This sponsorship funded the travel of one CRDC researcher to attend the 18th Australian Cotton Conference in August 2016. The researcher presented in a three minute Thesis presentation to communicate the results of the CRDC funded soil management research undertaken in 2016. Attendance also represented a networking opportunity into the Australian cotton research community. The research results have significance for soil carbon storage and nutrient application strategies that should be communicated to representatives of the Cotton Industry, Australian cotton researchers and policy makers. Thesis topic: Stoichiometric ratios of cotton soils under different land management practices: consequences for carbon storage and cropping strategies

Prior to teh commencement of the 2016/17 cotton season, it was predicted that early season pest numbers would be extreme and widespread due to good winter and spring rainfall in all areas.

This forecast was particularly alarming due to the potential for widespread insecticide applications which can have very serious consequences such as resistance, the disruption of natural pest enemies, secondary pest outbreaks, and damage to the environment.

Taking these potential threats into consideration, the CottonInfo team determined that the industry needed confidence to approach pest management using sustainable pest control measures encouraged via integrated pest management (IPM). The team also agreed that extending the IPM message early in the season will be a priority.

As a result, CottonInfo and CRDC partnered with leading industry experts, including Dr Lewis Wilson and Dr Michael Bange of CSIRO, to deliver a series of workshops on IPM across five cotton growing valleys – encouraging growers to consider their potential pest management strategies.

Over 130 participants from the cotton industry attended the IPM workshops. 38 [er cent of these participants filled in evaluation forms. Results from these forms showed that 32 per cent of respondees were growers, 40 per cent were consultants and crop scouts and 28 per cent were from another sector of the industry, for example research staff and reseller agronomists. The five workshops took place at Warren, Darlington Point, Cecil Plains, Boggabilla and Boggabri during late November 2016 and early December 2016.

Previous research has highlighted that glyphosate resistant and tolerant weeds are increasing in cotton farming systems. This situation is not unique to cotton systems, indeed broadacre agriculture in Australia is dealing with a range of herbicide resistant weeds across all farming systems. Glyphosate tolerant cotton has been widely adopted in Australia since its introduction in the early 2000’s. A consequence of this technology was a shift to a simplified system of weed control dominated by multiple applications of glyphosate in crop.

A series of comprehensive weed surveys were conducted across cotton farming systems in 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons. The focus of the surveys was five common weeds identified as the most problematic in cotton farming systems: feathertop Rhodes grass, windmill grass, awnless barnyard grass, sowthistle and fleabane.

The samples were germinated in a glasshouse and screened against the commercial rate of glyphosate. The testing process confirmed very high levels of resistance in fleabane (>95%) windmill grass (>90%) and awnless barnyard grass (>65%). The level of resistance in sowthistle and feathertop Rhodes grass was lower, however in excess of 25% of populations tested as resistant. Group A resistance was also confirmed in grass populations collected during the surveys.

The additional information from the resistance testing was a catalyst for updating the Herbicide Resistance Management Strategy (HRMS). The new strategy includes information on herbicide resistance for: Group M, L, I and A herbicides. A resistance risk assessment tool has also been incorporated into the HRMS table. Feedback from consultants and growers has been positive, especially with the traffic light approach in the table. The new HRMS has been included in the 2018 Cotton Pest Management Guide. In addition, all tables within the Weed Management section have been updated and consolidated into a more user friendly format.

Since the start of the project in 2014 and the extension of herbicide resistance results there has been an increase in the use pattern of pre-emergent and residual herbicides. This is a positive outcome for the industry and further reinforces the need to provide growers with additional options for weed control other than glyphosate. A research officer was appointed to the project in February 2017 further increasing the capacity of weed research in the cotton industry.

A study tour to the US cotton industry in September 2017 reinforced to researchers, growers and industry the importance of maintaining a diverse approach to weed control in Australian cotton farming systems. The reliance on herbicides alone for weed control has resulted in widespread resistance developing in the US, especially to glyphosate. The Australian industry based HRMS (2 + 2 & NO survivors) is essential to maintaining the efficacy of glyphosate for the cotton industry. The importance of non-glyphosate tactics in-crop and in fallow, and controlling any survivors is paramount to the long term sustainability of our cotton farming system.

