The summer edition of CRDC's magazine, Spotlight, focuses on research results and science-based best practices to help cotton growers successfully produce their 2018-19 crop, and contribute to sustaining the responsible production of Australian cotton.

In this edition, we feature technology and blue-sky approaches to solving recalcitrant issues, such as disease, spray drift, weed and insect pest resistance, with CRDC focused on seeking more efficient and effective solutions to these challenges.

This edition also includes articles on the CottonInfo team, the Australian Rural Leadership Program participants, our Nuffield scholars and the Rural Womens' Award recipients: showcasing the talented people of cotton. We also feature CRDC's major achievements and impacts from the 2018-19 year, highlighted in the Annual Report summary. And we extend a fond farewell to outgoing CRDC Executive Director, Bruce Finney, who steps down from his position after 14 years at the helm.

Soil is an invaluable finite resource, and there is considerable interest in monitoring the status of soil, as well as the direction and degree of any changes in soil attributes. Land use change and agricultural management have the capacity to alter the properties of soil considerably over relatively short time scales, however, it is less clear how recent climatic shifts observed throughout the globe will influence changes in soil condition. In the semi-arid regions of eastern Australia, there has been an expansion of irrigated cotton production, which is considered to be a very intensive land use with vigorous management practices. These regions have also been exposed to significant fluctuations in rainfall patterns in the last decade or so. While these semi-arid areas are agriculturally important, they often possess distinct soil characteristics, such as high levels of alkalinity, salinity, sodicity, inorganic carbon, and low levels of organic carbon. This body of work focuses on monitoring the change in soil condition in the semi-arid irrigated cotton-growing district of Hillston in the lower Lachlan River valley catchment in south-west, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Data from soil cores extracted to 1.5 m depth from two soil surveys performed in 2002 and 2015 were used to monitor the change in several important soil properties – pH, electrical conductivity, exchangeable sodium percentage, organic carbon, and inorganic carbon. It is anticipated that the significant shifts in land use and rainfall patterns could have altered the condition of soil during this period.

Rather than using traditional digital soil mapping techniques, such as regression kriging or machine learning approaches, this study focuses on using linear mixed models, which are particularly advantageous for monitoring changes in soil properties as they can account for correlation in space and time. In this work, the focus is on using bivariate linear mixed models (BLMMs) and multivariate linear mixed models (MLMMs) to create digital maps of the various soil properties. In the BLMM approach, one model is used to predict a soil property from both time points at a single depth, which results in improved soil maps that have a logical connection through time. The MLMM approach is similar to the BLMM approach, but multiple depths are also be modelled simultaneously in addition, which results in more coherent connections between the different sampling depths. Another strong advantage of using these approaches to monitor soil is that the correlation between the monitoring periods is used to improve the sensitivity of the model to detect statistically significant changes. Traditional laboratory methods of measuring certain soil properties can be expensive and laborious. This study used visible near infrared (VisNIR) spectroscopic techniques to rapidly predict soil exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP), soil organic carbon (SOC) content, and soil inorganic carbon (SIC) content to overcome this.

The role of public-sector agricultural research, development and extension (R,D&E) investment as a starting point for innovation and productivity growth in agriculture is well understood, with numerous international studies highlighting the linkages between long-term publicly-funded agricultural R,D&E investment and agricultural productivity growth. Less well understood, however, are the linkages between private-sector agricultural R,D&E investment and agricultural productivity growth. This arises in part because of the shorter history of private-sector agricultural R,D&E investment, but also due to the lack of clarity surrounding the motivations for, and the nature and extent of private-sector investment. Further complicating this lack of clarity is the multinational nature of much private-sector agricultural R,D&E investment, with many of the investment decisions made in the context of global market opportunities, rather than national agriculture sector priorities.

