More than 2000 cotton industry personnel (including growers, spray operators, consultants

and spray contractors) participated in spray application workshops conducted throughout all

cotton growing areas. The workshops were organised at a local level and dealt with a range

of topics including setup for endosulfan; nozzle selection and setup; drift management;

weather conditions and spray targeting.

Most CRC Extension Team members attended one of the 2-3 day spray application

workshops to build their skills in this area and to allow them to deal with sonic spray issues

in their own local areas. The Extension Team is a primary contact source at the local district

level and a number of IDO's subsequently conducted their spray application workshops.

Key indicators of the success of the project include:

The workshops dealing with setup for endosulfan had to change the thinking of the whole

industry in relation to the droplet size being used for insecticide application. For years the

push had been to use small droplets but overnight the industry had to embrace the concept of

"medium" spray quality.

• Since the start of the project there has only been 8 samples with endosulfan concentrations above the export tolerance for beef (down from 229 in 1998/99) (National Residue Survey 1995-2002)

• The incidence of samples with reportable endosulfan residues has dropped from 21% to 1.2%.

The project confirmed the continued superior performance of flat fan nozzles (in relation to

newer ingestion active insecticides). These nozzles help to overcome some of the off target

losses associated with drift and evaporation compared to hollow cone nozzles.

• Use of flat fan nozzles for insecticide application is becoming the norm. More than 85% of ground applications are carried out using flat fan nozzles. (Cotton benchmark Survey 2001)

• Sales of hollow cone nozzles have decreased with an increase of flat fan types of featured during the workshops including drift reducing types ( as proscribed on the endosulfan label), conventional flat fan s and twin jet types.

The issue of weather- conditions and spraying was a focus at most workshops. Growers and

applicators are more aware of the issues and monitoring conditions as part of all spray

operations.

• Records are kept for 100% of spray applications. With 75% of respondents using the SprayLog. (Cotton benchmark Survey 2001)

• More than 6000 copies of the SprayLog record book have been distributed in the last three year.

Cotton production in Australia is vitally dependent upon the safe and efficient application of

pesticides. Timely and of insecticides, often only possible using aircraft, is required to maintain adequate control of pest species such as heliothis spp. However if pesticide droplets are transported downwind away from a sprayed area, significant contamination of susceptible areas can occur. For example, contamination of pastures due in part, to endosulfan spray drift, led to significant disruption of the Australian beef cattle industry during 1998.

Previous research (Woods et al. 2001), quantified typical downwind insecticide deposition

profiles for ultra low volume (ULV) and low volume (LV) application of insecticides and

showed that a combination of application parameters could reduce spray drift values. Subsequent to this work, the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) introduced a regime for the 199912000 cotton season that stipulated that the insecticide endosulfan should be applied by aircraft using Large Droplet Placement (LDP) techniques. Fundamentally, this application technique specified the application of sprays from agricultural aircraft using droplets with a Volume Median Diameter (VMD) greater than 250 pm, water volumes greater than 30 Llha and the use of spray booms where the distance between the two outermost nozzles did notexceed 65% of the wingspan. Used in conjunction with appropriate management strategies, it was postulated that a droplet spectra with a VMD greater than 250 pm could reduce downwind drift levels as a result of the inherent higher droplet sedimentation velocities.

LDP technology requires the use of relatively large water volumes (30 Llha and above)

compared to ULV (3-5 Llha). However aqueous droplets can evaporate rapidly, particularly

when conditions are hot and dry (eg. >30•‹C and RH < 40%). As droplets evaporate they become smaller and may travel longer downwind distances thus increasing the potential for spray drift. One solution is to add an anti-evaporant adjuvant (AEA) to the formulation. Many materials are available which are capable of modifying pesticide behaviour eg. wetters (surfactants which increase droplet spreading and penetration), thickeners (which increase initial droplet size) and stickers (which help droplets adhere to leaf surfaces). Most AEAs are thought to work by adding a skin to the water droplet thereby slowing down the rate of evaporation. There are many claims made regarding the ability of such adjuvants to modify the spray drift behaviour of pesticides.

Some claims are unsubstantiated and rigorous evaluation is required. With increased reliance on water based application from aircraft there is thus a need to investigate the evaporative process and optimise LDP technology for the aerial application of insecticides in cotton.

