The 2017 Australian Cotton Production Manual is a critical reference tool for cotton growers: a one-stop-shop of on-farm cotton production information.

In the race for market share, the cotton industry faces strong competition from chemical fibres. Today, chemical fibres account for more than half the world's consumption of textile fibres, an increase of over 20 per cent since 1966 - most of it at cotton's expense. Furthermore, synthetic production is expanding at an increasing rate and synthetics are expected to capture a greater share of the growing world fibre market. Cottons traditional advantages - price and performance - no longer hold true. Cotton is no longer king.

Neps cause significant financial losses to the textile industry. This paper defines different types of cotton neps, their sources and measurements, and the current state of knowledge about research on neps. Generally, a nep is defined as an entanglement of fibres, that can be caused by environmental factors during growth, processing or are inherent to particular varieties. Biological neps are caused by trash particles entangled in the cotton and result in small dark specks in the greige fabric, but are generally removed by wet processing. Mechanical neps can be found in ginned lint, card web, yams and cloth and are strongly influenced by mechanical processing. Classicality, neps are measured by counting them in a card web, but now AFISTM can be used for high-speed measurement of neps in fibre samples. The Uster Evenness Tester measures neps in yarns as short thick spots. linage analysis is being used to quantify white speck neps on dyed fabric. White speck neps contain miniature clusters of fibres and are often not visible as defects until dyeing, rendering the fabric unsuitable for commercial use, resulting in large financial losses. It has been estimated that the U. S. textile industry has had financial losses as high as $200 million per year due to white specks. Initial research has shown strong correlation between AFISTM card sliver data and white speck content of fabric. More research is necessary to establish relationships between bale data and the quality of the finished product. Technology to measure more attributes of cotton on a larger scale is becoming available and research is needed to determine the accuracy of this data. The U. S. & Australia will be collaborating in research to: I) gain fundamental knowledge of the nature and behaviour of cotton and neps; 2) gather baseline data on the level and characteristics of neps in Australian cotton; and 3) predict white specks on fabric using high speed fibre data.

Deep drainage(DD) - water that passes beyond the - is an important process in irrigated cropping soils to ensure leaching of salts through the soil profile to deeper soil layers, the vadose zone ( the zone between the rootzone and the watertable) or to groundwater. Salt can either be naturally present within some soils or be added through low quality irrigation water. Furthermore, excessive DD may cause water table rise to the rootzone with associated salts, so precludig the growth of salt sensitive species.

DD is also an economic negative, as costs of pumping and storage are nto realised in increased yields or possible increased reas under production. The loss of irrigation waters to DD is particularily important in drought years where the rare water resource must be carefully utilised to ensure crops attain maximum yield per unit volume of applied water.

The study reported here, focused on DD water losses and the quality of those lost waters (in terms of salinity) on 7 irrigated cotton farms (all but one under traditional furrow irrigation management) in the Upper Murray Darling Basin (UMDB) near the towns of Boggabilla (2 sites) , Dalby, Goondiwindi, Macalister, Pampas and St George.

many regarded the advent of low volume irrigation devices (eg. lateral moves) with their known capacity to increase water use efficiency (WUE), (bales of cotton/unit water applied) as a 'win-win' situation, making minimum water go further, particularily as DD is almost zero. However, minimal or no DD equates to a reduced leaching fraction. This in turn can lead to a potential for increased rootzone salinity.

Several hydrological models were tested, to investigate their capacity to predict DD.

Cotton's share of world textile fibre consumption is falling and now equals less than 45%, down about five percentage points since 1986 when cotton's share was 50%. While cotton remains the single most important textile fibre in the world, the consumption of chemical fibre is rising faster than cotton, especially in developing countries and the former USSR. Total textile fibre consumption rose from 15 million tons in 1960 to 38 million in 1989, for an average rate of growth of 3.19% per year. The fastest growth in total fibre consumption occurred in industrial countries, with growth of 6.4% per year, and the slowest increase occurred in Eastern Europe and the USSR, 2.5% per year. Over the same thirty-year period, cotton consumption alone rose from 10 million tons to 19 million, for an average annual rate of growth of 2%, and cotton's share of world fibre consumption dropped from 68% to 49%.

Geophysical techniques involve the use of ground-based and airborne geophysical devices to measure physical properties of the earth. They can assist in the planning and management of irrigation developments by identifying the size and depth of aquifers, the connectivity between surface and ground water, the salinity of aquifers, the mineral composition and depth of the soil and the chances of successful water boring. Most geophysics applied to irrigation is in the form of imaging conducted

Marketing, specifically generic marketing, must be one of the linchpins of any strategy to &quote;cover our future&quote;. The fact that generic marketing must be done is a given. It has been recognised as a must for all bodies involved in marketing Australian cotton in some shape or form - Cotton Australia, the Australian Cotton Shippers' Association, and the Association of Cotton Systems Spinners'. What is not clear though, is exactly what direction generic marketing should take, or which body or bodies should be undertaking it

The imperatives for a comprehensive training scheme in the cotton industry are easily identifiable: looming skills shortage, new and complex technologies to be adopted, best management practices to be implemented and the principals of sustainable production to be digested. These imperatives are 'knowledge' imperatives, and a cross-industry team has built a prototype training structure to be tested over the next 12-18months. What is not so easily identifiable, and therefore implementable, are our 'knowing' requirements - empathetic understanding of our place in and responsibilities to the world outside the farm or departmental or organisational boundary. Knowledge, through training, has the potential to deliver substantial economic returns, but that potential is unlikely to translate to its promise if cotton industry values and visions remain out of step with those of the broader community. It is only by truly knowing why the community feels the way it does about cotton production and, therefore, why BMP is being implemented, why sustainable production is important, why new technologies are developed - that is, by learning about the learning - that industry and community goals and visions will align and the true potential of a skilled, knowledgeable workforce will be unleashed. That real benefits are returned when knowledge and knowing are combined has been amply demonstrated in this industry by the reversal of fortune of Namoi Cotton Co-operative. Its experience is documented here in a case study.

The human resource is the most important resource in our industry. Human resource managers and trainers often repeat these words in such presentations as this.

Tractors and harvesters that steer themselves would have sounded like science fiction 10 years ago, yet today there are several systems which can effectively guide machinery. Tractors and more recently cotton pickers can now steer themselves along a row with remarkable accuracy. Automatic guidance is provided by either video, global positioning or mechanical means with costs ranging from $7100 to $80,000. Most current systems are geared up for row crop situations, as much of the development work was funded by the Australian Cotton Research and Development Corporation But one of the leading Global Positioning-based systems has been used in broad acre farming for four years and it is expected that more of the technology will be adapted for cereal and pulse production in the not too distant future.