The spring edition of CRDC's magazine, Spotlight, takes an indepth look at crop nutrition and disease in preparation for the 2019-20 cotton season. In it, we investigate the results from the More Profit from Nitrogen project, led by CRDC under the Department of Agriculture’s Rural R&D for Profit program, which has provided growers with a greater understanding of how to reduce inputs and increase efficacy. We also look at verticillium wilt and the projects CRDC is investing in to better understand the pathogen, how to predict inoculum levels in the soil and how to manage it - and recognise Dr Linda Smith, the well-deserved recipient of the 2019 CSD Researcher of the Year, for the significant body of work she has undertaken in this area.

In this edition, we also feature several key events focused on innovation and technology, including evokeAG and the Australian Agriculture Immersive Technology Conference where the future of ag was on show. We also welcome new partnerships to take agtech to the field, with the commercialisation of canopy temperature sensors, in which CRDC has been a long-term investor.

As growers try to preserve soil moisture, and many fields sitting fallow, attention also turns to weed control and management of herbicide resistance. The Crop Consultants Australia have some sage advice for us all in their regular column, which is fully backed by our research and industry initiatives to bring this issue to the fore. CRDC has invested heavily in resistance research and we will continue to report on these results as they come to hand. In this issue we feature windmill grass and the evolution of resistance, which will lead us to better management through understanding.