Honours - Using polyethylene glycol-mediated transformation when identifying pathogenicity genes in Thielaviopsis basicola

This report overviews data collected from three sources. Grower data from Cotton Consultants Australia Inc. (CCA) Grower Feedback Survey is presented in combination with information from the CCA Consultant Survey. Data were also contributed for this report from consultants who use Paddock Action Manager (PAM) software, resulting in field level data for 346 Bollgard fields and 98 Conventional fields.

Honours - Interaction of surface water and groundwater in the lower Peel valley

This project supported the cotton industries Technology Resource Centre (TRC). The TRC&#39s role is to help funnel information via different forms to appropriate destinations within the industry and community.The web is now a major interface for this information flow and as such. The TRC&#39s major role is upgrading of the cotton industries research delivery website. A major upgrade to a content management system for the Cotton CRC web site during this project has had a number of positive outcomes including:- Higher visitation rates to the site with greater than 7000 visits per month- Improved web reporting tools- Provision of web based forms for use by researchers, extension officers and CRC management to collect information.- Easier maintenance of the site including much quicker page and web structure development times.The web is the major focus for the TRC project however it also works within other parts of the information flow pathway including:Production: The TRC has assisted with production to print ready stage of a number of hardcopy information sheets and other documents including documents to support special industry needs such as the Tobacco Streak virus outbreak in Central Queensland. The TRC also produced in house a number of digital titles including the COTTONPaks CD and Darling Downs trial booklet on CD using provided copy.Targeted and General dissemination: the TRC through its maintenance of the Cotton industry mailing list has targeted segments of / or the complete cotton industry via hardcopy mail, electronic broadcast using the cotton CRC Enews (email) and RSS feeds. The electronic broadcasts are normally aimed at alerting Cotton CRC clients to information already resident on the Cotton CRC web site. Positive responses are seen to these notifications.The Cotton Catchment Communities CRC web site now acts as a repository of most public information produced by the Cotton CRC and research partners over its different programs. The Group home pages (Industry Catchments and Communities) as well as the What New and Events pages are constantly being updated to look fresh and highlight new information that is being made available on the web site.In reaching for a broader audience with the web the TRC project adapted the hardcopy Biodiversity calendar for 2008 in to a web format. This has become one of the most popular pages on the web site with hits on the main calendar page often exceeding the hits on the home page. This concept will be continued into the future and will showcase issues pertaining to cotton communities to an external audience.Internal Communications: The TRC has established staff lounge intranet pages to assist internal communications with researchers and extension officers.The TRC is an integral part of the national extension network and works closely with extension officers with distribution of information in support of improving industry practice.The TRC has provided resources, physical and digita,l for growers, consultants extension officers and researchers to access research products. It has assisted with special industry need such a TSV Issues in Queensland and The nationwide Bee alert systemAssisting with special industry needs:The TRC is in a good position to help in the response to special industry needs such as the Tobacco Streak Virus issue in Queensland where it was able to assist local extension officers with the dissemination of firstly images in support of diagnosis and then information sheets with more detailed information laid out in professional format and made available via the web and via PDF for local extension officers to print. There have been 60 Australian hits on the TSV web page since its publication. NB this is independent of information forwarded by local extension officers on the subject .Another example of the TRC&#39s response to industry need was the development of the bee alert pages on the old CRC web site these have since been updated to take advantage of features on the new CMS and The TRC has been in contact with apiarists to encourage the use of the hive notification system in cotton areas. A number of years of drought have kept apiarists out of Coolabah in cotton regions however the system is in place created by the TRC to put cotton growers and apiarists in communication when seasonal conditions change.

