Featured Cotton pest management guide content

Within cotton plants nutrients are taken up by roots and partitioned between plant structures. At boll filling, when the demand for nutrients is greatest due to the development of seeds and lint, nutrients from vegetative plant parts are mobilised and redistributed around the cotton plant. Higher-yielding Bollgard® II varieties are suspected to have higher nutrient demands than conventional cultivars, although the mechanisms and proportions of nutrients accumulated and redistributed in different plant parts is unclear. Yield and fibre development may be limited where nutrients are not efficiently redistributed to the developing bolls in sufficient quantities. Cotton plants with a high boll retention may enhance this problem.

Fertiliser programs aim to supply nutrients to the plants at peak growth stages when nutrient uptake is greatest. Foliar and soil fertiliser applications may be needed to supply nutrients to the developing plants. Some information is available on the total plant uptake of nutrients, but little on partitioning of nutrients between vegetative and reproductive plant structures. The timing of nutrient uptake redistribution has not been studied in detail. A better understanding of this process could aid in the development of timely and effective fertiliser programs for maximising yield and fibre quality of high yielding cultivars.

Examining the nutrient partitioning and redistribution mechanisms within conventional and transgenic cultivars may aid in establishing some key nutrient limitations to yield. Further understanding of the nutrient redistribution mechanisms under nutrient stressed conditions will aid in developing best management practices for fertiliser application.

Risk is ever-present in Australian agriculture. It is not a new issue for farm businesses and has in fact often been the driver for new ideas, innovation and change. However, the nature of these risks is constantly changing, and so the need to understand the tools available to address and manage these risks, and to ensure that the risk management marketplace matches the needs of farm businesses, is greater than ever.

This project aims to develop a better understanding of the risk exposure of Australian agriculture subsectors using available data, and to analyse a range of different options available for agricultural risk management. These options or tools include the adoption of different business models (for example forward selling or contract supply arrangements), the use of either domestic or internationally traded soft commodity derivatives, a suite of commercial risk products (such as named insurance; multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI) and weather derivatives) and farm business management strategies (enterprise diversification; high equity; alternative sources of income) as well as mutual funds and government programs. The advantages and disadvantages of each were analysed and discussed in a series of industry interviews.

The research culminated in the development of an assessment framework to compare different risk management strategies and the identification of potential initiatives which could facilitate improved risk management options for Australian agricultural businesses.

The research covers the following subsectors of agriculture:

• Beef cattle

• Sheepmeat

• Wool

• Grains (wheat)

• Pork

• Cotton

• Sugar

• Dairy

• Poultry (meat and eggs)

• Horticulture (fruits and vegetables)

Within the national framework for biosecurity, all commonwealth and state governments and plant industries who are signatories to the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed (EPPRD), formally commit to preparations that include: surveillance for key biosecurity risks, a chain of command for reporting suspected security incursions, decision making processes for responding to confirmed incursions and industry recovery from confirmed incursions. Cotton Australia is the cotton industry member for Plant Health Australia Ltd and signatory to the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed.

during 2008-2013 CRDC Strategic Plan, CRDC worked with industry and state governments to implement routine surveillance for exotic diseases and commence the development of contingency planning for specific, high risk exotic incursions for industry to implement if a situation eventuated.

the Biosecurity Awareness Training project undertook to raise grower and consultant awareness of the processes that would occur in the event that a cotton biosecurity incursion is confirmed. a training workshop to achieve this was developed by Cotton Australia, Plant health Australia, NSW DPI, QLD DAFF, Australian department of Agriculture and CRDC program management.

