The future of the Australian Cotton industry will be determined by grower's ability to meet the needs of our customers. The first thing that needs determining is 'who is our customer?' Presently I'm sure most growers consider that the merchants our customer, because that is who pays us for our cotton However, we must change our thinking, because it is the spinning mill that is our true customer, and for there to be a future marketplace for our cotton, we must produce a fibre that suits the mills, not the merchants requirements

Irrigation with either moderate to highly saline and\or sodic water can create problems within the root-zone. Application of saline water for example can lead to increased salinity within the seedbed if there is insufficient leaching of the salts through the soil profile. Where there is excessive deep drainage, shallow saline water tables may be created and result in the concentration of salts within the root-zone through capillary rise. in order to determine the possible effect and long term sustainability of irrigated agricultural production in a particular area two things are necessary. The first is information about the spatial distribution of soil and water resources suitable and currently being used for irrigation. This can be collected by reconnaissance soil surveys (Odeh et al , 1996) or from already existing soil and water quality information. Secondly, soil\water balance models can be used effectively to estimate soil salinity build-up and deep drainage beyond the root-zone using this information.

Two years ago, the first draft of the Best Management Practices Manual for minimising the impact of Pesticides (&quote;Manual&quote;) had just been released. It was a booklet of some 70 pages, which listed a number of practices (with some details explaining the reasoning behind the practice), under four major headings. Apart from comments on some of the technical issues contained in the draft, and queries over the use of 'mandatory' language in the best practice statements, there were three issues which were raised consistently.

The CSIRO Advanced Lines Trial (ALT) has been run cooperatively by CSIRO and DPIQ for 28 years and is used as the last stage in our breeding line evaluation. Early generation testing following single plant selection involves unreplicated progeny rows at the Australian Cotton Research institute, further progeny row tests and multiple row replicated trials at a limited number of farm sites. At each stage, lines with poor seedling vigour, disease susceptibility, poor fibre quality or low yield are removed from further testing. The ALT now involves 14 irrigated sites in all major cotton growing regions in Australia from Emerald to Hillston. Management is normal commercial practice including full insect control. Entries in the ALT include promising breeding lines, commercial standards and long term controls. Some Ingard varieties are included in the ALT even though the trials are conventionality sprayed This is a test of Ingard yield potential and also gives an indication of insect pressure. Plots consist of three or four rows from 10 to 14 metres long and four replications are used. The centre rows of all plots are harvested with a modified picker, the seed cotton weighed and a subsample is taken for ginning at Biloela or Narrabri and fibre quality analysis at Narrabri. The most promising lines are retained in the scheme and also seed increased. In this way, by the time good performance is confirmed, sufficient seed is available for large scale testing and final seed increase for commercial use

The green mind, Creontiades dilutes (Stal) (Hemiptera: Miridae), is an important but sporadic pest of cotton which destroys small squares on cotton plants (Pyke and Brown, 1996). Destruction of the squares occurs during feeding when mirids insert their stylets into the plant tissue and release pectinase, causing desiccation and death of the surrounding cells (Pyke and Brown, 1996). Green minds are often controlled in conventional cotton crops by the same broad-spectrum sprays used to control heliothis. Specific sprays of organophosphates or pyrethroids are sometimes necessary to control green mirids, but these products disrupt beneficial organisms. Their use should be limited in order to conserve beneficial numbers during the pre-flowering period of crop growth. The pest status of the green mirids is expected to increase on INGARD cotton for two reasons. Firstly, fewer sprays are required to control heliothis in INGARD cotton, so coincidental control of green mirids is less likely. Secondly, INGARD cotton produces a protein that is highly toxic to caterpillar pests, but the toxin has no effect on green mirids. Alternative products for green mirids control are essential. Two new chemical products with promise for mirid control were bio assayed with standard products currently used to control green mirids in cotton and other crops. Knowledge of the required doses of these insecticides can be used to determine doses for field testing of the products.

Groundwater is water that has drained through the soil and accumulated at depth within the deeper subsoil or in bedrock. Groundwater recharge is the process whereby the surplus of infiltration over evapotranspiration drains from the root-zone and continues to flow downward through the so-called vadose-zone toward the ground-water table (Gee and Hillel, 1988). The vadose zone is the volume of deeper subsoil, that is not as biologically active as the root-zone, where deep drainage or recharge occurs. The vadose zone is as heterogenous in nature as the topsoil it lies beneath and because of its inaccessibility is more difficult to map and hence understand the processes occurring in this part of the subsoil. In areas where irrigation is carried out extensively and over a prolonged period of time, such as the irrigated cotton growing areas of northern New South Wales, information is necessary in order to determine the amount of excessive infiltration through the topsoil and the quantity and fate of the deep draining waters through the vadose zone.

We have carried out one season of experiments on plant growth regulators that have not been used commercially in the Australian industry before (Glycinebetaine, Gibberellic acid and PGR TV) and compared these to Pix. These novel plant growth regulators may provide an important tool in improving fruit retention in cotton. Further, other important gains in efficiency may occur with the use of these regulators. These include the possible setting of fruit at lower node positions, which in turn may improve earliness, reduce late season insect control costs and reduce late season water applications.

This paper aims to present the breeder's understanding of fibre and variety characteristics for the next decade. We need to think on that time scale because that is how long it takes us to produce a new variety. In addition, ginning and spinning investments need to consider times of that magnitude to get value from new equipment which may have higher fibre quality targets. What will spinners require? The last two seasons have highlighted shifts in market preference for fibre properties. Base levels for many fibre properties have narrowed, with preference for micronaire between 3.8 and 4.5 (and higher discounts for micronaire above 5.0); fibre length preference is now above 1.125 inches, particularly for some end uses. Fibre strength preference is now above 28 g/tex. These shifts are in addition to the preference for reduced neps, more uniformity in all properties, less trash and no contamination. Our breeding program will utilize these ctiteria in selection at all stages. For segregating material in the early stages of breeding we will exclude lines more aggressively on HVl fibre data. At the end of our breeding timeline, there may be lines ready for release which will be terminated because fibre properties are marginal

The relationship between early season insecticide use and later outbreaks of aphids was investigated in three field experiments. Outbreaks of Aphis gossypii occurred in cotton treated with thiocarb, but not that treated with endosulfan or dimethoate. All insecticides caused significant reductions in predator abundance. Significant negative relationships were found between the abundance of predators early in the season and the final abundance of aphids. Predation is implicated as an important factor influencing the early season survival of aphids.

In this paper we present data on the effects of N fertilizer application to a wheat rotation crop on soil strength, nutrient uptake by the following cotton crop and cotton lint yields which were obtained from two studies on rotation crop management which commenced in 1993. The aim of this research was to define the best rotation/management combination whereby yields and quality of subsequent cotton crops can be maximized and sustained over the long-term.