CRDC undertakes an annual survey of cotton growers to gather information about farming practices and growers’ views on research, development and extension. This information helps to inform CRDC about the benefits of the research it invests in. Change in industry practice can be quantified by comparing information across the surveys conducted over the past 20 years. CRDC has published the results of this survey in two formats: a PDF of the survey report; and an interactive online digital dashboard, available at: www.crdc.com.au/publications/growersurvey

Vision: “Australian cotton, carefully grown, naturally world’s best”

By 2029 the Australian cotton industry will be:

• Differentiated - world leading supplier of an elite quality cotton that is highly sought in premium market segments

• Responsible - producer and supplier of the most environmentally and socially responsible cotton on the globe

• Tough - resilient and equipped for future challenges

• Successful - exciting new levels of performance that transform productivity and profitability of every sector of the industry

• Respected - an industry recognised and valued by the wider community for its contribution to fibre and food needs of the world

• Capable - an industry t hat retains, attracts and develops highly capable people

Under CRDC's Funding Agreement with the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, CRDC is required to commission an independent review of its performance. The inaugural independent review was conducted by Forest Hill Consulting in May 2018. A typical review conducted by Forest Hill categorises recommendations as: critical (should be implemented as a matter of urgency in order for CRDC to meet its legal and regulatory obligations); important (actions that are expected to deliver significant benefits to the company and industry) or best practice (expected to deliver incremental performance improvements). The Independent Performance Review was completed in October 2018 and made 8 recommendations in total: no critical recommendations; two important recommendations; and six best practice recommendations.

International Collaborations between Australia and the United States in Cotton Disease Management: Comparison of isolation methods and media for quantifying Verticillium dahliae populations in soil.

This international travel scholarship enabled a researcher from the United States who had been working collaboratively with an Australian researcher to visit Australia and attend the 2018 FUSCOM Conference , the Australasian Soilborne Diseases Symposium and visit a number of industry sites in Australia. At the Australasian Soilborne Diseases Symposium, the visiting researcher presented a poster highlighting the findings from our collaborative study on Verticillium dahliae inoculum levels and detection methods.

The funding enabled a networking opportunity for Australian researchers to engage with current research findings from cotton growing areas in the USA adn established a firm collaborative relationship for future research publications.

The CRDC Board responded to Forest Hill's Independent Performance Review Report in January 2019, welcoming the overall findings as an endorsement of CRDC’s high level of organisational performance and valuing the recommendations as important guidance on areas for continuous improvement.

Dr Ben Henley of the University of Melbourne was invited to present and participate as a panel member in the Australian Cotton Conference Cotton Conference "Climate Session presentation and Panel Discussion". His presentation topic "Interdecadal climate variability and climate change" and he also attended the CottonInfo Teams stand to meet the industry stakeholders and growers.

His presentation covered the following: Impacts on Australian rainfall of multi-year wet and dry cycles in cotton areas resulting in improved climate risk management.Major farming and water supply investments tied to multi-year drought risk

• Climate risk affected by both natural variability and climate change

• Need to better understand the risk of multi-year to multi-decadal rainfall deficits

• Palaeoclimate data can help fill a crucial knowledge gap

• Our research aims to bridge climate research and practice: snapshot today!

The Binnia Valley is located on the western end of the Liverpool Range approximately 70km south of Mullaley and 20km north of Coolah. In terms of availability of agronomic and technical resources the area is considered quite isolated. The Binnia Valley is noted for high yielding rain fed grain and pulse crops as part of a wider temperate region focused on extensive rangeland livestock production. In the last decade local farmers have taken out the Royal Agricultural Society wheat competition with the winning crop yielding 8t/ha. Similarly with sorghum, the prestigious Premer Shield for the highest yielding regional sorghum crop has come from this area with a yield of 12t/ha. The soils are characterised by heavy self-mulching volcanic clays with altitude ranging from 350m-750m above sea level on farmland rising to 1100m on the adjacent Liverpool range. The 600-700mm annual rainfall distribution is suited to early season establishment and crop growth followed by a reliably dry March/April harvest period. Given the recent success of the trials of dry-land cotton at Willow Tree, the Binnia Valley Trial Group is now willing to experiment with modern cotton cultivars with the view to providing a new crop species in a traditional wheat/canola/sorghum rotation. Cotton offers significant benefits with herbicide resistance and the addition of retained cottonseed into mixed farming systems supporting livestock is viewed particularly favourably. The current annual summer cropping area in the region is approximately 4000ha across 4 landholders. A suggested approach was to plant at least 3 x 30ha fields on long fallowed ground in the region.

