It is a well known fact that Australian cotton has a reputation as a consistent supplier of high quality cotton, which needs to be accurately and consistently specified. In order to do this the Australian Industry has, since 2004, assessed it classing sector independently to allow individual classing facilities, of which there are six, to correct any technical and operational shortcomings in their practices. This work has over the last three years been conducted by CMSE in conjunction with the CCAA with funding from the CRDC. This assessment has included; conducting formal Round-robin Trials, Check Tests, both local and international, Colour Trials, updating the BMP and conducting certification audits which will ultimately assist the industry in better predicting the quality of our cotton.

The reproducibility results from the local CCAA Check Test program, whose main aim is to determine the long term reproducibility of all HVI instruments, has been consitently improving over the last three years that. The reproducibility for fibre length, uniformity index, strength and +b (greyness) are all above 90%, with the exception of Rd (reflectance) which is below 80%. This is mainly due to the fact that the current colour chart loaded in the HVI instruments reflects US cotton which is creamier than Australian cotton.

A number of classing facilities also participate in a number of international Round Trials with most classing facilities preferring the CSITC Round Trial. Australia is the only country that collects the results of its instruments for analysis as an industry. The performance of the Australian instruments in the CSITC Round Trials has been encouraging, with the Australian instruments, with a few exceptions, generally performing better than the world average, the exception being the results for b+.

The Best Management Practice (BMP) Handbook for Classing has been extensively updated and expanded over the last three years and also linked to the BMP Handbook for Ginning. All the classing facilities that were operational over the last three years have been audited and recommended for certification by CA.

ACSA have requested that the subjective measurement of colour be discontinued and replaced by the objective measurement of colour by HVI. In preparation of developing a colour chart classing results of a large number of samples from the 2008/09 and 2009/10 crop were analysed with a draft colour chart formulated for the 2009/10 classing season. Work in this area is still in its infancy and will need further work to ensure that growers are not negatively affected due to the change from visual to objective classing of colour grade.

The results from the CRDC Quarantine Treatments project have allowed the CCAA to successfully lobby AQIS to amend their procedures regarding the treatment of calibration cotton imported into the country. AQIS have agreed that samples will now only be treated by fumigation by ETO provided that the facility has an import permit and not gamma irradiation.

During 2002 and 2003 the Australian Cotton Industry through the then CSIRO Textile and Fibre Technology Division with the support of the Australian Cotton Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) and the Australian Cotton Shippers Association (ACSA) conducted a survey of 31 international and domestic spinning mills to determine what their needs and perceptions were of Australian cotton. Spinning mills in Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Korea and Australia were surveyed. This survey [1] found that Australian cotton was generally well received with all countries rating neps and Micronaire, along with short fibre content as properties that needed improvement. The low level of contamination, colour, grade, spinning ability and staple length of Australian cotton created the best impressions.

The information collected by the survey was very valuable from a marketing perspective and assisted in shaping directions in research from breeding and growing through to ginning and classing.

In 2007 a further survey was carried out by Technopak (a management consulting firm in India) on behalf of the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) and ACSA. Thirty four companies in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, India and Pakistan were surveyed. This survey’s [2] findings were similar to the findings made in the previous survey conducted in 2002/03.

The aims of the current survey described in this report were to:

1. Review / benchmark the perceptions of Australian cotton against baseline data collected in the 2002/03 survey.

2. Identify / quantify potential emerging trends with regards to raw fibre / textile demand.

3. Quantify mills’ value perception of various licensing / branding programmes (e.g. Cotton USA/BMP Cotton / Supima etc.)

4. Identify points of differentiation / value perception of Australian cotton versus other cotton origins and fibres.

5. Establish the demand potential for higher quality Australian cotton.

Thirty five companies that purchase Australian cotton and a management consulting firm were interviewed, during 2009 and 2010, in regard to its quality in yarn production. A survey-interview approach, which entails person-to-person interviews conducted around a set of scripted questions, was used. Spinning companies from Japan, Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong/China, India and Indonesia were surveyed as well as the last remaining cotton spinning company in Australia. The survey consisted of a series of background questions about each spinning company’s production, raw fibre use and spinning facilities followed by a series of more open-end questions about the quality of Australian cotton fibre. Information gathered during the survey interviews was enhanced by objective measurement of fibre samples gathered from bale lay-downs in mills of more than half the spinning companies surveyed.

