The companion project to SOILpak, "Soil management training for advisers to cotton growers" has made a good start in familiarising consultants and agronomists with structural recognition. The series of soils workshops for consultants and agronomists that started in 1990 in the Macquarie Valley (Abbot 1990) is now complete following the running of the Central Queensland workshop at Emerald in May 1992.

We have conducted a series of experiments at Trangie, Warren, Narrabri and Moree to examine the use of shallow leading tines in conjunction with rippers. Ripper depths of 300, 450 and 600 mm have been investigated. Several leading tine configurations were used at depths of 150 and 300 mm. The leading tine configurations were based on chisel plough tines fitted with chisel points and sweeps. Soil disrurbance and the forces on the tines were measured. Soil disrurbance was greater when leading tines were used. Some leading tine configurations reduced the total draft in some cases while other configurations increased draft. Ripper depth was the most imponant factor in detennining total draft. The use of shallow leading tines allowed more soil to be loosened with reduced ripper depth and draft.

Obviously, avoiding trafficking wet soil is one means of avoiding soil structural damage. Another is to use a vehicle with lower ground pressure, by using dual tyres, wide tracks, etc. But which is more important - soil moisture or vehicle ground pressure? What are the trade offs? This article seeks to explore these questions.

Retained hills are now a well-established management strategy in the Australian Cotton Industry. They provide the Industry with a unique strategy to control soil compaction, ensure long-term maintenance of the soil resource, and provide lower cost land preparation. Growers should be aware, however, of several potential management problems inherent in the system, especially as approximately 80% of irrigated cotton is now grown in retained hills. There are two potential problems: keeping compaction out of retained hills, and ensuring wheel compaction is removed if hills need replacing. The frrst part of the paper will address this. The answer to both lies in a working knowledge of wetting/drying cycles, that is the process that controls structure formation in most cotton soils. The second part of the paper will address this.

This paper provides an overview of the Cotton Research and Development Corporation project DDI lL, which is in its final year at the University of Southern Queensland. The main aim of the project is to develop a suitable management system for cotton growers that will minimize tillage requirements and avoid current problems with soil compaction caused by heavy machinery. The project is based on a controlled traffic approach that maintains compacted lanes for machinery and a compaction free plant environment

Numerous alternative control techniques have been available In various forms for many years. Unfortunately none of these alternatives have been regarded as practically or economically viable. Obviously such a statement results from a comparison of these alternatives to the extremely effective, quick and cheap control provided by lnsecticid.es. Now that the resistance situation is beginning to develop further and the acceptance of insecticide use is being questioned, the comparison between insecticides and the alternative techniques becomes much closer.

ARRIP is a national database of rural research in progress. It was developed by the Department of Primary Industries and Energy, and CSIRO, in response to a request in June 1982 by the Standing Committee on Priorities for Rural Research in Extension to develop an inventory of rural research. The major aim of this initiative was to publish a Compendium of rural research in order to better co-ordinate research activities throughout Australia. A pilot publication was printed in 1984 with subsequent issues in 1985 and 1986.

With current Australian cotton production around 1.25 million bales this equates to C.R.C. research expenditure of A$3.2 to 3.5 million per year - allowing for reserves, administration, etc. These C.R.C. funds are used to assist selected projects, and in most cases they are supplementary to funds being spent by the relevant institutions.

The aim of the present work was to assess if the fatty acid profiles of moths are useful in establishing different larval dietary histories

The aim of this project was to develop a mass screening technique for the selection of cotton plant antibiosis resistance (AR) to H. armigera.