The issue being addressed? With yields now approaching cotton's known physiological limit, the focus is on how to sustain productivity growth through crop management. A key component of this is staffing, yet there are longstanding and unresolved workforce issues in the Australian cotton industry. These include the difficulty of attracting new entrants because of the poor perception of agriculture as a career, low levels of formal education and training in agriculture, and restructuring resulting in fewer, larger farms combined with reduced familial succession

Issue being addressed Australian cotton farmers have achieved substantial reductions in insecticide use from their adoption of GM technology to control Helicoverpa spp. However they now face problems associated with a wider range of insect pests that were once incidentally controlled, such as green mirid, cotton aphid and white fly. These pests have few insecticide options available for their control, forcing ongoing use of older, broad-spectrum insecticides that are likely to face increased regulatory scrutiny. Reliance on limited insecticide options can also create other problems by destroying beneficial insects and causing pests to become resistant over time. Thus, there is an urgent need to investigate and develop new alternatives such as pesticides derived from natural materials (biopesticides) and chemicals that mediate interactions between organisms (semiochemicals).

Issue being addressed? Volunteer Roundup Ready cotton is becoming an emerging weed issue for the Australian cotton and grains industry. Innovative weed management strategies that specifically address volunteer cotton are required to eliminate a potential and significant problem for the industry into the future. A key component of volunteer cotton management is the ability to detect volunteer cotton in fallow fields and amongst other crop. An image analysisbased detection system is being developed to achieve such discrimination

Aim To provide the cotton industry with an update of the rates of work related serious injury and fatality to ensure that the most current and complete data possible is made available so that any priorities for and/or actions to improve cotton farm health and safety, can be based on up to date, comprehensive evidence

Current RPA (Remotely Piloted Aircraft, also known as drone) technology is capable of a wide range of applications. Detailed crop inspection has become possible as RPAs become cheaper and can easily carry light-weight cameras. This research will design a RPA system to autonomously monitor cotton fields, and explore the improved camera capabilities for new navigation techniques. This method of surveillance will give more frequent in-crop information than currentlyavailable crop surveillance methods. The autonomous capability of the RPA will enhance on-farm useability

In 2010-2011 some 96% of the strains tested showed some level of neonicotinoid resistance (ie Actara-Cruiser or Shield) but that had fallen to 29% of cotton strains in season 2011-2012 and a similar 33% of cotton aphid strains in season 2012-2013. It is possible that neonicotinoid resistance will plateau at approximately 30% of populations tested. For the 2013-2014 season cotton aphid was particularly difficult to find although eight strains were eventually collected. This season cotton aphid will be additionally tested against sulfoxaflor (Transform) and spirotetramat (Movento) for resistance. During 2012-2013 two-spotted mite (TSM) was susceptible to diafenthiuron (Pegasus) only with all strains showing some degree of bifenthrin (Talstar) resistance and half the strains indicating some abamectin (Agrimec) resistance. The detection of propargite (Comite) resistance in 1 of the 4 strains tested is of concern because it is a mainstay product for mite control. TSM made resurgence during 2013-2014 with some thirteen strains collected (normally ca. 5). Despite ubiquitous and large thrips numbers reddened two-spotted mite hotspots were evident in some fields with mites requiring targeted sprays. Work has continued preparing for possible resistance in mirids and these past two seasons' baseline data was generated against clothianidin (Shield) and fipronil (Regent) and discriminating doses for resistance detection interpolated. For season 2013-2014 some growers thought fipronil (Regent) may not be working as reliably as before so samples were collected and for the first time are to be evaluated using molecular methodology for a fipronil (Regent) resistance causing gene

Textiles are commonly made from intimate blends of polyester and cotton, which makes recycling of such textiles very difficult through mechanical means. We report the use of ionic liquid in the separation of polyester cotton blends. By selective dissolution of the cotton component, the polyester component can be separated and recovered in high yield. This finding presents as an environmentally benign approach to recycling textile blend waste

The Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre was the award-winning venue for the 16th Australian Cotton Conference which attracted more than 1500 representatives from the industry including cotton growers, researchers, agronomists, farming consultants, merchants and representatives from the Australian cotton industry. The biennial Conference is a joint venture between Cotton Australia and the Australian Cotton Shippers Association - two peak industry bodies who ensure best practice for Australian cotton production and export, and protect the interests of the industry by tracking and streamlining compliance, quality control, CSR and creating new market ventures

Fleabane has become increasingly problematic in the farming system due to its prolific seeding rate, ability to emerge in different seasons and tolerance to glyphosate. It is a major weed of rotations crops, fallows, channels, roads and even cotton. Diuron has become the herbicide of choice for controlling fleabane in the cotton system, but it is only a matter of time before resistance to diuron develops. A long term, whole farm integrated approach is needed to manage fleabane, effectively controlling it in all parts of the farming system with a range of tactics, not just relying on one herbicide

Standard techniques for monitoring conventional insecticide resistance in Helicoverpa armigera originally developed for broad-spectrum contact insecticides involved topical bioassays of insects in the F0 generation. However, limitations are associated with these techniques for monitoring resistance to newer selective products. This paper describes revised protocols for monitoring resistance to emamectin benzoate, chloranthraniliprole and indoxacarb including using F2 screens to identify non-dominant genes that may enhance survival. Additionally, the introduction of bioassay methods appropriate for products active by ingestion is also described. These protocols will increase capacity for isolating low frequency resistance which is difficult to detect using traditional monitoring techniques.