As expected the 30-39 Ne yarn count range was the most important for the spinner’s surveyed, accounting for 42% of their production, followed by the <30 Ne yarn count, accounting for 39% of the production and the 40-59 Ne yarn count, accounting for 15% of the production, with 4% in the >60 Ne yarn count range. Australian cotton made up 32% of the blend in the 40-59 Ne range, 19% in the 30-39 Ne range and 5% in the <30 Ne range. There was negligible use of Australian cotton in yarn counts >60 Ne, with this market dominated by US Pima and Egyptian cotton. However with the price and shrinking of Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton there is a potential for Long Staple Upland cottons to be used in greater quantities in the 50-70 Ne count range providing they meet certain specifications. It is felt that this is an area where the Australian Long Staple Upland (ALS) fibre could be used;supported by the fact that the surveys demonstrated significant usage of the premium Upland SJV Ultima fibre in the 60-80 Ne market.

Despite the range of spinning systems and yarns produced in the spinning mills surveyed, the average impression of Australian cotton fibre properties was quite consistent. All countries rated neps and short fibre content as properties that needed improvement. The low level of contamination and stickiness, colour grade, spinning ability and staple length of Australian cotton created the best impressions.

Whilst it is difficult to be accurate about the exact proportion of Australian cotton that meets preferred specifications, from the 2009/10 bale lay-down test results it can be said that in general less than 50% of Australian cotton bales met spinner’s preferences with regards to short fibre content and less than a third of Australian cotton bales met spinner’s preferences with regards to nep values. Australian cotton was better in regard to Micronaire, strength, length and uniformity.

As far as contracted specifications are concerned, US Upland cotton from the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) cotton was still superior to competitive growths particularly in terms of strength and Micronaire, with Micronaire values typically lower and occurring in a narrower band of values. Australian cotton was ranked second after SJV with staple length and grade similar to SJV. Encouragingly, Australian cotton scored particularly well for key non-contracted specifications; particularly contamination, trash content and spinning ability where it was considered vastly superior to competing growths.

In regards to licensing programmes, product quality, marketability and traceability of product were the three most important characteristics of a branded raw cotton product, followed by social responsibility and environmental credentials, according to survey respondents. If these characteristics are translated into consumer brand recognition, which subsequently generates demand pull for a licensed product, then barriers to participation such as legal/compliance costs, increased paperwork and cost of raw material are negated.

Overall, the preferred method of bale packaging was clearly cotton bags, followed by polyethylene film, jute/hessian and lastly woven polypropylene. Plastic bale strapping was considered the most suitable method to tie bales followed by wire ties and metal straps.

Across all markets, Casual Attire was clearly identified as the key product growth category for both downstream textile demand and raw cotton demand. Street attire and Home Textiles also showed moderate demand growth. Inner attire and Sports attire showed strong overall demand growth; however their cotton usage was low, primarily due to replacement by manmade performance fibres. Formal/Business wear showed the lowest overall textile demand with cotton being replaced by easy care manmade fibres.

Across all product categories, and across all markets, comfort was clearly identified as the most important textile property by survey respondents. Handle and breathability were also considered important. Interestingly, within the Home Textiles segment, natural attributes and eco-credentials were seen as more important than in other market segments.

‘Assuring industry capacity to manage the stewardship of biotechnologies and crop protection products’, is a key tactic within the CRDC’s 2012-12 Annual Operating Plan. Refuges are key to maintaining the viability of Bt cotton by delaying resistance development in Helicoverpa to Bt toxin. However, to ensure the best resistant management strategies are in place for Bollgard III, researchers need to confirm refuge assumptions. In a previous summer Scholarship (CRC 5.10.03.31 SS) refuge assumptions were tested, finding 1) no difference on commercial farms in the number of eggs laid on pigeon pea and cotton refuges; and 2) that more moths were produced from cotton refuges. Because these results are controversial, the researcher proposes to repeat the study, but include additional measurements of nitrogen and moisture content of the refuge crop, as laboratory results indicate that these parameters affect refuge attractiveness and productivity. The aim of this project is to clarify the findings of relative attractiveness and productivity of commercially grown cotton and pigeon pea refuges. This data will enable the researcher to quantify refuge productivity.

