CRDC's Annual Operating Plan for 2004–06 (AOP): the second annual operating plan under the CRDC's Strategic R&D Plan 2003–2008.

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Heliothis armigera has been a growing problem for many years, While the cotton producers have borne the brunt of it, reports of increasing damage to crops such as pulses, sorghum an maize have become more frequent. The subtropical climate of the Darling Downs, Burnett and Dawson Callide regions along with the number of host crops grown in the region have created a paradise for Heliothis and devastation for field crop growers. The cotton industry has had avoluntary chemical usage strategy for many years, however, due to many of the same chemicals being used on other crops, chemicals are failing because of the continuous exposure of Henothis to the same chemical in different crops e. g. Carbamates on chickpeas, cotton and mung beans. The last 2 summer seasons have seen many chemicals on the verge of failure as the leve of resistance rose with spray failures occurring when application rates and timing were not 100%. There has been little or no margin for error. In December 1997, Downs growers were warned that cotton may become unviable with years If Heliothis armigera was not managed. In some Downs areas in 1996-97 and again in 1997-98 Heliothis egg lays reached up to 800 per meter with very small and small larvae at to 7 per meter during periods of the season. This pressure meant that many grain crops were also at serious risk i.e all pulse crops and unacceptable damage to sorghum, maize, sunflowers and millets. Added to this list of woes was the poor performance of Ingard cotton. This along with very limited new technology available at a prohibitive price, indicated that a cropping Armageddon was fast approaching

Determining the level of insect infestation which causes economic damage (yield loss or significant crop maturity delays), is no simple task. The more we learn about plant responses to damage and those factors which effect plant and insect growth or survival, the more it is apparent that insect thresholds need to be dynamic rather than set on any one predetermined value

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.