In a trial undertaken to determine the efficacy of selected chemistry for the control of Solenopsis mealybug on cotton picking machinery, Pulse Penetrant provided close to complete control of all lifestages targeted. The remaining treatments provided significantly lower levels of control and were considered unsuitable for minimising the spread of the mealybug. For example, Farmcleanse at 10% v/v provided the next highest level of control at 61.6% overall mortality. The mortality effect varied depending on the lifestages, with adult mortality lower than that of nymphs for all treatments except Pulse

Knowing how you are performing compared to your region or industry, facilitates continuous improvement in management and water use. Unfortunately irrigation benchmarking data has in the past not been well recorded. The performance indicators measured are generally not well defined and calculations have not been standard across the industry. We talk about bales per megalitre, but what do we mean? The cotton industry has been developing an on-going process to capture water use information from growers and consultants. There are currently web-based tools available to collect this information, including the Water Benchmarking Tool (Cotton Catchments Communities CRC (Cotton CRC) and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) 2007) and the commercially available WATERTRACK RAPID. The significance of these tools is that calculations of water use indices are standardised and are defined.

Summary * Pest managers were surveyed to benchmark mirid management practices * Many mirid sprays were applied when mirids were below threshold and fruit retention was high (>85%). * This is largely because pest managers were not allowing for differences between thresholds for visual and beat sheet sampling * Spraying for mirids at below threshold levels provided no yield advantage, but increased costs and the risk of flaring secondary pests * The results therefore validate the recommended thresholds. Emphasis needs to be placed on giving pest managers confidence in mirid thresholds so that they will adjust their interpretation of their counts according to sampling technique.

Maize or corn (Zea mays) is becoming increasingly popular as a summer crop in irrigated cotton rotations. This is largely being driven by anecdotal grower evidence of yield improvements of up to 25 percent in cotton crops grown after maize compared to back-to-back cotton. Cotton growers believe that their soils are in better condition after a maize crop with higher amounts of organic matter observed compared with fields coming out of cotton or wheat. This improved soil structure is thought to be the main driver of the increased yields. Recent research has shown that maize provides more organic matter to upper layers of the soil and extracts less water at depth compared with cotton. It is thought that the following cotton crop can then benefit from increased water availability and better soil health. Another recent study showed that microbial biomass and root density are higher in cotton-based rotations that include maize compared with rotations with wheat or continuous cotton. Maize also provides a number of other benefits to cotton growers including reduced workload in the second half of the season compared with cotton, a refuge option

The results of annual disease surveys in both NSW and Queensland continue to provide useful data on the distribution, incidence and importance of diseases of cotton in Australia. Plant pathologists at Narrabri, Brisbane, Toowoomba, Armidale, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney are continuing to investigate the relationships between the host, the pathogens and the environment and are continuing to develop and promote strategies for disease control. (See Acknowledgments) Observed trends in disease incidence and severity over time and space are cause for concern. Recent trends in farming practices may also impact on disease incidence and severity. A farming system is a complex assemblage of interacting components and changes to any one component can have significant effects

* Cotton aphid and two-spotted mite were collected from Australian cotton growing regions and tested in the laboratory for insecticide resistance., * For the third consecutive season molecular testing was used to detect pirimicarb and organophosphate resistance in field collected cotton aphid strains. Bioassay and molecular testing were conducted in parallel. Similar results where obtained by both methods in their characterisation of pirimicarb and organophosphate resistant aphid strains., * Pirimicarb and organophosphate resistance associated with control failure was detected in one cotton aphid sample from the Macquarie Valley in 2006-2007. In 2007-2008 aphids were scarce in the Macquarie Valley so no samples were collected. However one strain from St George is pirimicarb resistant and one strain from Gwydir has produced resistant isolates (a mix of susceptible and resistant)., * Prima facie acetamiprid resistance has been detected in cotton aphid for the first time but additional testing is required for confirmation., * Propargite, chlorfenapyr (Intrepid ), abamectin and bifenthrin (Talstar ) resistance were detected in two-spotted mite strains but resistance patterns to the specific chemicals were not the same across seasons

During the recent drought that affected much of Australia, particularly in Queensland and New South Wales, the volume of containerised imports through the Port of Brisbane increased significantly. Indeed as far as containers are concerned, Brisbane is now predominately an import port. This fundamental transformation has led to changes in what were traditional options for exporting cotton out of Brisbane. These changes, and other developments at the Port of Brisbane, are detailed in this paper, and will hopefully aid the cotton exporter, in the next and foreseeable seasons. Specifically, the Corporation will look at recent changes to cargo trends, container supply and type, shipping services, changing cotton destinations, warehousing, and road and rail connections.

Plant parasitic nematodes are serious pathogens of cotton worldwide and have potential to increase the severity of vascular wilts. In Australia, disease caused by nematodes has not been reported in cotton and the potential for interaction between nematodes and vascular wilts has not been investigated. We briefly investigated whether or not plant pathogenic nematodes were associated with cotton crops in the Namoi Valley of NSW, including plants with severe symptoms of Verticillium wilt

When I first received the brief from Brendon, "Young Leaders on New Beginnings for the Cotton Industry" my first thoughts were, why did I say yes. Obviously the three of us here today or the rest of the future young leaders group cannot give you straight up easy solutions that will instantly solve all of the challenges cotton faces now or in the near future. But as a team we can work together to ensure the success of the industry

, While the cotton industry and irrigated agriculture as a whole has been battered by the continuing drought, industry leaders are looking to the future. They are well away of the importance of R & D to agriculture's long term prosperity and the sustainability of rural communities. The challenge is to continue to develop innovative and resilient farming systems that successfully integrate the mosaic of multiple crops within the overlaying challenges of climate, economics and policy imperatives. The cotton industry leaders will work with the industry and other industries to develop a collaborative R & D structure beyond 2012 and welcome input and ideas on this issue