This project funded Biosecurity awareness training delivery to 30 participants from key industry groups over three years. Participants included growers, consultants, CottonInfo RDOs, Cotton Australia Regional Managers, CRDC and Cotton Australia Program Managers. Presenters were from eight key stakeholder organisations in biosecurity; Australian Department of Agriculture, Plant Health Australia, NSW DPI, QLD DAFF, CRDC, CSIRO, Cotton Australia, and a Grains Biosecurity Officer. The workshops incorporated a site visit to the Australian Department of Agriculture Central-East Region quarantine and inspection facility, Roseberry, NSW. The in-kind participation from stakeholders and provision of meeting and inspection facilities by the Australian Department of Agriculture and Cotton Australia was a significant contribution to the project.

Within the national framework for biosecurity, all commonwealth and state governments and plant industries who are signatories to the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed (EPPRD) formally committ to preparations that include: surveillance for key biosecurity risks, a chain of command for reporting suspected incursions, decision making processes for responding to confirmed incursions and industry recovery from confirmed incursions. Cotton Australia is the cotton industry representative and signatory to the EPPRD and underwent 'biosecurity training' instigated by the State government. The industry needed to do the same, creating a network of human capacity at the grass roots of the industry- growers and their RDO's, consultants and Cotton Australia Regional Managers - that are aware of the role they may play in an incursion event. The thinking and decisions taken early in the event may be critical in determining the feasibility of an eradication response.

This project undertook to raise grower and consultant awareness and knowledge of the processes that will occur in the event that a cotton biosecurity incursion is confirmed. Biosecurity awareness training was delivered to 30 participants from key industry groups over three years. Participants included growers, consultants, CottonInfo RDOs, Cotton Australia Regional Managers, CRDC and Cotton Australia Program Managers. Presenters were from eight key stakeholder organisations in biosecurity; Australian Department of Agriculture, Plant Health Australia, NSW DPI, QLD DAFF, CRDC, CSIRO, Cotton Australia, and a Grains Biosecurity Officer. The workshops incorporated a site visit to the Australian Department of Agriculture Central-East Region quarantine and inspection facility, Roseberry, NSW. The in-kind participation from stakeholders and provision of meeting and inspection facilties by the Australian Department of Agriculture and Cotton Australia was a significant contribution to the project.

Irrigated cotton production in Australia is predominately (80%) based on furrow irrigation. Although significant improvements in furrow irrigation efficiency have been achieved over the last decade the inability to reduce run-times, due largely to (increasing) labour force constraints, has restricted potential gains. The principal focus of the Optimizing water and energy use in the CQ Irrigation Sector project will be the conduct of field trialling in the CQ region to contribute to development of techniques that will increase ability to automate furrow irrigation.

In addition the project will continue the focus of the recently terminated Central Highlands and Dawson-Callide irrigation districts RWUE 4 project i.e. provision of assistance to the irrigation sector to adapt to increased variability and energy costs likely to result from climate change and associated policy responses. Performance evaluations of pumping systems, a major component of irrigation energy use in many irrigation enterprises, and of furrow and overhead irrigation systems (particularly CPLM) will be conducted. Data from these will contribute to the development and promotion of industry benchmarks that are critical for achievement of future industry efficiency gains.

The project will also provide support for the increased uptake of myBMP, technical assistance to Fitzroy Basin Association where required, and promotion of awareness of tools and resources designed to assist achievement of increased efficiencies (e.g. CropWaterUse, WaterSched2, and the revised WATERpak).

Since 1999-2000 the Queensland Government has funded four Rural Water Use Efficiency programs across Queensland. These projects have primarily focussed on improving water use efficiency within the Cotton and Grains industries of Queensland. These projects resulted in significant improvements in the efficiency of irrigation within these industries. In the most recent project – RWUE4 – the focus has been on the assessment of the irrigation performance of centre pivot and lateral move machines in Central Queensland, and the development of the Growers Guide to Centre Pivots and Lateral Move DVDs.

The principal proposed focus (40%) for this project is to examine potential methodology for automation of furrow irrigation. In addition the project will continue to assist those within the irrigation sector to improve their water and energy efficiencies. Energy inputs represent a major and rapidly increasing cost to growers. On-farm energy efficiency is becoming increasingly important in the context of rising energy costs and concerns over greenhouse gas emissions. Pumping costs constitute a major component of irrigation system energy use.

