Australian cotton is grown in a relatively compact and contiguous part of the country. This delivers a number of efficiencies but also makes the industry relatively more susceptible to drought than, for example, grain crops grown in more diverse areas throughout the country, with major cotton regions often coming under the same weather pattern. Drought or marginal conditions prevailed over most, but not all, of the ‘cotton belt’ in the 2003–04 season. The gap between income and expenses is continually narrowing for Australian cotton growers, who face ever-increasing costs in many areas of production such as machinery (imported and thus sensitive to the rising value of the dollar) and water and freight costs. This makes the efficiency contributions from CRDC’s research and development program – efficiencies such as improved water use efficiency, lower chemical use and higher yield from improved varieties – vitally important to the continued economic sustainability of the industry Cotton’s excellent economic record and contribution has suffered a setback in the past two seasons because of the prolonged drought and the effects will be felt for the next two to three seasons. Increased efficiencies delivered by CRDC funded and coordinated research in 2003–04 and planned for 2004–05 will aid that recovery, particularly as the corporation’s Field to Fabric Initiative gathers momentum. In addition, the increased use of ever-improving Bollgard® II and Roundup Ready® varieties will continue to reduce the cost of insecticide and herbicide inputs to the crop, delivering economic, environmental and health dividends. THE 2004 HARVEST Despite some earlier concerns that the seasons conditions may cause problems with colour, fibre immaturity and neppiness (short, tangled fibres) in some regions, the quality of cotton has been good, with a significantly lower proportion falling into the discounted over-mature category than in the preceding drought-affected season. One notable feature of the season was that dryland crops (grown using only natural rainfall) in parts of the Darling Downs and the north-western slopes of New South Wales received excellent and timely rainfall, resulting in high yields and unprecedented quality premiums for a number of growers. Indications are that the 2004 cotton harvest should reach approximately 1.5 million bales, exceeding the 1.25 million bale forecast used as the basis of CRDC’s 2003–04 budget. Even with this revised figure, 2004 will see Australia’s smallest crop since the late 1980s, which means we will be unable to fulfill demand and risk losing some traditional key markets. This comes at a particularly unfortunate time for Australian cotton, with the United States and Brazil aggressively targeting those markets.

Advancing Water Management in NSW was initiated by industry and government in recognition of the importance of investing in a highly effective extension team to assist the cotton industry improve water use efficiency. In 2006 NSW Department of Primary Industries and its team of experienced cotton irrigation extension officers received funds from the Cotton Research Development Corporation, Cotton Catchment Communities Cooperative Research Centre, and both the Namoi and Border Rivers Gwydir Catchment Management Authorities to undertake intensive water use efficiency extension in NSW cotton growing valleys.

The Sustaining Rural Communities Conference – a joint initiative with the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) was a huge success, with more then 300 people attending. It explored how rural communities can remain sustainable into the future. As a result of the conference five grants were awarded to attending communities to help kick start change in their community. Publication of the Australian Cotton Production Manual 2010 provides a key resource, with advice on how to sustainably and successfully grow high yielding cotton, using either dryland or irrigation means of production. The Cotton CRC, in conjunction with I&I NSW and the Namoi CMA, released the Fishes on Cotton Farms guide. The development of a web-based glyphosate resistance toolkit allows growers to assess their on-farm risk easily and at their convenience. If growers can prevent or delay the onset of glyphosate resistant weeds on their farms, they will continue to derive maximum benefit from glyphosate, with the costeffectiveness benefits this brings. Cotton CRC researchers and extension played a major role in the identification of the exotic species, Phenacoccus solenopsis, commonly known as the Solenopsis mealy bug. Mealy bugs are sucking pests, feeding on the plant’s sap, and large populations can severely debilitate plants because the bugs compete with the plant for assimilate. CRC scientists helped growers in the Emerald and Burdekin to assess short term options to help manage and contain the mealy bug outbreak in the 2009–10 season. Extension of knowledge through the new Farm Biosecurity Manual for the Cotton Industry and the major update of the Cotton Pest Management Guide. Cottonscope, developed by CSIRO, the CRC and CRDC to improve the quality of fibre produced by Australian cotton growers and yarn quality in overseas spinning mills, has now been commercialised. Cottonscope combines two technologies developed by the same R&D partners – SiroMat (which measures fibre maturity) and Cottonscan (which measures fibre fineness) – and automatically measures cotton fineness and maturity, directly and accurately, in about 25 seconds. Findings from groundwater research help to define how groundwater levels and salinity vary, both spatially and temporally, within the Namoi Catchment. These findings will be used to further develop strategic monitoring guidelines for use by the Namoi CMA. A portable water quality test kit which quickly identifies the presence or absence of herbicides and insecticides in water has been commercialised. The Enviro Reader competition attracted 403 entries from 25 schools across six catchments, providing primary school students with basic environmental knowledge of their local areas. The first three students graduated from the joint Aboriginal Employment Strategy and Cotton CRC traineeship program. 57 storages had been assessed for evaporation and seepage losses from across the cotton industry. Findings show that only a small proportion of storages have seepage losses exceeding five millimetres a day. The suite of tools in CottASSIST continues to expand, with the addition of the new Mite yield loss estimator, which allows growers or consultants to enter mite census data and access likely yield loss and need for control.

An effective defoliation means cotton with less leaf and trash content, protects the integrity of fibre quality and keeps Australia’s reputation for high quality, low contaminant cotton intact. A poor defoliation creates issues at harvest – and they don’t stop there – these issues are passed on down the line and have negative effects for ginners, marketers and ultimately, our customers the mills and spinners. The Australian cotton industry has invested many resources to better understand the defoliation process and formulate guidelines for best practice.

The better than anticipated 2005 harvest result has underpinned the Corporation’s capacity to invest with research providers to continue the implementation of our strategic R&D priorities during 2005–06. Production is expected to be in the region of 2.9 million bales— 0.9 million bales more than budgeted. That said, while the prospects for the 2005–06 crop have improved, with good winter rains in key production areas, drought conditions and low world cotton prices are still with us and the coming year will again be challenging. Consequently, the Corporation continues to remain prudent in its investment decisions to ensure that our government and industry stakeholders gain maximum value for each dollar invested. To achieve this, CRDC is placing an increasing emphasis on doing more with less and seeking co-investment with a wide range of partners so as to collectively gain greater value from our research budgets.

Roche Final Report Plant Configuration

Final Report - Development of measures of soil health

Ecology of Helicoverpa in relation to transgenic cotton and the efficiency of refuge crops Final report

Final Report - Nutritional constraints to efficient cotton production

During the year the CRC remodelled the information delivery system to maximise the effectiveness of the conduit between research findings and practice change. The outcome has been a commercially oriented delivery system, ensuring the knowledge created within the industry is packaged into user friendly, outcome focused products. Public benefit issues have been high on the list of achievements through 2009–10, especially in the catchment and communities programs. In particular, the communities work has gained significant momentum including the release of important socio-economic work: the series of Stubbs reports leading to an overall assessment of the importance of water for a large number of regional communities.The reports added considerable information on how water provides significant jobs at the farm level and, most importantly, through the service and value adding industries in the Murray Darling Basin. The significant increase in the Community Program has been very pleasing and has vindicated the decisions to commission and seek external collaborations to assist in meeting our agreed milestones. The Cotton CRC team has now built up considerable skills and momentum in this program, which will be of prime importance to regional communities.