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Cotton Breeding for Queensland

Cultivating equiupment purchase

The End of Season Resistance Monitoring Report, by Sharon Downes, and the Conventional Insecticide Testing Report, by Lisa Bird provide a summary of the outcomes of both programs during this season.

The key outcome from both programs is that there has been no substantial change in frequency in Helicoverpa spp. in this year, as compared to recent years. It is imperative however to continue to practice good resistance management via adherence to the Resistance Managment Plan (RMP) for Bt cotton, and the Insect Resistance Management Strategy (IRMS).

A new monitoring technique has been devised which enables individual larvae to be screened for pyrethroid/endosulfan resistance directly from the field without changing their genetic makeup. The technique involves screening larvae, collected as eggs in the field, with a discriminating dose of either fenvalerate or endosulfan. This new technique has proved quite sensitive in detecting even smal l di fferences in resistance levels. It has also avoided the long delay and altered genetic makeup associated with the classical Fi bioassay method.

The autumn edition of CRDC's magazine, Spotlight, investigates the outcomes of CRDC-funded research helping Central Queensland growers overcome climate challenges. Three years after the applied on-farm research project commenced in the Central Highlands, it has now been put into practice commercially this season, with great success. In this edition, we outline the results of the research - including improved yield and quality - from a number of different local perspectives.

Also in this edition we outline CRDC's plans for the future, including the newly launched Rural.XO microhack initiative, giving disruptors and entreprenuers the opportunity to challenge the status quo; we talk about turning cotton waste into fine chemicals; and we shine a light on the increasing collaboration between the cotton and grains research endeavours, led by CRDC and our grains counterparts, GRDC.

Also in this issue, CRDC-supported researcher Rhiannon Smith goes one-on-one with the Prime Minister about trees; irrigators go south for inspiration on automated irrigation technologies; and we look at future technologies, like high tech polymers being used to curb evaporation from on-farm storages, and a new tool to monitor cotton leaf hydration.

This project was aimed at providing a rational approach to restoring soil structure after it becomes degraded under intensive irrigated cotton production. The specific aims were: 1. to compare deep tillage and deep drying as methods for restoring soil structure

OBJECTIVES * To make a direct and impartial yield comparison between two types of drip irrigation and standard furrow irrigation. This study should determine whether drip irrigation is a viable alternative to traditional methods. * To use a drip irrigation facility as a research tool to study waterlogging, nutrient uptake, water relations, physiology of fruiting and root distribution. * To determine new cultivar suitability for drip irrigation.

In 1974, following the occurrence of DDT resistant H. armigera, a resistance monitoring program for Heliothis spp. was started at the Tamworth laboratories of the Department of Agriculture, NSW. All insecticide management decisions require a solid platform of reliable data and this can only be achieved by a long-term commitment to pesticide studies. Resistance monitoring has involved obtaining of baseline susceptibility data for H. armigera and H. puntigera, monitoring of changes in resistance levels and cross resistance patterns. The routine monitoring and testing programs at Tamworth has extended naturally to studies in depth of resistance mechanisms all d genetics, since they are basic to a fuller understanding of resistance problems, and to the development of practical responses.

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