![Cecil Plains grower Tyson Armitage. Pictures by Brandon Long Cecil Plains grower Tyson Armitage. Pictures by Brandon Long](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/139894683/6bfe5b70-cc7d-4559-85fa-af36d972ebb0.jpg/r720_560_3369_2160_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A new variety of GM cotton is shaping up to be a winner for cotton growers in Queensland.
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Bayer's new XtendFlex trait is currently being trialled across about 10,000 hectares in every major cotton valley across the state and in NSW.
The technology, which has been grown in trial quantities for a few years now, follows on from the likes of Ingard, introduced into Australia in 1996, Bollgard 2 (2004) and Bollgard 3 (2016).
At Cecil Plains farm Wamara, the technology has been trialled for three seasons.
For the 2022-23 season, starting in late October, four XtendFlex trial varieties were planted alongside two Bollgard 3 varieties for comparison, while one XtendFlex variety (trial name CSX3141B3XF) was seeded to a broader area of 40 hectares.
This is in addition to their 370ha of Sicot 606B3F and Sicot 746B3F.
They're showing positive signs of better disease resistance, better quality and a wider spectrum of weed control.
"The biggest thing for us is always yield at the end of the day, but these varieties have got lots of other added benefits as well," Tyson Armitage said.
"Across the industry, whether you use it or not, if the yield's the same and you've got better disease, better quality, and added chemistry, across the board, it's a welcome addition to most farmers.
"Increases in disease resistance are always welcome. We keep finding new diseases, so with each new variety, we seem to get better with those."
Tyson, who farms with his parents Stuart and Maxine, will harvest the crop next month and are keen to see the results.
![Meteora Agronomic Consulting director Matthew Holding and Cecil Plains grower Tyson Armitage. Meteora Agronomic Consulting director Matthew Holding and Cecil Plains grower Tyson Armitage.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/139894683/29050d2f-a0f4-487e-b27d-363fbebf63db.jpg/r0_0_4000_2249_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
XtendFlex cotton is the first cotton trait developed to be tolerant to over-the-top applications of glyphosate, dicamba and glufosinate-ammonium herbicides, providing flexibility to manage a wider-spectrum of difficult-to-control and resistant weeds in-crop.
Cotton Seed Distributors uses the trait in its varieties which it sells to farmers.
XtendFlex cotton is not currently commercially available. It will be released commercially once all relevant regulatory approvals are in place.
It is understood there will be a 50,000 - 60,000ha opportunity to grow the new cotton next season, depending on what the APVMA decides regarding dicamba labelling and permits.
Picking a winner
Cotton Seed Distributors extension and development agronomist Sam Lee said the variety Tyson was growing on a wider scale, CSX3141B3XF, had several benefits, including resistance to cotton bunchy top, which had been detected on the Downs this season.
In terms of yield, 3141 and CSX4133B3XF topped the Cecil Plains trial last season with 10.98 bales and 10.97 bales per hectare respectively. Sicot 746B3F yielded 10.9 bales a hectare.
"The results we're seeing are either very similar, if not slightly better than the current varieties we have, but if you couple that with a bit better fibre quality in some of these varieties, the cotton bunchy top resistance, and possibly looking like some better disease tolerances to verticillium and fusarium, along with the chemical technology able to be put over the top, things are looking pretty good at this stage from our perspective," Mr Lee said.
Mr Lee said the results from the trial, along with others, would be published and then the breeders would make their decisions on which varieties to bring to market.
China approves the new cottonseed
In a further win for the technology, China recently approved XtendFlex cottonseed for import.
Bayer CropScience territory business manager, Toowoomba, Michael Fing said this freed up growers.
"When Tyson and the other growers planted it this year, it was under stewarded conditions at the start," Mr Fing said.
"We didn't have approval to import the seed into China, so all those fields had to be geographically segregated or have a pollen trap planted around them.
"[In previous seasons] they had to do segregated picking and picker clean downs.
"All those restrictions are gone now, so we just pick it as per normal. It can go to the gins and can go to China for export markets."