The third year of the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC (Cotton CRC) has seen a transition from the start-up phase to a phase of consolidation. Much of the success of the Cotton CRC to date has been the result of the vision and capabilities of the previous CEO, Mr Guy Roth. I would like to thank Guy for his hard work with the Cotton CRC and particularly for the support and assistance provided to me through this transitional period. In addition, I would also like to congratulate the staff of the Cotton CRC for their contribution, commitment and professionalism. My key focus has been to ensure we consolidate and continue the excellent work already undertaken in the 300 current and completed projects that the Cotton CRC manages. These projects are geographically spread across the key cotton growing regions, as well as the Kimberly region in Western Australia, the Burdekin region in North Queensland and Geelong in Victoria. The clear success of the projects is due to the collaborative research and extension efforts across the twelve participant organisations, 36 affiliate organisations and external research groups. Ongoing drought has had a considerable impact, not only on cotton production, with the smallest crop area planted in Australia for 30 years, but also on the available human capital residing in the regional communities. With little or no inflow into water storages or natural flow in rivers, public attention has been focused on the use of water for irrigation in the Murray Darling Catchment. Water use remains a strong focus of the Cotton CRC and existing projects in the farm and catchment programs focus on research in this area. With the recent addition of the $5 million National Water Commission water storages project, we now have research that spans the catchment down to the farm scale, including groundwater, riparian health, deep drainage, evaporation, plant physiology and farming systems. Having a greater understanding of water use and management practices will be important to the industry given the potential uncertainties, especially in relation to climate change. Education and training continues to be an important dimension of the Cotton CRC. There are currently 38 PhD students conducting research across a broad range of projects in the industry. Additionally, the Cotton CRC supports The University of New England Cotton Production Course, the CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering Cotton Field to Fabric course based in Geelong and the new Aboriginal Employment Strategy Schools- Based Traineeship project at the Australian Cotton Research Institute, Narrabri. A primary focus for the Cotton CRC during 2007–08 has been reviewing the existing Best Management Practices (BMP) program. The Cotton CRC has contributed significantly to collaboratively support and resource the new BMP strategy for the industry. This occurs not only through our investment in research but also adoption. BMP is pivotal to providing a driving force for taking appropriate research through to best practice and then effecting practice change. The premium status of the Australian cotton crop in the global market continues to be under threat. The uptake of biotechnology and the rapid improvement of fibre quality from competitor countries are impacting on the ability of Australia’s marketers to secure a premium in the market place. Cotton germplasm producing extra long staple (ELS), bred by CSIRO, has been trialled successfully in the 2007–08 season. New elite ELS varieties are in advanced stages of production and will become available over the next three years. Existing processing technology does not allow the full utilisation of the additional length that these varieties generate. The Cotton CRC has reacted swiftly to divert resources in the Product program to address this issue and build knowledge and technology for the future. Looking ahead to the next twelve months, the Cotton CRC has recently developed several key projects that will further support extension and the uptake of research. These include the appointment of the Farming Systems Scientist (Michael Braunack) through CSIRO, our Research Economist (Janine Powell) through the NSW Department of Primary Industries and an Education Officer (Trudy Staines) through CSIRO. These positions will assist the Cotton CRC with the crucial link of taking the science and delivering it to the industry and community audiences alike. I would like to thank DIISR, the Cotton CRC’s participant and affiliate organisations, the Board of Directors, our research scientists and their teams, the extension and management team, collaborators and, importantly, the Cotton CRC staff for their support, hard work, and focus on our vision of Adding $1 billion of additional benefits to the industry and the catchments and communities in which it operates. Whilst I have had the opportunity to catch up with many people associated with the Cotton CRC, I look forward to meeting those I have not yet had the chance to meet at the upcoming Science Forum and Third Year Review in October.

Why so important to get defoliation right? How not getting defoliation right has flow on effects right down the line, from increasing costs and reducing profits to growers and poor fibre quality which affects australia’s reputation as producing some of the world’s best cotton.

Irrigators with general security water entitlements operating in the NSW Border Rivers, Gwydir, Namoi/Peel and Macquarie/Cudgegong water management areas are eligible for grants to undertake irrigation modernisation on their farms.

Spray application expert Bill Gordon tells how to best apply defoliants to get the best results from this critical operation.