The research strategy behind this project will involve sampling refuges on approximately 20 farms, with the direct involvement of growers to this project leading to an increased ownership and acknowledgement of the results on their individual farms.

This Summer Scholarship was instigated following a previous similar study that found no difference in either the number of eggs laid (attractiveness) or moth produced (productivity), between pigeon pea and cotton on commercial farms. This project found that pigeon pea refuges were twice as attractive and productive as the cotton refuges. It also highlighted the importance of management, as the most attractive life cycle stage for pigeon pea was with pods while flowering.

One aspect of the desire to improve the quality of the Australian cotton crop is to introduce new fibre quality imstrumentation to supplement the current Mircronaire measurement. In previous CRDC funded projects, CSIRO has been developing the Cottonscan instrumentation to directly measure the average fibre fineness or linear density of a cotton sample.

During the two year period coverd by the project, in response to industry feedback, the Cottonscan technology has been significaintly upgraded to improve the measurment time. The five existing Cottonscan instruments (Three at CSIRO, and two in research laboratories in the US) were upgraded. Comparative trials demonstrated that the performance of the instrument was not compromised by the technical upgrade.

A number of spining trial in commercial Chinese mills demonstrated that the data available from the Cottonscan measurement is valuable to the spinner in its superior ability compared to current measurements (HVI micronaire), to predict yarn quality.

Finally, during this period a commercial license to manufacture and sell Cottonscan instruments has been granted to an Australian company. The company, Cottonscope Ltd, have displayed prototype commericial instruments at a number of international trade fairs and conferences.

A group of cotton growers along the Comet River identified a problem with the infestation of weeds such as parkinsonia, parthenium and rubber vine. The areas of significant infestations were mapped and included tributaries to the Comet River. We identified an area of approximately 1500ha from the mapped areas of significant infestations, the total areas included:

• Parkinsonia Weed Control is approx. 350 ha.

• The total length of riparian weed control for Parkinsonia is approx. 106.1 km.

• The total length of riparian weed control for Parthenium is approx. 80 km.

• The total length of riparian weed control for Rubber Vine is approx. 2.3 km.

The group, through the Comet Sustainable Farming Association, decided to undertake an environmental weed control program that would not only control these weeds, but also contribute to the ongoing conservation and protection of biodiversity of this area.

Prior to commencement of control a general survey was conducted by landholders to determine areas of highest priority. Generally it was evident that the major infestations were along the smaller waterways rather than the river as there was less competition with other trees and vegetation. Generally across all tributaries to the Comet River on Goonoo, Adelong, Kronje, Arcturus and Willoughby the Parkinsonia were mostly young developing plants ranging from 20cm in height to 2.5metres with some older trees also present.

The control method used was the basal bark technique mixing Access with diesel. On average over the entire area there would have been approximately four plants per 150m. However there were areas with a much higher density with one site seeing close to 200 Parkinsonia plants scattered over just a few hectares. This particular site was located at the junction of an anabranch and the main river system where previous flood events had washed away vegetation making it an optimal location for infestation.

The total area that was treated was estimated to be approximately 85km of waterways and included the Comet River, Anabranches of the Comet River, Springsure Creek, Station Creek, Orion Creek and minor tributaries of these waterways.

Water continues to be a major constraint for cotton production systems. There is increasing pressure to improve the water use efficiency (WUE), especially of the furrow irrigation systems used by the majority of cotton growers. Farming systems, stubble management, furrow length and slope and the flow rates are all components of the system that can be manipulated to achieve higher application and distribution efficiencies under furrow irrigation.

