CRDC’s role is to invest in RD&E on behalf of cotton growers and the government, with the outcomes boosting the productivity and profitability of our industry. RD&E, and its resulting innovations, are a key driving force behind the Australian cotton industry’s continued success.

In 2016-17, CRDC invested $24.1 million into 350 RD&E projects in collaboration with 122 research partners and growers who conducted on-farm trials, across five key program areas: farmers, industry, customers, people and performance.

The findings from these research projects continue to be extended through a range of methods, including the industry’s joint extension program CottonInfo. The adoption of best management practices is also encouraged via the industry program myBMP. CRDC is a founding partner of both programs.

These investments achieved real impact for cotton growers, the industry and the wider community during 2016-17, as detailed within this report.

The autumn edition of CRDC's magazine, Spotlight, looks at important risk issues related to picking.

Firstly, the issue of compaction, its impact on yield and the long-term effect it has on soil health. Grower Ian Hayllor provides insight into what he found below the surface on his farm, and what some industry researchers are saying about compaction and its effect on water use and plant growth. Research since the 1980s continues to demonstrate that wet picking conditions and decisions on rotations, tillage, equipment and row configurations will have significant impact on subsequent yield potential and profitability. The challenge is: what more can be done to reduce compaction?

Secondly, this edition highlights biosecurity and the new industry biosecurity campaign, ‘be a good mate and stop it at the gate’. The campaign focuses on best practice management to stop many issues at the front gate, from rising herbicide resistance to the spread of disease. A single incursion of a pest to cotton could have devastating and long-term impact. Hence CRDC is supporting research into the high priority pests to ready the industry for incursions, should they happen. Right now at harvest there are many risks that can impact farms, a region or the industry. Have you put actions in place to protect your farm and your mates?

This edition of Spotlight also tackles weed management. Participants in a CRDC supported US study tour provide their learnings about the introduction and management of new herbicide tolerance traits. In light of the most recent spray drift impacts in Australia they equally implore growers and their staff, consultants and contractors to be aware of the information and tools available to them to help manage spray drift. The next edition of Spotlight will feature more on CRDC's work to deliver a robust solution to spray drift, integrating effective policy, regulation, technology, research and training responses across agriculture.

Cotton growers spend thousands of dollars annually monitoring insect pests and beneficials. The information generated from monitoring is used to make pest control decisions. However, insect monitoring is costly, information and labour intensive, and time dependent. Technology is making automated pest monitoring feasible. Automated wireless pest monitoring has the potential to deliver innovative solutions for pest management by reducing pest monitoring costs and labour requirements, and increasing the accuracy of information, in turn leading to targeted insecticide application and sound decision making. CSIRO holds a PCT patent application (PCT AU/AU2011/001396) on a novel insect monitoring device. This wireless device enables capture of real-time, geo-referenced insect images of broad species type, which is communicated to end users as the basis for pest control decisions, and bio-security alerts.

The objective of this project is to determine the feasibility of using the CSIRO Automated Insect Monitoring (AIM) trap for cotton pest management and bio-security monitoring. The project will: firstly fit the AIM device to different insect traps suitable for cotton systems (eg. interception, lure-based), and compare the accuracy of automated image collection to insect specimen collection; secondly compare the data captured using the AIM trap with the current best-practice pest monitoring using beat-sheet sampling, and relate the information to thresholds used for pest control decision making; thirdly provide estimates of price points suitable for adoption of the AIM trap by the cotton industry; and fourthly assess the AIM trap for potential to monitor novel insect threats to Australian cotton.

Although many research facilities around the globe are developing methodologies to automate insect pest and beneficial monitoring, the CSIRO patent applications is specific for image capture. Automated pest monitoring has the potential to revolutionize crop protection because cost-efficient and accurate information capture can lead to better targeting of insecticide application, and less reliance on already short supply of labour for crop scouting. Similarly, the AIM may also capture images of Emergency Plant Pests (EPPs), which in turn may be automated through image algorithms that are linked to bio-security alerts. Such alerts would allow for a rapid response, and reduced harm to the industry. Depending on the outcome of this proposed project, the AIM trap has the potential for commercialization, and global market application.

The program was full of significant experiences, but the Kimberley was the most significant for me. The Kimberley session laid the foundations for the test of the course. In isolation the Kimberley would have been fantastic but once combined with the other sessions, it reached its full potential as a learning experience.

It is very rare that one gets the opportunity for continuity in a self-development course; they are usually I-2 day intensive programs that are largely forgotten within months of attendance. ARLP provides the opportuniy for learning iri the Kimberly to be built upon through the other sessions. The constant reinforcement of lessons learnt from session to session is a great strenght of the ARLP and this is made largely possible by the group structure and the diversity within the group.

