Department of Agriculture and Fisheries applied to purchase a set of 4 drive-on load cells that would enable the department to weigh the departments existing 2 row basket picker, commercial picking equipment (basket pickers and boll buggies) and round plastic wrapped modules. These load cells would allow the assessment of trial plot yields from small to large scale experiments and cater for any style of picking both with small in-house or commercial scale farm equipment. Portable load cells have the advantage of being easily transported to any trial site and allow the quick and efficient weighing of seed cotton on farm without causing significant disruption to a growers picking operation. This would enable research staff to measure the yield of individual field plots for all manner of experiments with a high degree of accuracy.

The Australian Rural Leadership Foundation was established in 1992 based on the premise that developing leaders in rural, regional and remote Australia could influence change across organisations, industries as a whole, and rural communities in general. The ARLF exists to develop leaders for rural, regional and remote Australia. We support the development of leaders for the greater good – no matter where they live or work. The Foundation takes an ethical approach, challenges assumptions and seeks to respectfully influence change for the greater good. Our flagship program is the Australian Rural Leadership Program (ARLP). This program has been running since our inception and we will commence Course 23 in 2016. We currently have over 650 ARLP graduates from throughout Australia. Other educational programs are shorter in length and are either targeted to a specific leadership level or client-focused (organized by a client for their sector). All graduates become life-long members of the Foundation’s network which now numbers over 1,000 leaders. As part of our existing effort we regularly assess and evaluate all our programs. However given the Foundation’s educational philosophy that emphasises people-development through values-based leadership learning, the impacts are difficult to quantify in a simplified manner. So while our existing evaluation measures can provide insight into the impact of our programs on individuals and from an ARLF viewpoint, they do not provide an expression of impact that is easy to communicate to third party investors and other interested parties. The broad objective of the longitudinal evaluation is to identify the influence of the ARLP and other Foundation programs upon the leadership of program graduates and, consequently, the impact of their leadership within regional, remote and rural Australia (and beyond) over time. The ARLF has a unique position relative to other leadership development courses with its focus on RRR Australia. The ARLF has over 25 years developed a flagship program, the ARLP that is premised upon two approaches to leadership development – that it is experientially based and is premised upon reflective practice. Eight core principles develop from this philosophy, each associated with a set of leadership dispositions or capabilities. The aim of each of the ARLF programs seeks to develop/enhance in individuals these dispositions and capabilities.

The 2014 Australian Cotton Comparative Analysis (ACCA) is the tenth report produced

by Boyce Chartered Accountants in conjunction with the Cotton Research &

Development Corporation (CRDC). From 1986 to 2004 the report was compiled

independently by Boyce.

In this report we present an analytical review of the 2014 results, a comparison with prior

years, and comments on emerging trends.

THE NEED TO BENCHMARK

Financial analysis using comparative statistics helps farmers identify relative strengths and weaknesses;

accompanying budgets and long term business plans will then focus on ways to overcome weaknesses and

build on strengths. In other words, this Comparative Analysis is a management tool to implement change and

to identify where effort should be directed on a day to day basis.

Obviously, this analysis does not provide all the answers - it is a benchmark or a standard to strive for. It is up to

management to develop and implement specific action plans based on improved knowledge to set and achieve

new goals.

The reliable, independent figures in the Comparative Analysis provide the starting point for farmers to develop

“best practice”.

If growers or other interested parties require more long term data, note that we started this analysis in 1986.

We encourage participants to discuss the results with us and to clarify any queries so that we all develop a

deeper understanding of the industry.

The primary purpose of the ACCA is to show the income and expenses associated with growing fully irrigated

cotton on a per hectare basis. There are some provisos however to be aware of when considering the information

contained in this report:

• It is important to note that the analysis does not necessarily show the health of the cotton industry.

Where a cotton grower grew skip row cotton or solid cotton that did not receive full water, or grew no fully

irrigated cotton at all, those resulting figures are excluded from the analysis. In most, if not all cases, these

alternate crops would have returned a reduced profit per hectare in comparison to growing fully irrigated

cotton. Therefore, although the grower may have made a healthy per hectare profit on the hectares of fully

irrigated solid cotton grown, the net profit of the total farm would have been significantly less than if fully

irrigated cotton was grown across the full area, allowing for usual rotation practice.

• Readers of this study should be aware that these figures show the average results of participants in the

sample. It is important that users understand this fully.

