At various times, strong interest develops within the industry for early crop maturity. Earliness can allow the manager to harvest the crop in a more timely manner and thus reduce the risk of quality downgrades due to weather damage. It can also mean a saving on water and late season spray costs if the period for which protection is required can be reduced. In this paper we will bring together some pieces of ongoing research which are dealing with aspects of the timing of crop maturity. In this article we use the term earliness to describe the time taken from sowing to crop maturity, defined as 60% of the boils open. Thus, a crop which is sown ten days later than a normal crop but harvested only five days later, has greater earliness because the growth period is reduced.

Cotton planted into stubble has shown many advantages over conventional planting practices, including: reducing soil erosion, reducing pesticide and nutrient movement, and improving soil condition (Waters and Sequeira 2000). However the main focus of the current research is to identify the potential benefits in insect pest management. There are many theories on why cotton is sprayed less when it is planted into wheat stubble, and these are currently being investigated. The two main ideas are that firstly, cereal stubble acts as a visual deterrent and obstruction to egg-laying heliothis moths and secondly that the stubble acts as a refuge for natural enemies which prey on or parasitise the heliothis eggs and young larvae.

Cotton Research and Development Corporation is exploring the possibility that a trained sniffer dog may be able to assist in field operations testing for Helicoverpa Armigera pupae. The basic concept is that a suitable sniffer dog candidate be sourced, raised and trained to identify these cotton pests whilst in the soil so that field examinations for Helicoverpa Armigera may be streamlined and establish the level of infestation and what action is needed for the level established. It is envisaged that the dog would not have to do broad acre searched but rather spot searches aimed at establishing the number of pest inhabiting a smaller test area. Should this concept reach full operational field use; it has the potential to save extreme amounts of resources and funds.

Seasonal cotton region weather outlook form October 2014

Cotton production Is the most intensive of all the broadacre industries in Australia, and the science behind the production of cotton is extensive. The openness and free now of information between and within every sector of the industry is the envy of other industries, and one of our greatest strengths. We are generally regarded as the most advanced cotton producers in the world. We operate in a totally deregulated and, unsubsidised system, and have done so since before I grew cotton. Ironically, the leader of the free enterprise world is now the largest subsidiser of producers in the world, and the last great bastion of communism appears to be toeing the WTO line much more than the USA, at least as far as her subsidies to cotton growers are concerned

An integrated approach to insect pest management, particularly for Helicoverpa spp. within cotton-grain farming systems has gained strong impetus in recent seasons. Current integrated pest management (IPM) practices practices focus on promoting the conservation of beneficial predators and parasitoids. In addition, the use of selective insecticides early season is recommended to delay the use of disruptive broad-spectrum insecticides for as long as possible. This strategy has had some success on the Darling Downs, South Queensland. However, a problem arises mid-late season when the fruit load is most vulnerable to heliothis attack. Typically, on the Darling Downs, adequate control of heliothis is achievable with beneficials and selective insecticides until peak squaring. After this time, IPM is disregarded as pest pressure increases, disruptive pesticides are used and input costs escalate. Minimising input costs is a prerequisite for profitable dryland cotton production and any tools that may reduce our dependence on expensive conventional insecticides will help achieve this goal. A huge void in our knowledge of IPM is how to move beneficials into crops when they are needed. Several products are available in the marketplace that claim to have predator-attracting capabilities. Animo-feed UV, made by Agrichem Manufacturing Industries Pty Ltd, is a concentrated protein, Amino acid and complex sugars formulation that is widely promoted and used in the cotton industry as a food spray and attractant for beneficials. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of Armno-feed UV in moving beneficials into dryland cotton from an adjoining unsprayed cotton strip in mid-late season.

A difficulty faced by growers using nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) products such as Gemstar can be inconsistency of the products' performance for Helicoverpa spp. control. This problem has lead to the advent of additives developed to improve biopesticide performance. In this paper we investigated several liquid additives for their potential to augment the performance of Gemstar. The results suggest that Aminofeed and Aminofeed UV both increase the efficacy of Gemstar.

The cotton growing environment can be a high risk environment for bees. Periods of extended dry weather can make cotton one of the most attractive sources of pollen and nectar for honey bees, as pollen sources in native vegetation become increasingly scarce. Cotton is recognised by the honey bee industry as a potentially useful feed source for bee breeding and honey production. The reduced reliance on insecticides in the cotton industry has increased the willingness of some hive owners to place bees in close proximity to cotton – meaning growers should be vigilant to the presence of honey bee hives in their area, particularly as honey bees can travel for up to seven kilometres in search of pollen and nectar.

Historically, green mirids are common pests of seedling cotton but not during fruit set and green vegetable bugs(GVB) are rarely a problem. This is because broad-spectrum pesticides applied against Helicoverpa larvae usually control mirids and GVB through the rind- and late season. With the introduction of Bt-cotton however, the number of Helicoverpa sprays used has declined allowing green mirids and GVB to build to potentially damaging levels in some instances. Spraying for Helicoverpa is expected to drop even further with two-gene cotton (Bollgard II), raising the concern that sucking pests may become a significant problem during the fruiting period. The effect on yield and fibre quality by the increased feeding of mirids and GVB on bolls not well understood. In one of the few studies to date, Khan and Bauer (2001) found that damage to young bolls(<10 days old) often causes shedding. Damage to older bolls (10-20 days old) usually does not cause shedding but the damaged locules may not develop properly. This has implications for the capacity of the crop to compensate for damage by producing more bolls, making undamaged bolls larger or making undamaged locules in damaged bons larger.

Ladybirds are common beneficial predators that feed primarily on a aphids in Australian cotton crops. Predation by ladybirds Helicoverpa spp. eggs has been observed, however the relationship between predator density, egg density, aphid availability and habitat size has not been investigated. Under laboratory conditions three banded ladybirds were the most effective egg predators and variable ladybirds the least effective of the four ladybird species tested. In greenhouse experiments three banded and variable ladybirds showed similar predatory capability and under natural conditions variable ladybirds may be the most effective coccinellid predators of Helicoverpa spp.