Increased flexibility associated with automation of furrow irrigation (40% of the projects activities) has potential to play a critical role in enabling irrigators to adopt more precise scheduling methodology than currently possible with the predominate industry irrigation practise of manually set furrow syphons. In addition, automation could assist with the increasing difficulty faced by irrigators in sourcing labour.

The project provided valuable information regarding optimum downfield placement of the advance / depth sensor(s), and resolved a number of identified practical issues relating to placement and operation of sensors. This facilitates progression with evaluation trialling to be conducted in the current CRDC funded project. Interim analysis has provided encouraging results. suggesting a strong correlation between AutoSISCO predicted cut-off time (using a single advance point), and their associated outcomes in relation to irrigation efficiencies. As a result of the collaborative basis of the automation research (NCEA CRDC

project) many of the problems that are often associated with initial trialling were avoided. This was of great value in providing cost effective outcomes and progressing future research in an efficient manner.

Pumping constitutes a major energy cost in most irrigation systems. Previous evaluations have indicated the potential for significant improvements in many systems. Pumping system efficiency evaluations conducted by the project enabled comparison of measured performance to the theoretical best operating point (as identified on relevant efficiency curve graphs), and comparison of performance against an industry benchmark (using 5 kWhr/ML/m head). Where systems were identified as performing outside their optimum range, or at variance to the benchmark, growers were better equipped to make cost benefit analysis of options for improvement.

Historically performance evaluations results have indicated that many overhead irrigation systems were falling short of their expected performance efficiencies. In many cases, once identified, factors impeding efficient operation have been redressed via relatively inexpensive modifications. Evaluations conducted by the project provided valuable assistance in identifying the source of any problem and thus equipped the grower with information that could be used to rectify issues of poor performance.

The project continued working closely with the local irrigators and the community in general providing resources pertaining to water use and energy use efficiency. This has facilitated an enhanced awareness of industry wide efforts and has equipped the local growers with the options to improve the viability of their operations.

The recently funded CRDC project, now underway, will sustain this projects impetus by continuing to assist local irrigators address the challenges inherent in maintaining sustainable cotton production in the face of a changing environment.

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 February 2016, looks at the 2014-15 cotton growing season.

Since the introduction of Bt-cotton secondary pests such as aphids, mites and bugs have become more prominent requiring targeted insecticide control. These sprays have lead to resistance in some pest species that have caused the chemical control to fail. Spray failures increase grower costs and the likely hood of unforseen environmental consequences but very importantly can permanently tarnish Australia’s reputation for producing high quality lint if 2

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failures cause ‘sticky cotton’. Recently in Australian cotton, there has been control failure against aphids with chemicals belonging to the group known as neonicotinoids. This group includes the mainstay cotton seed treatment thiamethoxam (Cruiser®) and the cost effective foliar spray clothianidin (Shield®). The neonicotinoid insecticides control several problematic pest species in cotton including aphids and mirids and their loss due to resistance puts increased pressure on remaining control products by severely limiting control options. In the 2007-2008 cotton season neonicotinoid resistance was detected for the first time in cotton aphid but control failures were not experienced. During the following 2008-2009 season neonicotinoid resistance increased in both level and abundance (82% of the stains tested) and for the first time neonicotinoid resistance caused control failures and cross resistance to other neonicotinoid products was additionally implicated. Interestingly, the proportion of strains showing neonicotinoid resistance in 2009-2010 remained approximately static at 78% but for season 2010-2011 the frequency of strains showing resistance increased to an extreme 96% of strains tested. Such resistance makes the neonicotinoids unreliable for cotton aphid control and growers may well be better off using alternative foliar products for aphid control if neonicotinoid seed dressings have been used. It is noteworthy that Integrated Pest Management friendly pirimicarb (Pirimor®) is currently resistance free so it would be a good first choice for an aphid specific foliar spray. Other alternatives are also available including, diafenthiuron (Pegusus®), spirotetramat (Movento®), pymetrozine (Chess®) an OP or spray oil. If foliar neonicotinoids are to be used against aphids I recommend the following to help manage resistance. Try to limit in-season use of foliar neonicotinoids for aphid control if they have been used as a seed treatment. If foliar sprays are required for aphid control and neonicotinoid seed treatments have been used it is most important that the first foliar spray is not from the neonicotinoid chemical group. Finally, consider the implications of coincident aphids if spraying neonicotinoids against other pests such as mirids. Aphids will develop resistance even if the sprays are not targeted directly against them and control failures could result.

