The Winter 2024 edition of Spotlight takes a look at the just-released Fourth Environmental Assessment, commissioned by CRDC and Cotton Australia as part of our industry’s PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. Sustainability Framework, and some of its recommendations.

The Australian cotton industry is no stranger to scrutiny from outsiders. But with 30 years of independent and publicly available environmental assessments and reporting, arguably the greatest scrutiny comes from within our industry itself. There is no other agricultural industry in Australia with such a long history of examining its own progress in such an independent, transparent way. After three decades, and with such strategies in place as the framework, 10-year assessments, five-yearly reports and annual updates, our industry is well ahead of the curve when it comes to commitment and credentials. But, as ever, there is still work to do.

At CRDC, one of our key goals is helping growers prepare for a world of increased scrutiny and ensuring we as an industry can meet ever-changing global requirements to maintain market access. One area we’re currently focusing our research, development and extension (RD&E) effort on is emissions – helping to provide a standardised approach for growers to emissions calculations, and providing knowledge and tools to reduce emissions.

With our fellow research and development corporations, we’ve invested in the development of a standardised emissions calculator with Agricultural Innovation Australia. The Environmental Accounting Platform (EAP) allows growers to calculate their carbon footprint at a commodity, enterprise, and whole of business level. We’re also supporting the new CRC for Zero Net Emissions from Agriculture (ZNE-AgCRC) to develop technologies and solutions to reduce emissions from Australian agriculture. We’ll be working closely as a partner in this venture to ensure the outcomes are meaningful for cotton.

Also in this edition we’ve included information on how growers can be involved in setting research priorities: from speaking directly to our team of experienced Innovation Brokers, led by our new General Manager, Innovation, Dr Merry Conaty, through to representing your local growers and Cotton Grower Association at the twice yearly priority setting forums. A great opportunity will be at the Australian Cotton Conference in August. As Foundation Sponsors, our CRDC team will be at the Conference, and look forward to talking to you about your research needs.

All this, and more, in Spotlight. 

The 2024-25 CRDC Researchers' Handbook is a key resource for all researchers working with or seeking investment from CRDC.

Updated annually, the Handbook outlines the key information researchers need to know, including the application process, funding and stipends available, the payment, evaluation and reporting processes and the CRDC’s intellectual property policy. These, and other critical details needed by researchers - like CRDC's grant management system, Fluxx - are provided in the Handbook.

CRDC's Annual Operational Plan for 2024-25 (AOP): the second annual operational plan under the CRDC's Strategic RD&E Plan 2023-28.

This document provides a brief outline of the projects CRDC has invested in for 2024-25 (current as of May 2024).

The CottonInfo YouTube channel (youtube.com/CottonInfoAust) was created in August 2013 to allow the repository of short informative videos on a wide range of cotton-related topics and add value to existing extension material by presenting information in an entertaining multimedia format that has become increasing popular in a digital world. 

The videos capture and present specialist knowledge in a practical and visual way, with a focus on documentaries that have a significant shelf life. Following projects DAQ1302 and DAQ1702, the additional videos generated by this project inform new and established growers and consultants, and serve as an important resource for students and interested members of the public, potentially achieving better engagement with the broader community by presenting factual information about industry practices. 

Between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2021, this project produced 66 videos and 2 podcasts, and has provided assistance to and/or managed the uploading of 50 others, including 6 webinar recordings. Within the same period, the CottonInfo channel received nearly 1.8 million views, with a total estimated watch time of 30, 590 hours (almost 3.5 years). 

As at 30 June 2021, the CottonInfo channel contained 285 videos, and had attained over 8500 subscribers and more than 2.5 million views, with an estimated watch time of almost 

5 years. The Australian audience ranked third in terms of total watch time and audience retention, and sixth by views. Having a well-educated industry that is adopting best practices is an essential part of ensuring the cotton industry’s continued success. The project has assisted the extension of practices that improve productivity, farm profitability, and contribute to environmental stewardship.

The Autumn 2024 edition of Spotlight takes a look at the town of Coleambally, where growers have tackled the issue of soil variability with outcomes that are delivering a win-win solution: helping improve productivity and returning dollars to the community.

