The Binnia Valley is located on the western end of the Liverpool Range approximately 70km south of Mullaley and 20km north of Coolah. In terms of availability of agronomic and technical resources the area is considered quite isolated. The Binnia Valley is noted for high yielding rain fed grain and pulse crops as part of a wider temperate region focused on extensive rangeland livestock production. In the last decade local farmers have taken out the Royal Agricultural Society wheat competition with the winning crop yielding 8t/ha. Similarly with sorghum, the prestigious Premer Shield for the highest yielding regional sorghum crop has come from this area with a yield of 12t/ha. The soils are characterised by heavy self-mulching volcanic clays with altitude ranging from 350m-750m above sea level on farmland rising to 1100m on the adjacent Liverpool range. The 600-700mm annual rainfall distribution is suited to early season establishment and crop growth followed by a reliably dry March/April harvest period. Given the recent success of the trials of dry-land cotton at Willow Tree, the Binnia Valley Trial Group is now willing to experiment with modern cotton cultivars with the view to providing a new crop species in a traditional wheat/canola/sorghum rotation. Cotton offers significant benefits with herbicide resistance and the addition of retained cottonseed into mixed farming systems supporting livestock is viewed particularly favourably. The current annual summer cropping area in the region is approximately 4000ha across 4 landholders. A suggested approach was to plant at least 3 x 30ha fields on long fallowed ground in the region.

The aim of this project was to establish cotton as the preferred summer dry-land crop in a traditional high yielding sorghum and wheat region. The primary barriers to growers growing cotton are the cool minimum temperatures and the risk of ester drift from neighboring properties during the growing season. The purchase of an automatic weather stations and moisture probes in the valley will assist greatly in growers understanding of the aforementioned local factors influencing management and profitability through the crop growth phases. The information from the weather stations will be linked to the OZ Forecast in the region enabling participating and neighboring farmers to monitor wind conditions and also provide a greater understanding of local temperature and moisture conditions on the trail site – thus using information to reduce the resistance by farmers to grow cotton. A yield map will also help growers understand crop nutrient requirements and variability within trial fields with the aim of up-skilling farmers in data interpretation to maximising yield potential. If successful, the cotton industry will benefit by gaining preferred status in summer cropping rotations in a temperate area currently favouring sorghum production. Growers have already commenced discussions with CSD, Cotton Info and Monsanto regarding seed licensing, procurement, varietal choice and crop suitability, demonstrating strong support for this project. Other than to trial in field suitability of cotton, the project aims to give the Binnia Valley Growers Group exposure to cotton industry support networks and research by finishing (during the ginning period) with a tour of CRDC, ACRI, CSD Auscott Gin and potentially a local dry-land grower.