Phenology studies confirmed that susceptible windmill grass populations accumulated higher levels of shikimate than resistant phenotypes. This work suggests that resistance is likely to be target site based (not confirmed). Low levels of paraquat applied to fleabane populations showed increased growth rates for resistant populations compared to susceptible types (hormesis). One population of fleabane has tested R to paraquat and this is being communicated through future WEEDsmart and Spotlight articles. Dose response experiments on barnyard grass showed that even when exposing plants to high rates of glyphosate they were able to survive by reducing tiller numbers, shortened growth habit and a reduction in seeds per spikelet.

The pupae busting experiment at ACRI has been updated to include a range of integrated weed management tactics to differentiate previous trial treatments. Early indications are of a weed species shift between the control (W3) treatments and the introduction of pre-emergent herbicides.

Eric was appointed as the Weed Management Technical Lead with CottonInfo in February 2017. Eric has also assumed the role as the co-ordinator of the Herbicide Technical Panel. The Technical Lead has responsibility for the Weed component of the Annual Operating Plan for CottonInfo Regional Extension Officers’s. A series of weed management case studies was completed in the Summer of 2018 and published on the WeedSmart web site and in industry publications. Eric has participated in the filming of three videos on Herbicide resistance management and integrated weed management.

Industry engagement at workshops, conferences and field days were a key component of the project. A pre-emergent demonstration trial at Whitton NSW highlighted the effectiveness of adding a pre-emergent herbicide especially in the presence of high populations of grass weeds.

The Situation paper “Weeds, Herbicides and Traits in Australian Cotton” is in final draft form and awaiting feedback from reviewers.

This travel scholarship provided funded for the researcher to present the major findings from the researchers PhD to the European Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment 2015. Studies conducted between 2012 and 2015 researched rural communities and their struggles to effectively participate in environmental decision-making. A collection of case studies from the New England region that present empirical evidence of how community members and industry interact through the legal requirements of NRM planning and resource development was documented.

These in-depth case studies contribute important insights into the way that legal and policy frameworks promote and/or limit the opportunity for innovation in NRM decision-making.

Evidence from the Australian rural context is useful for other for other jurisdictions that also struggle with reducing government investment and the rising use of market instruments. Research findings offer a strong methodology for analysis of existing legal requirements for community engagement and suggests a number of possible reforms, as well as future research directions, that are of interest to the wider natural resource and socio-legal communities.

Management of soil organic carbon (SOC) is necessary for sustainable agricultural development. Increases in SOC are associated with improved soil productivity and structure, and may provide a mitigation strategy for the issues of rising greenhouse gas emissions and dispersive sodic soils. Soil fungi may alter SOC levels through: (1) the stabilisation of soil aggregates, within which SOC may be protected from aerobic degradation, and (2) the transformation and translocation of carbon compounds via microbial growth. Some melanised root-associated fungi (MRAF) isolated from the Sydney Basin Region have been shown to increase SOC in Alfisol (Mukasa Mugerwa and McGee, 2017). The broad aim of this project was to explore whether some MRAF have the capacity to increase SOC within an irrigated cotton system. To address this aim, I (1) isolated a number of MRAF endemic to the site where the Australian Cotton Research Institute is located, (2) conducted a small laboratory incubation experiment to trial a potential method to screen local MRAF isolates, and (3) conducted a glasshouse experiment to test the effect of some MRAF isolates on SOC levels using cotton as the host plant.