This project was therefore undertaken to quantify the performance of aircraft nozzle systems,

establish if any, the reductions in spray drift resulting fiom the adoption of LDP technology,

quantify the influence of certain adjuvants and investigate the impact of atmospheric stability on the downwind dispersal of droplets.

Along with length, strength, micronaire and leaf content, the colour grade of cotton is a critical component of the set of characteristics used to assess the overall quality of a sample of cotton, and thereby determine its value. The current ‘base grade’ for colour for Australian cotton is Middling (31). If the colour grade falls to even the next lower grade of Strict Low Middling (41) then a significant discount to the value of the cotton will be applied. Wet, cloudy weather at harvest, a factor beyond a grower’s control, is one of the main causes of deterioration in the colour grade. The extent of the impact of wet weather on colour grade may also be influenced by a range of factors including presence of honey dew, the type / source of the honey dew, crop architecture, crop stage (degree of boll opening), amount of sunshine following the wet and cloudy weather that the crop is exposed to, trash levels in the seed cotton, the moisture of the lint when harvested and the length time between harvest and ginning.

Honeydew studies conducted as part of CSP 1401 “Enhancing IPM in cotton systems” provided information on honeydew characteristics and behaviour under various weather conditions and was followed by a pilot study on the effect of rainfall on cotton colour during 2015/16. This study showed that extended exposure of cotton to rainfall had a marked negative effect on colour. The two-year project herein was developed to continue research into the factors affecting cotton colour in the field and reports on the results of the pilot project and further investigations into the impacts of weather, sooty mould, fungicides and effects on yarn quality.

Industry Development Officer (IDO) of Gunnedah is part of the National Extension Service. This position has been successful in increasing technology adoption by local growers. As well as playing a role in national extension activities, the position has also worked with local growers and consultants to develop extension programs focusing on local production issues.

Large scale farm trials / demonstrations, grower groups under the charter of local area wide insect management form a critical component of extension activities. The promotion of BMP to growers and the local community are also key components of this position. The position provides strong links between growers, consultants, researchers and the wider community.

The Australian industry efforts were reviewed by Dr Patrick Colyer, a plant pathologist with extensive experience in cotton, from Louisiana State University, USA. The Australian Cotton CRC, CRDC and CSD supported Dr Colyer's trip. Dr Colyer arrived in Australia on Saturday 9'" February 2002, to begin a 'tour' through Fusarium-infected cotton growing areas. Along the way, he met and spoke with cotton growers, researchers, seed companies, and consultants. Starting in Narrabri, he met up with CSIRO breeders, the pathologists at ACRI, and toured the CSD seed production facility. Meetings followed this with Deltapine breeders, growers and co~lsultantsin the Goondiwindi and Pampas areas. The tour continued with farm visits and meetings with researchers at QDPI, Toowoomba, and in Brisbane. After a weekend of relaxation on a stretch of the Queensland coast, Dr Colyer participated in the Biotechnology and Fusarium reviews on the 18"' and 19"' of February. Though not knowledgeable in the area of molecular biology, Dr Colyer was able to contribute to general discussion during the Biotechnology review and played a part in the discussion during the Fusarium review.

The objective of the mission was to promote Australian cotton as being ‘clean and green’ following the BMP and EMS marketing initiatives amongst Indonesian traders and spinners. The importance of this is reflected in Indonesia’s large cotton spinning capacity and the fact that it has several of the largest spinning mills in the world. Indonesia is also the largest customer of Australian cotton consuming around 36% of the 2004/05 crop [ACSA website 2005].

A highlight from a CTFT perspective was being able to meet spinners and merchants and listen to their observations with respect to processing Australian cotton.

WEEDpak, the Integrated Weed Management Guide for the Australian cotton industry was launched in 2002 in response to a rapidly changing weed management climate in the industry with the introduction of transgenic, Roundup Ready Cotton, and as a vehicle to facilitate the delivery of integrated weed management information to the cotton industry.

The WEEDpak internet site has been one of the most heavily used of the Cotton CRC web sites. WEEDpak is also available in hardcopy and via the COTTONpaks CD. It has been an important pivot point for encouraging the Australian cotton industry to continue to embrace an integrated approach to weed management.

The biggest threat to WEEDpak is that it becomes ‘old’ and out-of-date. Regular updates are important not only for providing new information, but also for encouraging growers to continually re-visit the information already available in WEEDpak.