Previous work has shown that there is significant room for improvement in both crop water use efficiency and whole farm irrigation efficiency within the cotton production system. Crop water use efficiency (CWUE) was shown to vary between 1.8kg/ha/mm and 3.2kg/ha/mm. Whole farm irrigation efficiency was shown to vary between 20 % and 80 % with an overall average of 57 %. A key approach to improving whole farm WUE is to develop an integrated approach to water management, particularly to identify factors contributing toward high crop WUE and irrigation efficiency. In addition to irrigation, in-season rainfall and stored soil moisture contribute to meeting the crop water requirement. Strategies should be developed to maximise the use of water from in-season rainfall and stored soil moisture and to improve irrigation efficiency. This will benefit the industry by saving irrigation water and enhancing the efficiency with which water is used.

For this project the take home messages are

1. More work is required to understand extraction of water under skip row cotton.

2. HydroLOGIC includes the water use efficiency calculator and this feature will be enhanced in later versions. The capacity for HydroLOGIC so account for whole farm water use being developed.

3. Data have been collected to validate the Penman-Monteith equation and this will be completed in future.

4. Retained stubble systems offer benefits in terms of reduced loss of sediment, improved water infiltration and better early season growth. However this may be countered by the need for careful management to avoid water logging, though there are strategies to do this.

5. Investigation of the effects of vetch rotations on irrigation and water use showed slightly enhanced water holding capacity of soils following vetch rotations.

6. Resurveying the growers involved in the initial WUE Benchmarking study has been planned out and surveying will be done by Mitch Carter (NSW DPI)

The core goals of this project have now been included in CSP164C.

Options for increasing yield and water use efficiency in high retention Bollgard II cotton were identified from research that studied the growth and development of Bollgard II and conventional cotton varieties. Options include increase plant size via managing for a larger plant either at first flower or at maturity, breeding for a larger plant and avoiding water stress late in flowering. The former option would involve changes to early water management and possibly early insect management to increase early leaf area.

A further outcome of this research is changes to the OZCOT model and HydroLOGIC irrigation support tool which will assist growers with management decisions when growing the Bollgard II varieties Sicot 71BR and Sicot 289BR.

This research found that high fruit retention in the absence of early main-stem tipping combined with a lower leaf area index late in flowering were characteristics of Bollgard II. As a result, boll growth was earlier and often faster than conventional cotton. Potential yield could be less due to smaller plants in Bollgard II crop with high retention because harvest index (the ratio of boll weight to total plant weight) was the same as conventional cotton However, yield differences are likely to be confined to regions with a long growing season and full irrigation, where the later fruit set and larger plant size of conventional or lower retention crops will allow them to mature a bigger crop.

The need to monitor fruit load and avoid moisture stress late in flowering of Bollgard II varieties was identified from this research. Due to the rapid increase in boll growth, Bollgard II was more determinate than conventional cotton, hence less capable of recovering from water or other stress late in flowering.

Leaf nitrogen and photosynthesis on leaves lower in the canopy was not affected by high retention, suggesting that rapid boll growth was the major cause of growth differences due to high retention in these experiments.

Future research identified from this project includes, optimal water management of Bollgard II including options to increase early plant size, the contribution of upper leaves to yield in high retention cotton and further enhancements to OZCOT that will improve simulation of crop water use and requirements, and ultimately lead to an improved HydroLOGIC DSS.

As there was a considerable contingent of Australian delegates to this conference, this report will focus on the past harvest sessions with a particular emphasis on fibre quality and ginning. Highlights were as follows

• Major factors influencing Industry needs are;

- Consumer Demand

- Spinning Technology

- Competition with petroleum – based man – made fibres (i.e. polyester etc.)

- Competition from other growth, such as corn, wheat, soy beans, oilseeds.

- Shifts in Textile Industry

- Biotechnology

- WTO; protection of trade, subsidies.

“Severity Factors in Fusarium Wilt of Cotton” aimed to investigate the factors that affect the

severity of Fusarium wilt, and by doing so enable the development of more effective

integrated disease management (IDM) strategies. The three year project resulted in several

important outcomes with direct consequences for the industry.

Outcome 1. Cool, wet early season conditions are the single biggest factor influencing the

severity of Fusarium wilt.

