Genetic engineering involves the agronomic improvement of crop plants through the introduction of new genetic information (genes) originating from other organisms. Unlike traditional plant breeding, this is not restricted to genetic material from plants that can be sexually crossed with the crop plant, be they other varieties or wild relatives, but extends to all living organisms, from the simplest virus to the most complex animal. The universal code for all genetic information means that a plant can decode these foreign genes to produce a new product in its cells. Although the functional segment of the foreign genes might be recognised, the gene signals that control the switching on and off of genes ten_d to be unique to different types of organisms. To make a bacterial gene, say, function in a plant it is necessary to remove its own bacterial gene controls and replace them with appropriate gene controls isolated from a plant gene. Ev~ genes from other plants may require some modification of the gene controls if the donor and recipient plants are very distantly related. This construction of new gene combinations in a test tube represents the first stage in genetic engineering; the second stage is to get these essentially synthetic genes inro the crop plant. This latter process, called genetic transformation, is often difficult for crop plants, especially cereal crops, but has now been demonstrated for a wide variety of crop and pasture species such as rice, maize, luceme, white clover, tomatoes, potatoes, brassicas, soybean and cotton.

I have to tell you now that I will not be presenting such a perspective. In fact I will tend, in my address, to highlight some areas associated with consultancy and agronomy, where an increase in technology seems to be the only way to further understand the particular problem.

This can cover an enormous area because not only does technology intrude into every aspect of growing a crop, by the view of it can change drastically with each different farmer. Compare a man establishing himself on a 500 acre ballot farm in Central Queensland with the manager of a large corporate farm of over 10,000 acres in northern New South Wales.

Chemical Farming implies the use of chemicals for the control of insects, weeds and diseases. In this paper, I want to deal with the use of herbicides in cotton that can be used with, or as a substitute mechanical cultivation. I also want to consider how old products can be used more-effectively and how new ones provide more flexibility in operations. Whilst new opportunities can be provided with new chemicals, some opportunities have been lost with the old ones. Whenever a natural Ectosystem is converted to an artificial farming system amongst other things, weeds become a major problem, even to the point where financial viability is threatened.

The successful application of Agrochemicals involves an understanding of the:- target, product, equipment, droplet behaviour, and the environment.

This paper address why there are differences in the soils of the lower Namoi Valley. At present it is commonly accepted that there is little variation in the heavy day soils west of Narrabri because they have formed from a common source of material - clay deposited from the Namoi River. Preliminary evaluation of our data indicates that this explanation is too simple to explain the range of soil characteristics found in the area,

It rained a lot, and much cotton was picked on wet soil - but how much damage was, or will be, done to the soil? It is worth bearing in mind the description given in the handbook on Soil Management by Davies et al. (1977 - see ch. 8, Traffic and Soil Damage). The following is a slightly abridged quotation.

The presence of right-angle bending in cotton tap roots clearly shows the restrictions which degradation of soil structure imposes on cotton growth. The obvious solution to this problem is to break up degraded layers by deep tillage. This solution has readily been taken up by cotton growers to the extent.that deep tillage is routinely used by . some growers. Concerns have been expressed about the cost of, and time involved in, preparing a cotton seedbed by knocking down hills and rebuilding them. These concerns led to the establishment of an experiment in which cotton production on beds left in the same place (permanent beds) was compared with production on areas which were deep tilled prior to each cotton crop. The main aim of this experiment was to assess whether high cotton production could be maintained on cotton beds kept in the same place for a number of years.

To investigate soil response to compaction, a range of cracking clay soils (Vertisols) were collected from major cotton growing areas in Queensland and subjected to a uni-axial-compression. Large differences in compactibility were observed between the different soil types.

In response to many inquiries about EM38 technology, either from those who came to an industry field day (as part of the Irrigation Technology Tour Feb 2015) or who have spoken with someone else who attended, Department of Natural Resource Management (DNRM) have offered to hold a 2 day training workshop in Toowoomba . The Agenda will run through absolutely everything to do with EM38's; with a theory morning on how they work and the soil calibration calculations and an in-field afternoon taking participants out into the field to show them how to set up survey lines, take soil cores, do machine and soil calibrations, towing setups, and krieging the data to produce maps.

There is a real need to act on the momentum generated from the tour, provide assistance to those wanting to take up this technology and train users with analysis and interpretation once they get started.

The workshop was advertised in the article on EM38's for The Australian Cottongrower and so far 56 attendees have registered. For this to be offered as a free workshop, DNRM will organise the workshop and the venue and have requested CRDC pay for catering. External presenters have been invited to present (at no cost).