Outcomes: The primary focus of this project has been the support and promotion of WEEDpak through focussed research and extension with the support of the Cotton TRC. The project has been highly successful in achieving these aims, greatly increasing the value of WEEDpak to the cotton industry, and maintaining this document as a regularly used resource.

Research focussed on monitoring weed problems in commercial cotton fields, developing management packages for problem weeds and developing herbicide damage information to assist cotton growers. The outcomes of this research have been delivered to the cotton industry primarily through WEEDpak, with promotion through a range of other mechanisms.

WEEDpak has been expanded in four areas.

1. Through additions and upgrades to the weed identification module, with the addition of 53 new weed sets and 73 weed information pages, as well as new indexes and upgrades to all the original material.

2. Through revision and expansion of the problem weed management module, with the addition of management guides for bellvine, mint weed, lippia and caustic weed, as well as updating the cowvine management guide.

3. Through revision and expansion of the rotation crop module, with the addition of management guides for lucerne strips and vetch crops, as well as updating the pigeon pea management guide.

4. With the inclusion of a totally new module, the Herbicide Damage Guide. This guide contains 24 sets of detailed herbicide damage information for drift rates of glyphosate, 2,4-D amine and a glyphosate/2,4-D amine combination. This information details the impact of known rates of herbicide on cotton exposed at different growth stages. Such information as the impact on node production, inter-node length, leaf number, leaf area, squaring and boll production and retention throughout the season are given.

A second section, the herbicide damage images, shows examples of how the symptoms of damage develop over time.

This new material is available in hardcopy, via the internet and on the COTTONpaks CD. The emphasis on the internet and CD methods of presentation has ensured that the latest version of WEEDpak is freely available to all.

The recent inclusion of the Herbicide Damage Guide is a major step forward for WEEDpak, adding a totally new area to the coverage of this document. Expansion of this information over the new few years will not only provide valuable information regarding herbicide damage, but will also ensure that WEEDpak continues to be a most valuable and regularly accessed document.

The CRDC project funds for “Operational Costs for Cotton Experiments” are used to fund cotton experimental trials at the Australian Cotton Research Institute (ACRI). The management of cotton growing for experimental trial cotton is dependent on the aims of the specific trial. However cotton growing at ACRI is undertaken to industry standards with the intention of maintaining the long-term productive capacity of the land. Last season 55Ha of cotton was grown at ACRI on behalf of NSW Department of Primary Industries researchers. Growing cotton in trials is intended to meet the needs for cotton experimentation in agronomy, entomology, farming systems and pathology.

This project arose from the 'Fibre Plus' workshops at Narrabri coordinated by both the Cotton CRC and the CRDC. These meetings identified the need to establish a standardised facility in Australia (a) to process small batches of cotton through the textile pipeline to knitted and woven samples and then (b) to analyse final fabric quality. This facility would be a valuable tool for post-harvest cotton research and in particular be valuable to the CRDC funded project at The National Centre for

Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA) in Toowoomba.

In a previous project (CRC project CRC28C) in this area, work at CSlRO was undertaken to produce a computer system for analysing the quality of dyed fabrics. This project was not entirely successful due to problems with the computer software purchased from the USA. The work has however identified an opportunity for evaluating the quality of dyed yarn rather than fabric, and this became the subject of the present project. Further the CRC project resulted in a large data base of samples (yarns and dyed fabrics) together with subjective visual assessments of white specks in the dyed fabric samples. This data base and samples form a critical set for testing the validity of the new approach.

The approach of analysing dyed yarn rather than fabric is attractive on two counts. Firstly it eliminates the need to produce fabric and so is in principle a more efficient and quicker approach. Secondly the approach of automatically testing yarns will mean that a range of different cones from the one batch of yarn can be quickly tested and thus the approach should lead to a more accurate result than is possible from an analysis of small fabric samples.

The subject of this thesis "The effect of cereal stubble on Helicoverpa armigera(Hubner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) activity in early season cotton(Gossypium spp.)" is a direct result of consultation with the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNR&M) and

Australian cotton growers. These stakeholders sought a scientific explanation for the

observed reduction in the use of disruptive insecticides in cotton when it was sown into

cereal stubble. Lower pest activity had been observed when cotton was sown into wheat

(Triticum. spp) stubble compared to conventionalIy planted cotton. This is significant

because it provides a possible low~cost, environmentally friendly method of controlling

pests in early season cotton without the use of disruptive insecticides.