Disease observed in the crop late in the season is the result of infection early in the season,

say within the first 8 weeks after sowing. Therefore, when early season conditions are

conducive to infection, disease severity will be increased. High rainfall and cool temperatures

provide the most conducive conditions for infection of plants by the pathogen. When spring

rainfall is high (say >200mm before December 31), disease severity will be high. A

prolonged period of water-logging later in the season may also induce the appearance of

external symptoms (eg. wilting, yellowing, plant death).

Therefore, the best way to reduce the impact of cool, wet early season conditions is to avoid

them by planting later (say mid-October or later). This strategy enabled us to reduce disease

severity in two out of three years. Benefits from delayed sowing are reduced when diseaseconducive

conditions are prolonged and cannot be avoided. We recommend delayed sowing

as a “best bet” strategy for minimising the impact of Fusarium wilt.

Outcome 2. Fusarium is carried in large numbers on floating trash during irrigations.

We measured over 160 million colony forming units of Fusarium oxysporum per kg of

floating trash during irrigation. Floating trash is the primary means of transport of the

Fusarium wilt fungus around the farm during irrigations. Therefore it is important to 1) stop

trash from leaving the field by using a trash-retaining drop box, and/or remove trash from

channels using trash racks. The process of passaging irrigation water back through a storage

dam or settling pond also aids in removing most of the pathogen from the water.

Outcome 3. Remove stubble, or retain slashed stubble on the surface for a month or longer

before incorporation.

Fusarium wilt will be less severe where stubble from previous crops has been raked and burnt

or slashed and retained on the surface for a month or longer prior to incorporation. These

practices are highly recommended for growers with Fusarium wilt.

Other Outcomes

• Glyphosate (RoundupTM etc) and Roundup ReadyTM technologies do NOT increase

the severity of Fusarium wilt.

• Stress from heavy boll loads does NOT increase the severity of Fusarium wilt.

• There is NO interaction between black root rot and Fusarium wilt.

• Nematodes are NOT a problem in Australian cotton.

Improved understanding of cotton plant response to water stress.

Experiments to establish the response of cotton plant to soil water stress under different soil types,

climatic conditions and fruiting loads have shown that (i) the response of cotton to water stress was

different on different soils (eg heavy clay vs. sandy-loam) (ii) these differences can be accounted for

when soil moisture content is normalised for water holding capacity, expressed as the fraction of

transpirable soil water (FTSW) (iii) that climate, especially evaporative demand, can cause plant

stress even when the crop has adequate soil moisture and (iv) there was no difference in soil water

extraction and therefore root development by crops with different levels of fruit retention.

Field experiments were run over three cotton seasons at three sites with widely different soil types

around Narrabri NSW. The response to the cotton plant to moisture stress, imposed by skipping

irrigations around flowering, was measured as leaf water potential using a pressure chamber. Cotton

plants were found to behave in the same way to moisture stress on all soil types when the soil water

holding capacity of the soil was taken in to account and expressed as a percentage or fraction of

transpirable soil water (FTSW). Over the three seasons, prevailing climatic conditions have a large

effect on the ability of the plant to cope with a given level of soil moisture deficit. Even under low

levels of soil moisture deficit, on high evaporative demand days plants often experienced stress which

would impact on yield. There are some climatic conditions under which cotton plant is unable to take

up enough moisture even from a soil profile with readily available water that the plant will become

stress no matter if more water is applied.

The results of this research will provide a basis for refined irrigation management through

understanding the effect of climate and soil type to reduce water stress and provide decision points for

future management. This information will also be included in all extension methods, especially

decision support systems through inclusion in future versions of HydroLOGIC

A separate experiment conducted over two seasons also in Narrabri showed no difference in soil

moisture extraction and therefore extent of root development between crops that had high and low

levels of fruit retention before cutout. High retention crops (such as BG II®) should be irrigated in a

similar manner to lower retention cotton. The high level of early reproductive development did not

affect root development - activity.

A preliminary experiment was also conducted to investigate partial rootzone drying in cotton. This

showed no benefit from partial rootzone drying in terms of cotton plant stomatal control, biomass

production or yield.

This project has significantly improved our understanding of basic responses of cotton to soil

moisture stress and how this is influenced by climate and soil type. This knowledge is vital in

developing improved irrigation strategies for cotton and achieving maximum water use efficiency.