For example, assume there were only two participants in the sample growing the same area. If one

uses contractors for picking and the other owns their own pickers, the figure for contract picking will

be approximately 50% of the market rate. Similarly, the figures on a per line basis for expenses such as

Depreciation, Repairs & Maintenance, Wages etc. will all be less than market rates. With this knowledge,

users of this information can get additional information from this analysis.

• It should be remembered that if there is a significant change in per line figures, this may not necessarily be

due to price increase.

Line items can be made up of price, frequency of operation and volume per operation. So where there has

been an increase in, for example seed, this could be due to price, number of seeds per metre planted or

the number of plantings, or a combination of all three.

• It is important to understand that where a crop has not been picked due to flooding or some other disaster

other than hail, the expenses relating to the affected area have been excluded from the sample.

So care should be taken when using the results from this analysis. Understanding the basis on which the

analysis is constructed is the key to getting the most out of its study.

OUR SAMPLE

The analysis includes the results for farmers who were able to plant, grow and pick their crop using close

to normal irrigation practices. This year the total number of hectares in the sample decreased due to a

decrease in the availability of water throughout many of the cotton growing areas of Australia and a reduction

in the participants.

The average hectares planted per participant increased slightly from 1,518 hectares in 2013 to 1,593 hectares

in 2014. The total number of bales in the sample was just on 500,000, which is approximately 13% of total

Australian cotton production. Final estimates for the 2014 year were 414,000 hectares and production of

3,830,000 bales.

Whilst recognising marketing as an important part of management, growers and interested parties were

concerned that participants in the top 20% may be there solely due to receiving a high cotton price, not as a

result of good farming practices. Alternatively, good cotton growers, due to adverse currency, lint and basis

positions, may have been excluded from the top 20%.

As many growers review their operation against the top 20% to look for areas of improvement, it was suggested

that the top 20% and bottom 20% be selected using an average price. We have therefore selected the top 20%

and bottom 20% by substituting $473 (the average 2014 net price for all participants) for the average net price

that the individual grower actually received.

Although the average price was used to select the participants in the top and bottom 20%, the growers’ actual

sales figures are reported in this analysis.

Seed fingers are an important part of the gin stand and are used to control the seed roll load, which in turn sets the turn-out and trash cleaning capacity of the gin stand. Yet mechanically the seed fingers are undeveloped in terms of their control and ability to be set. Currently, the fingers are set manually by the ginner who typically selects and then fixes a mechanical setting. There are no readings or dials to help reinforce the appropriateness of this setting, just visual inspection of seed flow and gin motor amperages by the ginner. Moreover, the force applied by the seed roll across the gin stand varies depending on the loading of seed-cotton across the gin stand.

Recent research by CSIRO has indicated that seed roll density and the forces that the seed roll exerts on seed roll casing constantly change, yet the seed fingers are usually fixed in the same position for extended periods. Indeed, seed roll density can change significantly many times over a one minute period as material in the seed roll is charged and discharged. High seed roll loading typically means low residual lint and longer fibre length, while low loading typically means poorer lint removal and lower fibre length. High trash and moisture also affect the loading on the seed roll. However, a ginner does not alter the seed fingers for these changes, and moreover does not change the seed fingers routinely because of the inconvenience in stopping the gin stand to make adjustments. The development of an automated, self adjusting system of seed fingers is proposed to overcome these variances in the loading of the seed roll. The outcomes of implementing such a system are better gin productivity and fibre quality in terms of grade (trash content), length and neps.

The concept of the Network Development Officer (NDO) role came about following an Upper Namoi CGA bus trip around 2 1/2 years ago, which identified the need for better research information flow to growers, and the sharing of information regarding the growing of cotton and grains between the more and less experienced growers of each crop. Through grass roots grants funding to the UNCGA and contributions by AgVance Farming, the role was formed in a trial capacity with a partnership between the two groups in April 2012.

The original funding for the role took the NDO position until the end of September 2012. Following the success of the role in the first 6 months, a PRP (extending from June 2013 on wards) was lodged. The funding relevant to this report bridged the gap between these two projects – allowing the NDO role to continue.

Dryland Pix trial * Reniform Nematode * N trial * Central Queensland Field Walk
*Update from Philip Armytage Darwin Trip

This travel sponsorship supported the ACRI visit of Dr Naranjo, who whilst visiting Australia in late November 2016 to attend the annual conference of the Australian Entomological Society. CRDC and CSIRO have supported Steve Naranjo, USDA to visit and support review of recent research. Dr Naranjo is an internationally recognised expert in IPM in cotton systems. In particular, he has extensive skills in research and management of silver leaf whitefly and was one of the architects of the approach used to manage this pest in Arizona. He has been instrumental in assisting that production system to develop an effective management system that has restored Arizona’s reputation for producing non-sticky cotton. Dr Naranjo co-authored with Dr Richard Sequeira a publication which used extensive whitefly distribution data to arrive at a scientifically valid sampling protocol, the basis for the system used in Australia.