Final Report Developing diapause induction and moth emergence tools

With increasing focus on water used in agriculture and continued pressure to maximise efficiency within cotton irrigated systems, this project aimed to improve understanding of irrigation management within emerging systems and to develop future tools to assist with water management in these systems. This project continued research from CSP139C -'Application of crop simulation within the Australian Cotton industry' (Richards), which demonstrated the value of focussed risk analysis tools to cotton growers and developed the Hydrologic irrigation management system

Summer Scholarship: Life cycle assessment of cotton-corn rotations In today's society, global warming and climate change are two of the most important issues facing all aspects of production within Australia, and throughout the world (Fischer et al. 2002). Given this broad public concern more attention is now placed on the lifecycle environmental impacts of food and fibre production (Khabbaz 2010), including the extent to which agriculture contributes to these greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and global warming. Recently new opportunities have also emerged within Australia with the introduction of carbon trading markets, such as the Carbon Farming Initiative (Dept. of Climate Change 2011). It is therefore important to have an accurate picture of the emissions profile of these agricultural industries. Australia agriculture produced an estimated 84.7 Mt carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions or 15.5 % of national inventory emissions in 2009 (Dept. of Climate Change 2011), of this 31.5% is attributed to non-livestock activities such as cropping. There is a need for more detailed analysis to determine the impacts from different enterprises, with differing practices and emissions. For this project, case studies of cotton and corn were selected as they are two economically important irrigated crops in Australian agriculture. Australia's cotton sector is one of Australia's largest rural export earners, generating approximately $825 million in export revenue in the year 2006-07 (ABARE 2007), and even though the corn industry is relatively small in Australia, demand is increasing due to the added competition for the production of and animal feed and biofuels (Glover et al. 2008).

The Australian Cotton Centre opened in July, 2002. The ACC is located in the centre ofAustralia's cotton growing regions on the Newell Highway within Narrabri. It has since wonthe 2003 NSW Tourism Award of Distinction for New Tourism Development, demonstratingits ability to deliver a professional, high quality attraction. It focuses on combining tourismand education to achieve a greater awareness of the cotton industry as it moves towardssustainability over time. The benefits of the ACC to the cotton industry throughout Australiaare significant. The ACC is proving to be an important tool in educating the general publicabout the benefits and processes of Australia's cotton industry and providing awareness ofthe most commonly used fibre in the world - yet so little is known about it by most societies.The &#39Water Wise&#39 exhibit will join the stable of other Questacon designed exhibits within theCentre and enhance the visitor&#39s knowledge and values of environmental issues.

The Australian cotton industry relies heavily on transgenic cotton expressing Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) toxins for the effective control of the major pest Helicoverpa. The use of Bt crops has dramatically reduced chemical pesticide usage, meaning there is now a greater emphasis on integrated pest management strategies such as biological pest control using natural enemy insects. This study divulged the possible effects of the Bt toxins, specifically Cry2Ab, on natural predators and parasitoids. Two non-target beneficial insects were studied, one hemipteran predator, Nabis kinbergii, and one dipteran parasitoid, Carcelia illota. It was shown that the development time to adulthood, and the adult length and weight of N. kinbergii feeding on resistant H. armigera larvae fed Cry2Ab toxin were not affected. This suggests that N. kinbergii are able to effectively predate Helicoverpa in Bt fields. Adult length and weight of C. illota was shown to be unaffected by feeding on resistant larvae fed Cry2Ab toxin. However, there was some effect from the Cry2Ab toxin and/or the resistant genotype on the juvenile development of C. illota. This needs further investigation to determine the physiological significance, but to the best of my knowledge this effect does not transfer into adult flies, meaning C. illota are still able to effectively parasitise Helicoverpa thereby minimising the population in Bt cotton crops.

Quantify and compare the amount of water used and lost (deep drainage) in; field in four siphon-less irrigation systems and corresponding furrow irrigated fields. Quantify and compare development costs, labour savings and yields of the four systems and corresponding furrow irrigated fields. Determine and promote the most water use efficient siphon-less irrigation system. Determine grower motivation for adopting one siphon-less irrigation method over another. Educate irrigators and stakeholders on and promote the adoption of water use efficient irrigation systems, deep drainage and any salinity management issues.