With increasing adoption of IPM practices in cotton, green vegetable bugs (GVB) have emerged as important sucking pests causing considerable damage to growing bons (Khan and Bauer 2001, 2002). GVB damage includes black spots at feeding sites on the bon, warty growth inside the bon wall and brown coloured lint. GVB is a polyphagous insect and feeds on a wide variety of field crops including cotton, coin, sunflower, a range of legumes and pulses including adzuki, mung, navy and soybeans, Iucerne, pigeon pea, fruit crops, vegetables and variety of weed hosts including wild turnip, noogoora burr, marshmallow and castor oil. Some of these hosts are more attractive to GVB than others.

Silverleaf whitefly (SLW) is an introduced pest to Australia, having first been discovered in the early 1990's. It was not until the 2001-02 season that a serious outbreak occurred on the Central Highlands and to a lessor extent the Dawson Valley, impacting on a variety of crops including cotton, peanuts, melons, sunflower, soybeans and nursery plants. It also diminished air quality (from clouds of insects) thereby affecting quality of life of townsfolk and destroyed numerous varieties of garden plants. The outbreak occurred partly due to the inability of local cropping industries to control the pest in a number of situations, especially cotton. To address this issue, the Central Queensland cotton industry and QDPl&F invested much time and effort to rapidly develop a management strategy for the pest.

Central Queensland currently enjoys an ascochyta blight free status, however the use of chickpeas as a winter trap crop has created a potential risk for the introduction of the disease. To address this problem we have evaluated alternative winter active legumes over the last three seasons for their suitability to be substituted for chickpeas as a spring trap crop in central Queensland. Field peas have been identified as being highly attractive to egg laying Helicovera spp. moths during each season and it is now our recommendation that growers in CQ use field peas (cvs Alma or Glenroy) for their spring trap crop.

The Assassin Bug, Pristhesancus plagipennis is a natural enemy with considerable promise for controlling HeIiothis (Helicoverpa spp.) and mirids in cotton. However, this promise is offset by several challenges that currently prevent its use as a commercial biological control agent. This paper will place the results of our research into context and speculate on the future of this predator and its place within cotton IPM programs

Uptakes of phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, zinc, manganese, iron and copper were measured in an experiment evaluating nutrition of cotton in a newly developed field. Uptake amounts of each nutrient were similar to reported values, although the pattern of uptake varied in some cases, possibly as a result of different temperature patterns experienced by cotton in a dry season winter production system. This data will assist with developing fertiliser programs

Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) and H. punctigera (Wallengren, commonly called heIiothis, have historically been the primary focus of cotton pest management in Australia (Fitt 1994; 2000). The full commercial release of second-generation Bt cottons (BOLLGARD II ), scheduled for the 2004-05 season, is set to radically change the hierarchy of key insect pests of cotton by ending the dominance of hellothis. By virtue of its highly effective built-in chemical defence resulting from stacked Bt genes, BOLLGARD II is widely expected to be much less susceptible to heIiothis damage than conventional or first-generation Bt cottons (INGARD). Central Queensland (CQ) cotton growers are among those that stand to benefit enormously from access to the new technology. Among the key benefits of the new technology are a significant reduction in insecticide use and the resulting benefit to the CQ environment and its inhabitants. However, access to new technology in the CQ region comes with a price tag that involves diligent adherence to the regions unique area-wide heIiothis management program and Bt resistance management strategy. Support for and compliance with these and other best practice options requires an understanding of the factors underwriting access to Bt cotton technology and, often, a gentle reminder of the way things used to be. The objective of this paper is to provide a historical overview of heIiothis research conducted in CQ since 1996, leading up to the current situation and the imminent release of BOLLGARD II in the region.

In modem society there has never been more emphasis placed on the accuracy and reliability of spatial information used for management of natural resources. As management decisions regarding environmental and built resources are being more closely scrutinised, so too are data used for decision making based on alternative land uses. Therefore the collection of accurate natural resource data and their processing into useful information are of utmost importance. In recognition of these requirements, the Australian Cotton Cooperative Research Centre funded (total funding: $37 million) a number of research projects since 1994 to make inventories of soil of the cotton-producing regions of Australia. The outcome of this project is a large amount of both quantitative and qualitative soil data covering much of the northwestern New South Wales and southwestern Queensland.