A glasshouse, pot experiment was conducted from October 2016 to January 2017. Briefly, pots were inoculated with one of 6 inoculum treatments: Control (wheat seed based), Control (millet seed based), 83017, 83019, C004.2, and NV016.17. These treatments are described in Table 1. Cotton, Gossypium hirstutum, cultivar (Sicot 74683F) was used as the host plant. Soil samples were taken at 25, 50 and 75 days after seed germination. Part of the soil sample (approximately 10 g) was used to measure the extent of hyphal growth through the soil (Shen et al., 2016). Hyphal growth was separated into fungi with melanised hyphae and fungi with non-melanised hyphae. The remainder of the sample was then dried at 40°C, and a two subsamples taken. The first (approximately 10 g) was used for total SOC analysis. The second subsample (approximately 25 g) was separated into four different soil aggregate classes using dry sieving. These four aggregate classes were: large macro-aggregates (> 2 mm diameter), macro-aggregates (2 - 0.84 mm), small macro-aggregates (0.84 - 0.25 mm diameter) and micro-aggregates and silt and clay fractions (< 0.25mm) (Zhang et al., 2013). SOC was measured for each aggregate class.

Three Mental and Physical Health Empowerment Days were held. Dirranbandi was held on the 9th of May 2014, St George on the 30th of May 2014 and Mungindi was held on the 13th of June 2014. 172 people attended the 3 days. We had 20 speakers who empowered, encouraged, informed and inspired the participants. Subjects covered were mental health, breast care, community supports, work and life balances, chronic disease, holistic supports and chemist supports. We identified, through engaging with the community, the needs of the community and sourced someone to speak in these areas. These days pulled together Government, Private, Community and Not for Profit organisations through speakers, presenters and stall holders. The morning tea and lunch breaks created time to network and to peruse the stalls and take part in some of the relaxation and health promotion stands. Our speakers, presenters, stands and gift bags with information inserted covered resources such as.

Medicare Local representatives

Queensland Health

Rural community nurses

Local community groups such as CWA, schools, Rotary etc.

Angel Flight, Flying Doctors, Local Doctors and other health services locally

Agriculture is facing current productivity challenges in terms of managing pests and diseases, which will significantly increase within the next decade. With a general decline in productivity growth and changes to external factors in managing weed, pest and disease risk, Australia more than ever requires access to new and safer pesticide and veterinary medicines. The plant and animal industries are all facing significant emerging biosecurity threats and being impacted on by pesticide resistance. Australia is no longer on the global priority list for pesticide and veterinary medicine commercialisation as it was 20 years ago.

Australia more than ever requires access to new, safer pesticides and veterinary medicines. Australian agriculture is experiencing increasing market failure regarding investment in agricultural pesticides and veterinary medicines as the case for commercial investment is not always sufficient given the regulatory cost for chemical registration and the relatively small market size.

Some industries in Australia are currently missing out on up to 50% of the potential new technologies which key competitors in Europe and the USA have access to, putting those industries at a competitive disadvantage. Australian agriculture is experiencing increasing market failure regarding investment in agricultural pesticides and veterinary medicines as the case for commercial investment is not always sufficient given the current high level of regulatory cost for chemical registration and the relatively small market size.

Without significant change, Australian agricultural productivity will increasingly decline, as will the ability of new and emerging industries to deliver a more diverse range of foods due to increasing market failure, even though demand for these products continues to grow.

The RIRDC project PRJ-009981 Delivery of Access to AgVet Chemicals Collaborative System, was contracted to establish a forum to develop a sustainable approach for collaboration regarding AgVet chemicals, building on recent cross industry discussions on AgVet chemical access that were supported by industry and government stakeholders. It could include establishing a collaboration and co-investment framework to more efficiently improve AgVet technology access for agricultural industries at reduced cost.

The joint RDC funded project through PRJ-10406 – AgVet Collaborative Forum project has delivered the second phase of activity of the Forum established in 2014. This project has continued to deliver a sustainable approach for collaboration regarding improved access to AgVet chemicals. The project has continued to make further improvement to a collaboration and co-investment framework to more efficiently improve AgVet technology access for agricultural industries at reduced cost. The project has continued to demonstrate potential value of collaboration and cost savings from investment in the collaborative framework, delivering increased Agvet tools to Australian agriculture

The CRDC Grassroots Grants program encourages Cotton Grower Associations (CGAs) to apply for funding to support capacity building projects in their region.

