The 2015 Australian Cotton Production Manual is a critical reference tool for cotton growers: a one-stop-shop of on-farm cotton production information.

This project used a series of communication processes to structure an engagement strategy between CRDC and Crop Consultants Australia or CCA and the wider cotton industry R&D organisations. The objectives were to facilitate the delivery of cotton industry funded R&D results to growers via crop consultant members of the CCA as a key information conduit – and to create a strategic engagement process that would last 3-5 years through a process sustained by a robust business model where CCA could ultimately be regarded as an ‘extension agency of the cotton industry’.

This process was to be complemented by a wider agribusiness engagement strategy to secure similar support of the wider agribusiness sectors operating in the cotton industry. This strategy is proposed for development during 2010/11.

The project resulted in a roundtable meeting on 21 May 2010 between CRDC, Cotton Catchments CRC and Cotton Australia, as well as CCA, to agree on a series of tasks and actions that had been developed during the course of the project. These are proposed to be implemented during 2010/11 to commence delivery of R&D results to growers via CCA.

The elements of this new CCA business model include – a web portal allowing access to research results; re-development of the current 2x Annual CCA Forums to increase their effectiveness and responsiveness to industry issues; ensuring interim R&D results are available; trialling new methods of consultant interaction / communication; development of an Annual Research Review to build on the Annual Forums; the CCA Annual Survey; an Annual Cotton Meetings Calendar; structuring of greater collaboration between GRDC and CRDC; input / feedback on R&D priorities / projects; input / feedback at the development stage of R&D projects; supporting field trials and accessing the results; benchmarking / evaluation to support understanding the effectiveness of the projects and supporting implementation of myBMP.

The project resulted in a series of recommendations to maintain the momentum – that

Commissioned Projects are developed; that PRPs are defined for the remaining functions; that key personnel are defined to maintain the role of the project leader (who has acted as an outsider looking in with a singular role to meet the project objectives and be accountable for doing so through strong robust communication); that there is a strong need to explore the potential for engagement of GRDC through, and in collaboration with, the Northern Grower Alliance to structure collaboration between cotton and grains initiatives; that is critical to recognise that should the cotton R&D sector not elect to continue the initiatives created during this project – or CCA not elect to continue – then each sector would lose considerable credibility with the other (noting that CCA has some 140 current members and a potential pool of 300 members that could become cotton industry R&D outcome deliverers or advocates direct to cotton growers); that it is imperative for the engagement that has commenced between CRDC and CCA to continue in a timely and organised manner and that the wider agribusiness engagement strategy must be implemented through.

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.

The use of pyrethroid insecticides on Helicoverpa armigera susceptible crops has been restricted to only 6 weeks each summer since 1983, when resistance to pyrethroids was diagnosed. The long term management of resistance in H.armigera is based on the hypothesis that after pyrethroid spraying ceases, resistance will decrease, partly due to dilution by susceptible immigrants from unsprayed refugia. The long term liability of the strategy will be favoured by the refugia remaining uncontaminated by resistant H.armigera. Success of the strategy will be enhanced if resistant individuals have a higher overwintering mortality than susceptibles. Project DAN 36 L aimed to test these assumptions by determining the frequency of pyrethroid resistant H.armigera from areas where insecticide use was infrequent and to test the resistance status of the overwintering and spring populations of H.armigera . This project was a collaborative effort between researchers from NSW Agriculture & Fisheries and CSIRO Division of Entomology.

The Australian cotton industry has had in place since 1997 a voluntary environmental management system - its Best Management Practice (BMP) Program - that has successfully overcome the limitations of a purely regulatory approach to natural resource management. The BMP Program focuses on the management of pesticides and petrochemicals, soil and water, and native vegetation.

The industry is looking to build on the success of the BMP Program, and is in the process of negotiating for it to provide an alternative means for cotton farmers to comply with any existing or new regulations governing how land and water is managed in Queensland.

Reviews of the BMP Program and of its outcomes highlight that it has led to a decline in pesticides used on cotton farms, a decline in pesticides found in riverine environments, improved stormwater management, improved farm management and a reduction in the regulatory burden on cotton farmers This paper will outline the structure of the cotton industry's BMP Program, highlighting the factors that have been critical to its success, including a detailed discussion on the rationale behind the partnership approach, between the industry and regulators, seen as necessary to achieve inground change. The paper will then touch on the benefits the Australian cotton industry sees in working with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on its 'Better Cotton initiative.

This project is a long-running one concerned with breeding varieties adapted to Australian conditions, growing practices and markets. During the interval of this particular grant much progress occurred with the development of the original Siokras and Sicala's from a breeding program that began in 1974. The development of Siokra has been widely regarded as a noteworthy achievement since it marks the first time anywhere that an okia leaf variety has been successfully and widely grown commercially. The significance of the okra leaf has been that it has provided some tolerance to Heliothis and considerable tolerance to mites. Titls pest tolerance has resulted, where keen attention has been paid to pest management, in the savings of two or even more sprays. Very importantly both Siokra and Sicala had genes for bacterial blight resistance incorporated and had ready marketable fibre. These properties led to their readily acceptance by cotton farmers and they soon comprised between 65-75% of total Australian cotton plantings.