Silverleaf whitefly has been identified as a high priority issue for the Australian cotton industry. The aim of this meeting was to review current SLW research as well as experiences with monitoring and management practices to inform R&D direction and prioritise extension messages for SLW.

Multi- species cover cropping trial * Management Options Enhancing Beneficial Microbial Communities and Functions in Cotton Soils- Dr Gupta Vadakattu. * N trial summary *Macquarie Valley

Despite the increased adoption of pressurised irrigation systems in recent years, furrow irrigation is and will remain to be the dominant application technique in the Australian cotton industry in the foreseeable future. Furrow irrigation involves relatively low capital investment making it ideally suited to the opportunistic nature of cotton production where the area planted varies from season to season depending on commodity prices and water availability.

The Australian Cotton industry can stake the claim of being one of the leaders in irrigation practice and innovation. Nowhere is this more apparent than for surface irrigation where the industry has made significant gains in water management leading to direct increases in productivity. One key driver of this change is the ability to monitor and model furrow irrigation provided through the use of the Irrimate™ in field evaluation system. Over the past decade, hundreds of evaluations have been performed in order to guide individual growers and inform researchers. The resulting data resides in the archives of each of the parent government institutions and consulting firms. The data recording and reporting processes are inconsistent between organisations and often also between individuals. Consequently it has been difficult to perform industry wide benchmarking of water use management.

Each organisation has adopted unique ways of analysing, and archiving field data, resulting in large quantities of data with limited hope being able to conduct industry wide studies. The Cotton Catchment Communities CRC and National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA) have developed a web database, the Irrimate Surface Irrigation Database (ISID) with the following aims:

1. To allow the industry to benchmark the performance and potential performance of furrow irrigation

2. To provide added value to the process of irrigation evaluation where growers will be able to compare practices with others

3. To collate the large quantity of field measurements and evaluations that have been conducted over the past decade, a valuable source of information for future research in irrigation management.

Once completed, ISID was populated with data collected from all major catchments across NSW and QLD where cotton is grown with measurements stretching from the 1998-1999 to the 2011-2012 seasons. In excess of 630 separate irrigation events have been collated to date each with full field measurements, performance estimates and optimisation strategies.

The data capture and transfer process has been streamlined by integration of the database into the software model SISCO used during the evaluation process. This will ensure that the database is maintained and updated into the future. ISID also functions as a means to standardise and archive evaluations, a major shortcoming identified during collation of historical data.

Preliminary results from the database indicate that measured application efficiency across all seasons and districts is approximately 64.6% or 76.1% when accounting for tail water recycling. Optimisation of inflow rates and cut off times to improve irrigation performance results in an average water saving of 0.155 ML/ha per event. The design of ISID also enables users to interrogate the database in order to summarise the results according to criteria such as catchment, season, soil type and field length adding further value to the benchmarking process.

While individually the evaluations have been useful to growers, combined these results provide a valuable resource to the industry as a whole. The previous project failed to capture datasets across the industry due to (i) the limited amount of time available and (ii) the time required for manual data preparation and entry.

The Fifth World Cotton Research Conference(WCRC) is held annually and in 2012 dealt with a wide range of issues concerning the cotton industry, from seed production, plant growing and the farm to fibre quality,

cotton processing and the textile industry. The opening sessions dealt with

new directions in cotton production research, blending biotechnology, research, blending biotechnology, breeding, GM crops (in particular in India),

the textile chain and chemical processing of cotton. The two closing sessions

dealt with an international cotton genome initiative for cotton improvement

and with cotton mechanisation.

Nine leading Australian Scientists travelled to the 5th WCRC in Mumbai, India to present their research work, chair sessions or particpate in the conference as delegates.

these scientists included:

Dr Ivan Kennedy, Dr Daniel Tan of the University of Sydney, Rene van der Sluijs from CSIRO Material Science and Engineering, Dr Lily Pereg of the University of New England, Steven Yeates, Nicola Cottee from CSIRO Plant Industry, Tom Walsh CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Francois Visser from the University of Queensland and Katie Broughton, Post docturate Student of the University of Sydney and CSIRO Plant Industry. For detail, see individual Final Reports.