The aim of this project was to establish cotton as the preferred summer dry-land crop in a traditional high yielding sorghum and wheat region. The primary barriers to growers growing cotton are the cool minimum temperatures and the risk of ester drift from neighboring properties during the growing season. The purchase of an automatic weather stations and moisture probes in the valley will assist greatly in growers understanding of the aforementioned local factors influencing management and profitability through the crop growth phases. The information from the weather stations will be linked to the OZ Forecast in the region enabling participating and neighboring farmers to monitor wind conditions and also provide a greater understanding of local temperature and moisture conditions on the trail site – thus using information to reduce the resistance by farmers to grow cotton. A yield map will also help growers understand crop nutrient requirements and variability within trial fields with the aim of up-skilling farmers in data interpretation to maximising yield potential. If successful, the cotton industry will benefit by gaining preferred status in summer cropping rotations in a temperate area currently favouring sorghum production. Growers have already commenced discussions with CSD, Cotton Info and Monsanto regarding seed licensing, procurement, varietal choice and crop suitability, demonstrating strong support for this project. Other than to trial in field suitability of cotton, the project aims to give the Binnia Valley Growers Group exposure to cotton industry support networks and research by finishing (during the ginning period) with a tour of CRDC, ACRI, CSD Auscott Gin and potentially a local dry-land grower.

The objective of the project was to hold two workshops, one in Queensland & one in NSW with 20 attendees, 50% of whom must be women (10 attendees).

In the end, it was decided to hold three workshops, one in Mungindi, NSW, and two in Queensland at St George & Pittsworth. Wincott were contacted to help promote attendance at the workshops by women.

Silverleaf whitefly (SLW) and green vegetable bug (GVB) are important pests in the Australian cotton industry. However, the particular natural enemy species involved in suppressing population development of these pests is poorly understood. Such information would be valuable in developing strategies for the conservation of these natural enemies, especially in terms of insecticide selection, management decisions and understanding sources of the beneficials (e.g. other crops, native vegetation).

We used primers specific to either SLW or GVB DNA to identify the presence of SLW or GVB DNA in the gut of predators. Positive results would indicate that predator had consumed either SLW or GVB. We used a pre-existing primer for GVB and developed a new primer for SLW, however, both primers required refining to improve sensitivity. We tested these primers against a wide range of insects and spiders found in cotton crops and confirmed that the primers reacted with the appropriate DNA and did not cross react with that from other species. We also confirmed that the risks of contamination due to the sampling process was low, eg SLW DNA contaminating a sweep net or beatsheet leading to contamination of insects collected from the sheet.

Over two cotton seasons we collected a wide array of potential predator species and tested them for the presence of either SLW or GVB DNA. Twenty-four predator species tested positive for the presence of SLW DNA. These included a range of spiders (Night stalker, Lynx, Orb weavers, Tangle web and Jumping spiders), predatory bugs (Brown smudge bugs, Damsel bugs, Big-eyed bugs, Minute pirate bugs), “facultative” predatory bugs (Green mirids and Apple dimpling bugs), predatory beetles (Red and Blue beetles, 4 lady beetle species), Green lacewing larvae and “phytophagous” thrips adults and larvae (probably mostly Frankliniella spp.). GVB abundance was low, limiting the value of results. Nevertheless, a number of predators tested positive for GVB DNA including several spider species (Tangleweb, Lynx, Nightstalker and House spiders), Damsel bugs, Red and Blue beetles and Striped ladybeetle adults.

Detailed observations were made of predatory behaviour and the appearance of SLW nymphs after being attacked by different predators and these observations and images will be useful for identifying nymphs that have suffered predation in the field.

Attempts to correlate the abundance of predator groups with the abundance of SLW showed no significant relationships except for Apple dimpling bug where abundance increased as SLW abundance increase and total thrips (adults and larvae) which declined as SLW abundance increased. There were no significant relationships between SLW abundance and the proportion of any predator group testing positive for SLW DNA. This lack of correlation possible reflects the generalist nature of the predatory species, so they are not necessarily going to respond numerically in abundance to a single prey species.

A ‘predation’ index was calculated by multiplying the abundance of the species at the site by the proportion positive for SLW DNA. Across the two years of study Red and blue beetles, thrips adults and larvae, Brown smudge bugs, Apple dimpling bugs, Big-eyed bugs, Minute pirate bugs and Lynx and Night stalker spiders potentially have the biggest effect on SLW abundance. This study has provided the first step in using molecular techniques to identify beneficial species important for control of SLW for conservation in Australian cotton systems.