This talk is heavily dependant on slides, so the following 1s really only a &quote;background&quote; paper. My approach when giving such a talk to canegrowers, has been to devote the first half to explaining why it is essential that an industry be seen to be environmentally sensitive. If you, the grower ( be it cane or cotton ) don't appreciate that need, you are not likely to listen with any degree of interest. I've heard Maree McCaskill, Executive Director of the Australian Cotton Foundation speak at a Canegrowers' conference, and imagine many of you are already aware of the public relations benefits of such an approach.

Southern Valley irrigators recently sought funding to assist with an education and outreach program to assist with two issues which had been identified in their region. The two issues chosen to tackle were:

1. Spray drift – this is a very topical issue throughout the cotton growing regions and therefore thought it would be beneficial to continue the education process throughout the southern valleys.

2. Irrigation – Water as the most precious resource, and labour one of the most expensive inputs into production systems was considered to of great benefit for growers. The plan was to expose growers to a range of irrigation management plans and farm setups in an aim to showcase efficiency gains that could be made within their own businesses.

A series of workshops were co-ordinated to educate growers and industry about spray drift. These workshops were rolled out in Deniliquin, Griffith, Barellan and Lake Cargelligo. A total of 183 participants attended.

In collaboration with IREC, a bus trip to Queensland was arranged. The tour north was an opportunity for people both from the cotton industry, as well as other irrigated enterprises to go and look at other farming operations. This allows growers to take ideas that may be applicable to their situations at home to help improve their production systems and ensure tlong term sustainability and profitability.

This project, led by the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture focused on the use of data and

autonomous technology in helping farmers make informed decisions and improve their

irrigation efficiency on pastures. The project collected data on water and energy usage as well as

pasture production from five commercial pivot irrigated sites across the North and Northwest of

Tasmania over three irrigation seasons from 2015 to 2018. Using the data, the project team

worked with the farmers involved to make changes improving water use efficiency and

monitored each site to measure the success of these changes.

The major objective of the project was to identify key irrigation system modifications and

practices that could be efficiently and effectively adopted by dairy farmers in achieving

improvements in energy and water usage and increasing pasture production per ML of irrigation

applied. A second objective was the development and testing of an autonomous sensor based

pressurised irrigation scheduling system that could improve energy, water and labour inputs.

Each pivot’s area was mapped to determine variability in soil types and elevation. Soil samples

obtained provided the soils’ water holding capacity and other details of major soil properties.

Weekly pasture growth rates were collected from each of the sites during each irrigation season

using a rising plate meter. As part of the programs management there was no interaction with

the farmer’s during the first irrigation season (2015/16). At the end of the first season,

workshops were held with all participants to discuss what had been found with the energy and

water use and pasture production, on each farm and to provide feedback on possible methods of

improving the management of each irrigation system. During the 2016/17 irrigation season, a

weekly update of rainfall and evapotranspiration for each site was provided to the participating

farmers along with free access to soil moisture and temperature data that could assist with each

properties irrigation scheduling.

In addition to providing weekly rainfall and evaporation data in the 2017/18 season, weekly

discussions were held with each farmer to assist them with their irrigation scheduling decisions.

On one of the five commercial sites, cameras were installed to assess the ability of cameras to

measure pasture growth rates autonomously, and assist the development of the autonomous

irrigation control platform (VARIwise). The camera technology was tested in the 2016/17

season and the VARIwise control platform tested during the 2017/18 season and compared to

both flat rate and variable rate water applications based on VRI prescription maps developed

from electromagnetic conductivity (EM38) and elevation data from the site.

Field days and workshops were held across Tasmania as well as in Victoria, Western Australia,

South Australia and New South Wales, during the three year project. A series of presentations

were developed for use at field days, workshops and online webinars. A factsheet was

developed on Variable Rate irrigation and a number of short videos were developed and

uploaded to YouTube for extension and training purposes. There were also a large number of

media interactions including radio and TV presentations and publication of project outcomes in

newspaper and magazine articles, both in Tasmania and nationally.

The Australian cotton industry has been practising curative conventional insecticide resistance management for thirteen years now. initially it was targeted at pyrethroid and endosulfan resistance management in Helicoverpa armiger&quote; but more recently has also included other conventional insecticide groups (such as the organophosphates and carbamates) and acaricides for control of Tetranychus urticae. In addition, the imminent commercialisation of transgenic cotton expressing the CrylAc insecticidal crystal protein from Bacillus thuringiensis, has necessitated the introduction of a preventative Resistance Management Strategy. This paper aims to give a brief history of the Australian conventional Insecticide Resistance Management (IRM) Strategy and an outline of the proposed Resistance Management Strategy for Bt transgenic cotton.