The Insecticide Resistance Management Strategy (IRMS) for cotton is designed to manage insecticide use, maintain the susceptibility of pest species to insecticides and to manage resistance where it already exists so that it does not become worse (Johnson and Farrell 2003). One pest, the two-spotted spider mite is renowned for rapidly developing resistance to insecticides worldwide. In order to prevent this happening in cotton a mite-specific component has been developed in the IRMS. This strategy is based around two core principles (1) use limitations, to a maximum of two applications of any pesticide group, and (2) rotation, ie. non-consecutive use of the same chemical. Monitoring is an integral part of the effective management of resistance in T. urticae in Australian cotton. Results of annual monitoring have chronicled the demise of the organophosphates and anticipated the need for newer chemistry (Herron et al. 1998; Herron et al. 2001). Here we present monitoring data for seasons 2001-2002 and 2002- 2003 and discuss implications for future resistance management of mites.

Cotton aphids are a potential problem for future cotton systems. Their abundance in different cotton seasons is strongly influenced by the availability of over-winter hosts, hence in the recent dry years they have generally riot been as much of a problem as they were in the years following the wetter winters of 1998 and 1999. Consequently, a change to wet conditions would see the potential for high aphid numbers earlier in the season again. This poses a risk to cotton for several reasons. Firstly, because the effect of aphids on the Growth and yield of cotton is poorly understood. Secondly, because aphids are vectors of Cotton Bunchy Top disease. Finally, because aphids are increasingly resistant to some of the insecticides used for their control, notably pirimicarb (carbamate) and most of the organophosphates (dimethoate, omethoate, profenofos, chiorpyrifos). Over the past three years we have completed experiments to determine if aphid populations affect cotton growth and yield. Such information can provide the basis for development of thresholds for control. However, it is also important to obtain information on aphid ecology and distribution that will help in developing more robust management strategies. For this reason we have also monitored the use of alternative hosts by aphids, their distribution within cotton field and within plants. In addition we also interested in the carry-over of resistance from one year to the next.

Irrigation is an indispensable technology used to augment agricultural production in the semi-and and arid regions. However, poor water management (eg. unsuitable location of reservoirs) can lead to the creation of perched water tables and secondary salinisation. In some irrigated areas in the northern Murray Darling Basin, point-source salinisation has occurred (Trialnaillis et. al. 2003a) whilst in others there is little or no evidence. This is because waterlogging and salinisation occur as a function of interactions between various biophysical factors such as agronomy, geology, hydrology, climate and topography. In order to determine where these problems may arise, biophysical features that are influenced by agronomic practices need to be generated. Stored in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the interaction between biophysical data layers can be related to where salinisation occurs, and where these conditions may be met elsewhere. Recently airborne geophysical methods have been used to develop layers (eg. National Dryland Salinity Program). The start-up-cost of around $7-121ha is prohibitive. Alternatively, salinity hazard and risk maps are being produced at catchment level (e. g. State Government Agencies) using qualitative soil/geology data and land use information. The results may lead to maps of low accuracy/interpretability. A major reason for this is that weightings given to particular biophysical layers are subjective (i. e. assigned by so-called experts). In the following paper we describe the development and spatial distribution of deep drainage (DD) risk, average clay content (0-7 in) and average salt store (0-10 in) in the cotton growing districts of Trangie and Warren in the lower Macquarie valleys of central New South Wales (see Figure I). By doing this we mapped individual biophysical layers thought to contribute to the causes of water logging at a site where soil salinisation was first reported in the Trangie district in the early 1980&#39s. Critical values thought to cause salinisation were determined: a) DD risk is greater than 0.5 beneath water reservoirs; b) average clay content (0-7 in) > 38 %; and, c) average salt store (0-10 in) > 2.5 dS/in. By using GIS type analysis we mapped where these three conditions would be met and hence create salinity hazard maps associated with the construction of reservoirs. The results are consistent with areas where salinity has been experienced. The maps also indicate where best management practices developed in Trangie district could be extended.