Australian cotton fibre is exported into a dynamic and competitive market and we need to ensure an ever-improving product to meet the demand from spinners. This pressure has led to fibre quality becoming just as an important factor as cotton yield for maintaining industry viability. Crop agronomy practices such as choice of variety, nutrition management, irrigation management, disease insect and weed management can significantly affect fibre quality. In addition, seasonal or environmental factors out of the control of the growers can also contribute to reductions in quality. CSIRO Plant Industry has fibre quality as one of our major focus subjects for plant breeding and agronomic management. This project aimed at strengthening/enhancing the cotton research efforts in delivering initiatives that focus on management aspects of fibre quality (other than breeding and processing). This project aimed to fill a gap that exists in developing management strategies in the field that optimise cotton fibre properties. The specific aims are: 1. Targeted research to improve the understanding of the effects of different climate, plant and management factors on fibre properties.

2. Utilise agronomy and physiology research tools such as OZCOT simulation to develop guidelines to assist in the management of cotton to optimise yield and fibre quality.

3. Strengthen agronomic research to meet the needs of the ‘Fibre to Fabric’ initiative. This project was successful in providing important technical and operating resources for research and extension into cotton fibre quality in-field management issues through:

• Demonstrating that modifying sowing date for Bollgard II can offer a ‘systems solution’ to provide benefits in terms of maintaining yield and improving fibre quality.

• Demonstrating that manipulation of plant population in both conventional and Bollgard II systems does not lead to improvements in both yield and quality.

• Providing further knowledge of the interactions of Bollgard II and row configurations in dryland cotton systems and their impacts on both yield and quality. A spreadsheet was developed that compared the yield, quality and cost associated with different row configurations and is being used by CSD for their dryland workshops.

• Developing a functional relationship between temperature and fibre micronaire which was used to improve the fibre quality predictive capability of OZCOT.

• Collecting data that will help to understand the impact of cloudy conditions and variations in temperature on fibre micronaire.

• Supporting the ‘Linking farming systems with textile performance’ project.

• Raising the awareness of the effects of climate and management on fibre quality through the fibre to fabric road show and Geelong course, FIBREpak introduction, and various other industry forums. Ongoing on-farm research into fibre quality has been supported through the project ‘Linking farming systems with textile performance’ supported by CSIRO, the Cotton CRC and CRDC. Along with new on-farm research, Michael Bange, Greg Constable and Jane Caton will continue to support the provision of new initiatives and resources for the post harvest research component of this project.

This project was a main source of technical support and operating funds for Dr Michael Bange who also had significant responsibilities for supervision of Cotton Decision Support initiatives. Dr Bange maintained a research portfolio in crop physiology, agronomy and farming systems across the industry during the course of this project.