acres that I had to come back and spray for thrips."
While a reduction in the number of insecticide applications offers a tangible economic benefit, Roberson said the technology also offered his farm an intangible one.
"In a normal year, you get about half your crop planted, and then you have to stop planting for a day or two and go catch up on spraying to get those early season thrips," he explained. "With the ThryvOn cotton, I'm not having to go back and spray, so I can finish planting and then do what I need to do."
Bayer stated that ThryvOn technology will be stacked with Bollgard 3 XtendFlex technology, which contains three Bt traits targeting caterpillar pests, as well as tolerance to dicamba, glyphosate and glufosinate.
According to Brian Leake, Bayer product communications lead, ThryvOn will be widely available across the cotton belt and in all geographies. As is normal with any new product launch, there may be some limited volume of newer varieties, he wrote in an email to DTN.
At the NPE Summit in December, Deltapine announced its 2023 class cotton varieties, including two ThryvOn varieties. They included DP 2328 B3TXF, a mid-maturity variety offering moderate resistance to bacterial blight and suited for the Mid-South, Southeast and Upper Gulf Coast and Brazos Bottoms regions of Texas; and DP 2317 B3TXF, an early maturity variety offering outstanding fiber quality potential and bacterial blight resistance for the Mid-South and Texas markets.
Read previous DTN ThryvOn stories:
Jason Jenkins can be reached at jason.jenkins@dtn.com
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