It is the interaction within the group and the facilitation of group discussion that eventually makes the "penny drop" on what leadership is really about and what the Kimberley session taught us. India was beautiful and interesting, but learning came from the group interaction, not from seeing the Taj Mahal.

From a leadership perspective the case study was a very good week. The Murray Darling Basin (MDB), is a

contentious issue that sparks a lot of emotion. Leadership and emotion are a very

challenging mix and I am Iearning that controlling emotions is very important when in a

leadership role. To everybody, their issues are usually the most important ones and are

therefore their priority.

One of the challenges in leadership is to get people to have an appreciation of the other

side of the argument, "to walk in other people's shoes" and get an appreciation for the

impact of their decisions. The case study was a very good example of this when you

consider the environment v's industry/communities debate.

This is an area that I need to work on. Indeed, to get better at considering how my actions

impact on others and make others feel. Once I do this I will become a much more

effective leader.

Water in open channels is subject to high evaporative losses. Some 701 gigalitres of

water is lost annually through evaporation from channels in Northern Victoria.

Research and field trials carried out by many workers over the last 50 years has

shown that applying small quantities of chemicals to form a monolayer, or surface

film, on the water surface is a cost effective method of suppressing evaporation on

bodies of water such as dams. The potential water saving from the use of such

monolayers on G-MW irrigation channels is approximately 11GL/year.

Through the CRC Irrigation Futures (CRCIF), G-MW is collaborating with the

University of Southern Queensland (USQ) to understand how this technology can be

applied to channels.

This project expands the scope of previous commercial trials, which have focused on

large water storages and farm dams, to consider evaporation suppression on

irrigation channels. There are researchable questions regarding the efficacy, cost

and application methodologies that relate specifically to evaporation suppression in

channels.

Goulburn-Murray Water is undertaking a research project (in partnership with the CRC

Irrigation Futures and the National Program for Sustainable Irrigation) into the

application of monolayers on irrigation channels in order to determine if this is a feasible

water savings measure.

This report presents a summary of all work undertaken as a part of this project.

Egg collecting has been critical to the success of the Helicoverpa resistance monitoring programs. Since 2007/08, the industry has engaged the services of the CCA in coordinating the regular collection of eggs by CCA members across a number of cotton growing regions. The partnership with CCA has assisted greatly in ensuring the monitoring programs have a reliable and quality supply of eggs from across more of the cotton industry.

The CCA developed a framework for engaging members from Emerald Queensland, to southern New South Wales, to make collections using a protocol provided by the NSW DPI and CSIRO monitoring programs. Researchers from the monitoring programs provide basic training for the participating members to ensure thorough knowledge and understanding of the tasks to be performed. CCA appointed a dedicated Project Manager to coordinate and administer the project as well as satisfy CRDC’s reporting requirements.

Australian cotton growers are exposed to and manage a variety of cotton diseases. This project had a number of objectives to address knowledge gaps and obtain data to improve the management of Fusarium wilt, Verticillium wilt and reniform nematode.

Many of the current strategies to manage Fusarium wilt have been developed as a result of the project work carried out at Mr Graham Clapham’s property ‘Cowan’. The “Cowan” trial site is recognised by the cotton industry as a high disease incidence site, providing unbiased information on disease management practices. Some specific outcomes include: (i) the identification of some agricultural practices, such as crop rotations, that may reduce the incidence of the disease. These practices reduce populations of Fov in the soil and increase yield potential, thereby contributing to the sustainability of cotton production.

A published PCR based diagnostic assay detects two of the three Australian strains of Fov. Testing in this project confirmed published results as well as confirming that the test detects the “Mungindi” strain. This test has enabled faster confirmation of Fusarium wilt to industry. Faster detection allows for faster implementation of strategies to manage this disease.

Nutrition trials where three cultivars differing in Fusarium resistance were grown highlighted the importance of planting the highest F. rank variety in Fusarium infested fields to maximise yield. Interestingly, fertilising with NPK had no effect on seed cotton yield or disease severity, except for one exception where the addition of P and K had a negative effect on yield for the lowest F. ranked cultivar compared to K alone. The lack of response is curious as the field plot was planted to crops for several seasons without fertiliser inputs so as to deplete the nutrition. This was done to enable the influence of nutrient inputs on disease to be assessed in a controlled experiment. Results indicate that for Sicot 74BRF and Sicot 75BRF there was no benefit to applying N, P or K on seed cotton yield or disease severity. Further work is needed to better understand fertilisation of soil, nutrient uptake and nutrient requirements for maximising yield.

Verticillium wilt caused by Verticillium dahliae, although present in Queensland has rarely been detected during annual disease surveys and historically has not caused significant yield reductions. However, in the 2014/15 season, the highly virulent strain VCG 1A of V. dahliae was detected for the first time, causing significant disease in susceptible varieties. Following molecular characterisation and VCG analysis of V. dahliae isolates it is known that three strains of the pathogen are present in Australian fields. The ‘defoliating’ strain VCG1A and ‘non-defoliating’ strains VCG 2A and 4B were identified using specific primers and VCG analysis.