The project has made significant progress in researching improved monolayer products and associated application systems. A range of new generation monolayer materials have been developed and tested. Some show far superior evaporation and volatilization resistance compared to current commercial products. Initial small scale field trials of one product E10 show promising results. Provisional patents have been lodged to protect the design philosophy for new generation monolayers. Potential sensors for mapping monolayers have been researched. Technical scoping and preliminary design of monolayer monitoring application and control systems has been completed. Funds to progress this work are being sought from Queensland Government and National Program for Sustainable Irrigation

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is sensitive to cold conditions during germination and establishment. Identifying cultivars with cold tolerance offers opportunities for future breeding efforts and provides growers with increased flexibility for sowing date options. Developing cultivars with chilling tolerance will allow cultivars to withstand the cold shocks during early cotton growth (15th September - 30th November), allowing better establishment under cool conditions, and reducing the costs associated with replanting. This project aims to utilise germination chill protocols, and investigate their applicability in determining genetic variation in seedling chilling tolerance. Seeds of ten cultivars (DP16, Namcala, Pima A-8, Sicala 350B, Sicot 289RR, Sicot 71, Sicot 75, Sicot 81, Siokra V-18 and TL) were germinated at four temperatures (14, 18, 22 and 30) and germination probability (percentage) was determined after 4, 7 and 10 d. Ten seedlings were selected randomly and the length from the hook of the hypocotyl to the tip of the radicle (seedling length) was measured. Laboratory tests were correlated to an early planted (August) field experiment conducted 40 km west of Narromine, central west NSW. Seedling length provided a better indication of cold tolerance than germination probability. The best correlation with field emergence was with the Cool-Warm Seedling Length test (average of seedling length between cool temperature 14°C at Day 7 and warm temperature 30°C at Day 4) which provided an R2 of 0.73. The Cool-Warm Vigour Index (average of seedling germination between cool temperature14°C at Day 7 and warm temperature 30°C at Day 4) also provided a correlation with field emergence only when Namcala (outlier) was removed (R2 = 0.62). The electrolyte leakage test provided a negative correlation with field emergence. The laboratory and field experiments indicated that there was some genetic variation in the selected cotton cultivars, with Namcala, DP16, Sicot 75, Sicala 350B and Siokra V-18 showing some degree of cold tolerance during field emergence and laboratory tests. Further research is needed to test more cultivars to validate the Cool-Warm Seedling Length test (Tuck Test).

Workplace health and safety legislation introduced in 2012 means farm owners and managers are responsible for the safety of everyone working on their farm, including contractors and volunteers.

Despite the long history of cotton production and research, little is known about the genes that control the initiation and growth of the cells on the outer surface of the seed that become fibres. The work described in this thesis uses cDNA microarray technology to study global gene expression differences between normal linted cotton and two lintless mutants to uncover the genetic control of lint production. By comparing differences in gene expression between the mutants and the wild-type, a small number of genes that might be important for fibre development were identified, including a transcription factor GhMyb25, which was assumed to be the best candidate for a master fibre control gene. During normal lint production this gene is predominantly expressed in the cells on the surface of the seed at the same time that fibre cells start to grow, but also in the trichomes on the leaf and stem of developing plants.

Over-expression of GhMYB25 in transgenic tobacco led to an increase in the number and branching of multicellular trichomes on the adaxial leaf surface. By contrast, ectopic expression of GhMyb25 in Arabidopsis had no effect in trichome development suggesting that Arabidopsis and tobacco trichomes are regulated differently.

Over-expression and silencing of Myb25 in transgenic cotton was also performed to validate its role in fibre development. Analysis of primary transformants revealed that the RNA interference (RNAi) of GhMyb25 caused a significant reduction in fibre development, as well as, the production of distorted fruits with aborted seeds. Apparently the suppression of GhMyb25 in the embryo has inhibited the development of the seed entirely. Trichome development on the petiole and leaves of the transgenic lines was also affected by the suppression of the GhMyb25. The inhibition of the trichome development correlated inversely with the over-expression phenotype, where an increase in trichome production on leaves and stems was observed from a preliminary analysis of a number of primary transformants.

The outcomes of this project will provide a better understanding of the genes controlling fibre development and should enable genetic engineers to design new strategies using biotechnological approaches to genetically improve cotton fibre yield and quality.

Final report of high yielding grains project

A technique to identify the host crop of Heliothis moths by analysis of elemental content has been progressively developed over several seasons(CRC Project CS13L, Fin 1986). In this grant period we finalised statistical analyses of the existing database for individuals from known hosts and have developed a procedure for allocating unknown individuals collected in cotton crops to probable hosts (developed by Dr. Richard Motton CSRO Biometry Unit). The procedure (based on Newton's method with gradient matrix calculated by formula) allows for moths to be allocated to one of five major host crops or to a class derived from none of the major crops and includes a facility to use only a subset of possible hosts in an allocation run. The procedure gives acceptably accurate estimates of the proportion of a sample of moths derived from major hosts, though to date it has been validated using the same database as used to produce it. Further data for individuals from known hosts is being collected this season for validation purposes. We have commenced processing elemental data for unkonwns collected in 1985/86 using the procedure but have encountered a problem which may be due to dust contamination of field caught moths. The elements Fe, P, and Mn are the most important in discriminating moths from different crops (accounting for 85-90% of the variation), but most of the moths taken from traps show levels of Fe (and Al and Si) outside the range of any of those reared from crops, while levels of other elements are similar to those for moths reared on crops. Elevated concentrations of Fe, Al and Si are characteristic of sample being contaminated with soil, which may easily occurring pheromone traps from which the moths are collected.