For a relatively small and agriculturally unique market such as Australia, the engagement of the private sector in agricultural R,D&E investment is essential in order to maximise national agricultural R,D&E efforts, but also challenging due to the lack of information about such investment. The research reported here had the objective of developing a better information base about private-sector agricultural R,D&E investment in Australia, in order to find ways to incentivise such investment, with the longer-term goal of optimising national agricultural productivity growth.he research reported here aimed to obtain a better understanding of role of the private sector in agricultural research, development and extension (R,D&E) in Australia, with a particular focus on those factors or policies that are likely to enhance the role of the private sector in agricultural R,D&E.

The Australian Farm Institute previously conducted research into private-sector investment in agricultural R,D&E in Australia in 2011. The focus of the previous research was on quantifying investment by the private sector, and obtaining a better understanding of the nature of that investment.

Understanding where and how investment in agricultural R,D&E is occurring, from both public and private sources, is important for the formation of good public policy and for strategy development for private entities. This data is needed to ensure that critical capacity is retained in vital research areas and that appropriate collaborative efforts are identified to maximise the effectiveness of research and development (R&D) investment. The opaque nature of R&D classifications for statistical purposes and the poorly defined boundaries between food processing (and other industrial processes) and production within the food and agriculture supply chain continue to frustrate efforts to understand investment trends and potential areas requiring additional investment.

Economic and social concerns are driving an increased focus on water use in irrigated dairying in south east Australia. Engineering improvements in irrigation supply infrastructure have substantially increased the ability of irrigators to control both the timing and amount of water delivered to crops, and industry water saving options are focused on improving the ability of farmers to match irrigation water use to plant water requirements.

This project combines recent and forecast weather data with satellite imagery to provide local, web based crop and location specific measures of reference evapotranspiration (ETref) and crop coefficient (Kc) for use in irrigation scheduling. The project uses the recently developed satellite/weather based irrigation information system (SBIIS) which can determine crop water requirement at paddock scale over large areas and successfully demonstrates its ability to provide reliable and affordable automated irrigation scheduling on dairy farms in Victoria.

Irrigators require simple and affective scheduling tools that allow them to capitalise on the farm and regional irrigation infrastructure investments enabling the minimisation of water use and attendant labour and energy costs. The project was designed to provide irrigation information that affordably matches on-farm irrigation supply with crop water demand over large production areas and negates the need for irrigators to independently acquire the technical skills needed for precision irrigation practices.

The objectives of this project have been:

1. To develop SBIIS irrigation performance pilots to be implemented on commercial dairy farms.

2. To implement and demonstrate to irrigators and irrigation service providers automation of irrigation events triggered by SBIIS.

3. To deliver SBIIS based web service that is available to irrigation industries.

The 2018 Australian Cotton Production Manual is a critical reference tool for cotton growers: a one-stop-shop of on-farm cotton production information.

This project supported growers to see a different irrigation solutions being implemented on farm. Growers reluctance to adopt new technologies could be overcome by visiting early adopters and listening to their first hand practical experience.

Often irrigation systems are showcased in other regions, limiting Central Queensland exposure to opportunities. The project aimed to broaden grower perspectives on irrigation tools, whilst providing networking opportunities peer support and mentoring for growers who have implemented new technologies. This project also provided exposure to accredited myBMP farms.

CRDC's Annual Operational Plan for 2018-19 (AOP): the first annual operational plan under the CRDC's Strategic RD&E Plan 2018-23.

Crop nutrition is the biggest portfolio of CRDC-supported research, and a new version of NUTRIpak has been released in August 2018 to reflect this. The publication is designed to provide growers and consultants with the latest science in the field of cotton nutrition. It has been developed to help identify crop nutritional problems and develop management plans to meet crop demand and long-term sustainability.

The CRDC 2013-18 Investment. Innovation. Impact report provides a summary of CRDC's investments and impact under the 2013-18 CRDC Strategic RD&E Plan. CRDC invested $95.6 million into 862 RD&E projects during this time, in collaboration with 205 research partners across five priority areas – farmers, industry, customers, people and performance – achieving real impacts for growers. This report highlights these impacts, along with key investments and innovations.