Research being conducted as part of project DAQ1401 – “Strengthening the Central Highlands Cotton Production System” has identified an opportunity for reducing peak summer climatic risks associated with either heatwaves or cloudy wet weather through the investigation of tactics for bringing forward boll setting through earlier crop sowing. Typically cotton is sown on the Central Highlands from September onwards as the risk of cool weather recedes rapidly. August is generally considered to be too cool to reliably plant, however an analysis of historical temperature records suggest that if temperatures could be raised by 2-3oC, planting may be reliable and allow earlier crop establishment.

During the 2013/14 season we began examining the potential to use biodegradable plastic films to raise soil temperatures and allow cotton establishment during August. The preliminary results from this research demonstrated that clear films raised soil temperatures by 2-4°C and enabled more rapid germination and early season crop development. However, these films were laid by hand which significantly curtailed the ability to manage treatment plots to best exploit these benefits.

It became clear after the first season that the only way to test the potential of biodegradable films for cotton production would be to increase the scale of deployment. This would require equipment to lay film post sowing, and the manufacturing of a film to suit the machine and cotton hills, which included slots that enabled cotton seedling emergence through the film upon germination.

A capital request was made to build and purchase a 3 point linkage film layer designed to lay film on cotton hills.

The objective of this capital project was to purchase a plastic film layer that was customised to lay biodegradable film upon cotton hills for to enable commercial scale trials for DAQ1401C. After some modification, the film layer has proven to be a useful capital item, not only for DAQ1401, but also for biodegradable film studies in other locations, including Darlington Point for use by Heath McWhirter (Elders) to conduct similar trial work during September 2014, and Moree by Michael Braunack (CSIRO) during October 2014.