Coleambally town and the irrigation district surrounding it has a unique history which also includes protecting biodiversity and remnant vegetation. It’s a region built on diversity and community, which has seen a resurgence in cotton growing over the past decade. This edition of Spotlight includes a series of fantastic feature stories on this region.

Looking further afield, late last year CRDC's Acting Executive Director Allan Williams travelled to India for the International Cotton Advisory Council (ICAC) meeting to talk about sustainability and the role of regenerative agriculture in cotton. In this edition we look at the risks and benefits of regenerative agriculture practices, with a focus on cover cropping. You can read about the plans for a regional cover cropping guide for growers and the on-farm experiments trialling new crops on page 14.

Sustainability is already a core focus of CRDC’s under Clever Cotton, CRDC's Strategic RD&E Plan for 2023-28, and cotton’s PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK Sustainability Framework. One of our nine themes is carbon, and it features in this edition. CRDC has been part of a collaboration to deliver a carbon accounting tool – the Environmental Accounting Platform – with fellow RDCs and it’s now live for testing by cotton growers.

As all growers know, ensuring the RDCs work together is essential for leveraging your levy dollars. With GRDC, CRDC is continuing to forge a path in delivering technology to cotton and grains growers. One such example is WAND, which has just released new technology to give a 24-hour forecast for hazardous inversions. This is a game changer for time management and efficiency, along with reducing spray drift hazards.

During the past few cotton seasons in the CGA region there were approximately 20 spray drift reports per season, with nearly 40 unreported events per season. It is estimated that these events impacted 15-20,000ha of crop in our region alone. The 2015/16 Crop Consultants Australia survey estimated that 45,000ha of cotton was affected by spray drift. Spray drift events not only lead to yield reduction and so forfeited income but also leads to numerous social problems such as conflict between neighbours as well as damaging the image of cotton growers and ultimately impacting our social licence to farm. 

Southern cotton growers had the opportunity to tour northern cotton growing areas in 2017 and 2018 attending the GVIA field days, meeting number of industry leading farmers and visiting their properties. These tours not only exposed growers to the cotton growing systems in the north and cotton research but it also provided a tremendous opportunity to network with growers from other regions, learn about alternative irrigation systems relevant to their farming operations.

Each year, Crop Consultants Australia - with support from CRDC - conduct a qualitative survey of cotton consultants regarding their practices and attitudes, as well as those of their cotton grower clients. The resulting report provides valuable information to the Australian cotton industry regarding on-farm practices , helping to benchmark the industry's performance in a range of key areas over time. This report, published in Feb 2023, looks at the 2021-22 cotton growing season.

Each year, Crop Consultants Australia - with support from CRDC - conduct a qualitative survey of cotton consultants regarding their practices and attitudes, as well as those of their cotton grower clients. The resulting report provides valuable information to the Australian cotton industry regarding on-farm practices , helping to benchmark the industry's performance in a range of key areas over time. This report, published in Feb 2024, looks at the 2022-23 cotton growing season.

The aim of this research project was to produce a proof-of-concept system for the automated monitoring of target species of bird and bat in Australian cotton landscapes. The project consisted of three key components: 

1. Identify species of bird and bat that hep farmers manage on-farm biodiversity 
2. Create automated systems capable of accurately identifying the target bird and bat species 
3. Develop acoustic recorders for deployment in cotton growing regions that automate monitoring of target biodiversity. 
4. Create an online system that allows growers to visualise their in-farm biodiversity 

We have created a series of machine-learning (AI) based systems (using convolutional neural networks) capable of identifying 6 species of bird and 10 species or species groups of bat that inhabit the cotton growing regions of Australia. Each species has been selected because of the ecological and behavioural role it plays in the landscape. These recognition systems have been embedded in a field-deployable, rugged, automated, solar-powered, internet-connected audio monitoring device with results uploaded to the cloud. Once in the cloud, farmers can view biodiversity information relevant to their farm via their web browser. Farmers without internet access on their farms can use small, cheap audio recorders that require a level of human intervention before biodiversity results can be made available. 

To our knowledge, we have created the first autonomous acoustic species identification system for birds and bats with online reporting in the world.