Full Text PDF Fluctuating commodity prices and increasing input costs force growers to look for ways to remain competitive, sustainable, and profitable. The vast amount of genetic technology included in cotton seed today has resulted in high upfront costs for seeds that typically can exceed 10 to 15% or more of the total input costs in South Carolina. Additionally, the availability and use of precision planter technologies have increased across farms in the southeastern U.S. The objective of this research was to determine if variable rate seeding in cotton can increase profitability. Field experiments were conducted during 2017 and 2019 to 2022 near Blackville, SC to evaluate variable rate seeding in cotton. Each year, six to eight uniform seeding rates (24,700-197,600 seeds ha-1) were planted in addition to a variable rate treatment. Results from experiments indicated that variable rate seeding performed as well as the best uniform seeding rate and no one seeding rate provided a maximum lint yield or profit across site-years. However, depending on the uniform seeding rate selected or the implementation of variable rate seeding, lint yield varied from 558 to 1564 kg ha-1 and profitability varied between 756 to 3569 $ ha-1 among treatments. Based on the results from this research, variable rate seeding in cotton did not improve profitability over certain uniform seeding rates.