Pathogenicity studies determined that VCG’s 1A and 2B are highly pathogenic and VCG4B is mildly pathogenic, on cotton. Current management strategies such as crop rotation with non-hosts are not successfully managing the highly virulent strains and further research into management strategies are required.

Seed plating studies showed that V. dahliae was not detected in any of the seed, hand-picked from plants showing wilt symptoms from the CSIRO breeding program. This data suggests that Verticillium is not seed-borne in Australian cotton. Testing is on-going.

In 2012 reniform nematode was detected for the first time in the Dawson/Callide region of Central Queensland. This nematode was determined to be widespread in this region causing up to 40% yield reduction. In this project, monitoring of fields was a non-destructive way of providing an indication of possible nematode problems and provided useful information towards developing economic threshold levels of reniform nematode in Australian cotton. Management strategies were also investigated such as crop rotation and seed treatments.

Data from three seasons suggest that a population of 1000 reniform /200mL of soil post-harvest results in a 10% yield reduction. Deep coring to 100 cm has shown that reniform are present at depth, thereby providing a reservoir of nematodes that may reinfest the planting zone when cotton is sown. Corn and sorghum are non-hosts of reniform and significantly reduce soil populations compared to cotton and are therefore good rotation options for growers to manage this pest. However even after two rotations out of cotton, populations returned to high levels when cotton is grown. Seed treatments tested in this project had no significant effect on soil population of reniform. Multiple strategies will be required to manage this pest.

The research results obtained during this project have been widely disseminated throughout the industry.

This project seeks to design, develop and test an integrated measuring tool that can be installed and recovered from the bed of streams and rivers. The tool will comprise temperature and water level loggers and newly developed probes to monitor fluid electrical conductivity, the concentration of chloride in the water and oxygen levels (as a measure of water quality).This project will develop field equipment and a proven scientific methodology that will quantify surface water loss to groundwater below surface water bodies and therefore contribute to the mapping of the many and complex connections and interactions between groundwater and the surface water - dams, lakes, rivers, wetlands. The project will allow development of a prototype that should be capable of commercialisation.

As a result of this project, there will be much improved knowledge and understanding of a process that can, in turn, inform policy development and water allocation decisions. The new knowledge will allow development of consultancy services based upon deployment and interpretation of the sondes.

In addition field data acquired by the sondes could provide much needed independent confirmation of various other modelling studies.

Based on the data that has emerged from this project, the initial objectives were condensed to the following key issues of interest to the industry:

1. The scope and coverage of the cotton agribusiness sector

2. The expected professional staffing needs of the cotton agribusiness sector over the next 5-10

years

3. Factors affecting succession and professional development in the cotton agribusiness sector

4. The extent to which a program – focussing on young professionals and/or cotton industry

succession and professional development – is relevant to the future of the industry

5. The extent to which current service providers could or would support addressing identified

cotton industry succession and professional development issues.

The aim of the this collaborative project is to improve the long term viability of irrigated

enterprises in Western Australia by increasing their capacity to effectively assess

requirements, manage and secure water resources under the pressure of proposed statutory

and predicted climate change.

This project funded by the NPSI and delivered by Curtin University with its collaborative

partner the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (DAFWA) aimed to assist

growers, irrigators and state/local government bodies in understanding proposed changes to

water law in W. A.

Along with this the project also provided the targeted audience with background information

of the drivers behind the proposed statutory reforms required by the National Water

Initiative, with particular focus on climate change and the importance of sustainability of

ecological systems reliant on water, i.e. environmental flows and groundwater dependant

ecosystems.

To achieve these aims a series of eight presentations were taken to the target audience across

key agricultural regions of Western Australia being: Carnarvon, Swan Valley, Harvey,

Albany, Scott River, Margaret River, Manjimup and Myalup. Using the database of contacts

held by DAFWA invites were sent to growers etc. to participate by attending the presentation

in their region.

The presentations each consisted of four separate topics being: “Preparing Irrigated

Agriculture for Statutory and Climate Change”; “Climate Change: Observed and Projected

Changes in Western Australia”; “Environmental Flows and Groundwater Dependant

Ecosystems” and “Using Water Wisely”.

Each of these presentations was followed by a survey completed by the attendees designed to

provide a greater understanding of grower’s and irrigator’s opinions on a range of issues

surrounding water use and governance.

A range of resource materials were developed for attendees and in some cases were sent to

those unable to attend, these included: a CD Rom of the presentations; background

documents produced by both state and federal government agencies and useful factsheets,

produced by DAFWA, to aid growers etc. in better managing sustainable water use.

In summary, the project, which began in August 2011 and completed at the beginning of

March 2012, achieved all of the aims outlined in the project application.