Recycling of textile wastes gives the fibre a second life in a rejuvenised life cycle and thus increases the total value of the fibre. The development of new, higher value products from recycled fibres will encourage utilisation of the fibres and contribute to the future sustainability of cotton industry.

The travel allowance was used to pay part of the cost for Mr Samuel Ello-Ekombo, a student from Arts & Métiers graduate school of engineering (France). Mr Ello-Ekombo applied in early 2011 for an internship with CSIRO to work on a project investigating the use of recycled cotton in polymeric composites.

The travel subsidy of $3500 from the CRDC was used to cover around half of his living allowance for the six month internship.

Aspects of this project were delivered in collaboration with the GRDC project BGC00001 “Raising awareness of drift reduction techniques.”

Workshop Program for Cotton Growers and Their Neighbours (co-funded by GRDC)

A total of 53 application and drift management workshops were delivered to 1046 cotton and grain growers, with independent evaluation showing more than 80% of the participants surveyed had changed one or more practices within 3-6 months of attending the workshop.

Exit Surveys showed that 98% of participants were at least satisfied with the workshop (venue, timing, resources, presenter), 83 % were at least very satisfied, and 17% suggested the workshop exceeded their expectations.

95% of participants said they obtained new information by attending the workshop and would recommend the workshop to people they know.

A further 6 workshops were provided to 103 advisors, and 6 workshops for trainers were delivered to more than 154 participants (an additional 2 of the trainer workshops were run in conjunction with the GRDC project).

The external cash and in-kind contributions to this project were 1.34 times greater than the CRDC cash contribution.

Application and Drift Management Trial Program

The workshop program was supported by 7 application trials, with the data obtained used to modify training materials and was presented to growers and advisors at industry meetings and updates. 3 Trials resulted in a change to the WeedSeeker® setup by the manufacturer, 4 separate efficacy based trials demonstrated that coarse droplets do provide equivalent efficacy for many types herbicide applications, and that the use of coarse droplets was effective in fallow situations for phenoxy and glyphosate products. Trials indicated that in wider row situations (1.5m) efficacy could also be achieved with Roundup Ready Herbicide, however the use of extremely coarse droplets for over the top Roundup Ready® applications had the potential to reduce efficacy in 1m row, solid plant situations.

A single study evaluating relatively new techniques for measuring spray drift (comparing daytime and night time spraying) highlighted the risks associated with night spraying. The methodology used for the spray drift study using a range of cations and mass spectrometry (in place of traditional fluorometric methodologies) proved to be a useful and relatively low cost method for estimating drift potential under differing environmental conditions.

The results of this study were passed on to the National Working Committee for Pesticide Application for further consideration.

Take Home Messages

Minimising spray drift continues to be a challenge for all agricultural industries. The cotton industry, through its long term support for training and extension in drift management has been able to act as a catalyst for establishing a national program for delivering the application and drift management workshops developed by BGC. GRDC will be funding the delivery of this program nationally to grain growers for the 2012-2015 period.

The challenge for the cotton industry will be to maintain its status as an industry leader in extending information related to application and drift management.