Graduate Student Competitions

Today, the graduate student paper competition took place. Graduate students from various universities submitted research pertaining to cotton agronomy and physiology and were given the opportunity to present their research today. The winner of this contest is awarded $500. I wish I could have entered! I had the chance to sit in on a few presentations and found that their research was quite interesting. One presentation given by a particular student was on the evaluation of cotton varieties double-cropped with wheat and wheat stubble management. Now, being as I am an undergraduate student who is still unfamiliar with cotton I couldn't quite pick up on everything in his presentation. However I do think I gathered his findings correctly which were that double cropped systems yielded less than stale seedbed systems with an April or May planting date but that double cropping is still a viable option. That's just my take on it. Other topics of research from students were the effects of irrigation and plant density on yield quality and within boll yield components. Another was project was done on polyamines during cotton reproductive development as affected by nodal position. I only named a few research projects out many presented. Even though I'm unaware of the exact content of their research I can attest to obviousness of the hard work that each student put into their research and for that I commend each presenter.