Since the Grassroots Grants program commenced in 2011, CRDC has invested over $466,000 in 52 projects across the cotton growing valleys – from weather stations to crop nutrition workshops.Up to $10,000 in funding is available for CGAs to help fund a project aimed at increasing the engagement of growers in the industry, solving specific regional issues and improving their skills, knowledge base and networks.

Given the incidence of non-target spray drift having a very significant impact across the cotton industry and particularly in the Macquaire Valley over the last two seasons the Macquaire Cotton Growers Association (MCGA) thought action needed to be taken to try and reduce the incidence across the valley.

Discovery Ag had recently installed an extensive weather station network (every 25km across our region). The MCGA wanted to use grass roots funding to install or access weather stations that could be fitted with 10m inversion towers. We discussed the potential for accessing an existing network that could be fitted with the towers as this would be more economical.

The MCGA approached Discovery Ag and Goanna Telemetry and they were happy to collaborate on this project with the shared aim of reducing the incidence of off target spray drift in the valley. Goanna Telemetry has an existing network of weather station with a web and app-based viewing platform that we were able to access as part of the project.

How the weather stations work

Surface temperature inversions are formed when a layer of cool air at the surface is overlain by a layer of warmer air. (Under normal conditions air temperature usually decreases with height.) The weather stations monitor the Air temperature at 2m and 10m.The network can flag in our app when an Inversion risk occurs.

(Inversion risk = When 10m Air Temperature is 0.1deg C greater than the Air Temperature at 2m).

The weather stations then report any inversion risk that occurred between the 10min period reporting interval.

During the ten minutes the weather station is not reporting it measures and median filters air temperature every 12 seconds. The network will identify good spraying conditions and alert when inversion conditions exist.

myBMP is a voluntary farm and environmental management system which provides self- assessment mechanisms, practical tools and auditing processes to ensure that Australian cotton is produced according to best management practice (myBMP, n.d.). Growers can also choose to be professionally audited and certified as myBMP accredited cotton growers. Adoption of myBMP supports the risk management and social licence requirements of the cotton industry. This is particularly so as cotton production involves the use of significant amounts of water and chemicals. Thus, the production process needs to be efficiently managed to moderate detrimental environmental impacts which if not curbed may lead to loss of grower incomes and/or loss of industry social licence.

In using myBMP information and tools, cotton growers can improve on-farm performance through:

• Better managing business and production risk, through use of up-to-date effective solutions to deal with pests, weeds, water use efficiency, and legal requirements, among others.

• Maximising potential market advantages, such as access to premium cotton prices afforded by the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI).

• Demonstrating responsible and sustainable natural resource management to the community, through myBMP certification, BCI and/or Cotton LEADS TM certification.

The myBMP information is categorised into 10 key modules for growers, these are:

• Biosecurity - for avoidance, management and control of pests and diseases

• Energy and Input Efficiency - for more efficient energy inputs such as electricity, fuel

and fertilisers

• Fibre Quality - for growing the best quality cotton possible

• Human Resources and Workplace Health and Safety - helps growers manage

employees and contractors whilst providing a safe and compliant workplace

• Integrated Pest Management (IPM) - for management of pests, weeds and diseases

• Sustainable Natural Landscape - for managing the vegetative and riparian assets on

the farm

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• Pesticide Management - for all aspects of pesticide management, storage and use on farm

• Petrochemical Storage and Handling - for managing fuels and lubricants on farm

• Soil Health - for maintaining and/or improving soil quality and fertility

• Water Management - covering water quality, efficiency of storage and distribution for

both dryland and irrigated farming practices.

The reason for travel is to attend the 2014 Beltwide Cotton Conference to be held from the 6 – 8 January at the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans, LA, USA. Coordinated by the National Cotton Council (NCC) and its cooperating partners, this annual forum is recognised as the global champion for cotton technology transfer. The purpose for attending is to form collaborative relationships and gain the latest information on management of diseases and pests that are relevant to Australian cotton production.