Soil moisture (SM) can highly vary in space and time, and this can have a significant impact on cotton crop yield and fibre quality. Irrigated cotton accounts for over a quarter of all irrigated agriculture in Australia. With water scarcity increasing due to increased demand across industries and climate change, water use efficiency must continue to improve. The Australian cotton industry is already a world leader in water use efficiency, improving whole farm water use efficiency from 57% to an estimated 70% in the past three decades. The remaining 30% of water is lost across the farm, due to field seepage and evaporation (Roth et al., 2014).

There are limitations with how moisture is currently measured and estimated on a field scale. Technologies such as capacitance probes are only capable of measuring SM in a small area directly around the probe, whereas large scale remote sensing technology such as satellites cannot measure beyond the soil surface. Especially with the rise of new irrigation systems such as bankless irrigation, accurate paddock scale SM measurements will allow growers to better determine their irrigation schedules.

The CosmOz Rover, developed by CSIRO, contains a large-scale cosmic ray probe. Primary cosmic rays from outer space, usually in the form of protons, interact with the atmosphere to form secondary cosmic rays; high energy neutrons. These collide with hydrogen atoms, losing energy, to become fast neutrons, and eventually reach a state of thermal equilibrium. Cosmic ray probes measure the flux of fast neutrons, which is inversely proportional to the amount of hydrogen atoms whether it be in air, water, or organic compounds. As water molecules are the dominant source of hydrogen atoms in soil, then close to the Earth’s surface, SM content can be inferred from neutron fluxes (Desilets et al., 2010).

The CosmOz Rover has a 300 m radius horizontal footprint, and can measure to a depth between 0.1-0.7 m depending on SM content, with saturated profiles only measurable to shallower depths (Hawdon et al., 2014). Cosmic ray measurements are passive, non-invasive and mostly insensitive to variations in soil characteristics such as texture, surface roughness, bulk density and the state of water (Desilets et al., 2010; Zreda et al., 2008). Measurements can be taken at a fixed point for temporal data, or additionally moved around a field/farm for spatial data. Key factors that affect measurements include soil organic carbon.

This technology has been studied with success in natural vegetation and dryland agricultural systems, but has not been trialled with irrigated systems. This novel technology has the potential to provide more representative paddock-scale SM measurements compared to other technologies, as a tool to guide decision making for irrigation schedules and improve water-use efficiency.

This research PhD study is required to intensively study molecular genetic techniques to better understand and then detect neonicotinoid resistance in cotton aphid.Since the introduction of Bt-cotton, secondary pests such as aphids, mites and bugs(examples of neonicotinoids), have become more prominent requiring targeted insecticide control. These sprays have lead to resistance in some species that have caused the chemical control to fail. Spray failures against aphids can permanently tarnish Australia’s reputation for producing high quality lint if failures lead to ‘sticky cotton’. Failures also increase grower costs and the likely hood of unforseen environmental consequences. Recently in Australian cotton there have been control failures against aphids belonging to the insecticide group known as neonicotinoids. This group includes the mainstay cotton seed treatment ‘Cruiser’ and the cost effective foliar spray ‘Shield’. It is now clear with the neonicotinoid failures that the sustainable management of aphids in Australian cotton is at risk. Research to restore neonicotinoid efficacy against aphids should be seen as an industry priority as part of an integrated program to better manage mites and mirids in Australian cotton. Bioassay with synergists will initially be used to characterise resistance as target site or detoxification to narrow a likely molecular based cause. With this knowledge the PhD study will aim to find the point mutation causing neonicotinoid resistance in cotton aphid. Knowing the causing mechanism will simultaneously elucidate the underlying cross resistance implications that are essential for effective resistance management. Once the mechanism is known its genetic sequence will be fully characterised and that will provide the first step in the development of a molecular based test for neonicotinoid resistance monitoring. Most importantly, the PhD study will train a young scientist in both bioassay and molecular genetic methodology for resistance detection. This will bridge the gap in a single scientist between the discipline of bioassay and molecular genetics that are now essential to effective resistance management. The PhD study will also further boost the human capacity available to Australian cotton to manage the ongoing problem of insecticide resistance.

Agri- intelligence targets the increasing complexity of farming enterprise operations arising from increasing availability of data, connectedness of decisions, and seeking to optimise operations more tightly, and at finer scales, than ever before.

This project identified current situational awareness about the diversity and complexity of the decision space in cotton production as well as data and information use and utilisation gaps within the industry. In tandem, the project examined the information flows from the cotton value chain, including a segment-by- segment outline of key issues, data creation and use, and consequences of on-farm decision-making.

The chief outcome of the project is a method for identifying and evaluating digital technology investment opportunities in the Australian cotton industry. The method is informed by the findings from the analysis of on-farm decision-making and for the potential for new information flows from the value chain. This method can inform the case for different agri-intelligence solutions in cotton production and also assist CRDC with decisions about their research investment portfolio to transition the sector towards its goals as set in CRDC’s Futures Program, which seeks to transform the industry to ensure it is more profitable, sustainable and competitive in the next 20 years.

The report closes with a strategy for segmenting on-farm decision-making for future research. This is a detailed method for identifying and evaluating investment opportunities in new digital technologies that can inform recommendations for continued investment in related areas of research.

Dryland/ Irrigated Cotton Belatta, Verticillium Workshop, Points of Interest, Nitrogen trial Blood and Bone vs conventional fertiliser, Spray Workshop

ACSA requested that a breeder attend a meeting between ACSA and Indonesian spinners to explain the history of FiberMax cotton and how Australian cotton fibre is at least as good as FiberMax. In addition, ACSA requested a presentation to explain new initiatives in CSIRO’s breeding program to gradually increase fibre quality.

In summary, the trip was worthwhile to understand the dynamics of spinner’s requirements and the global shipping trade. Although it appears Australia’s main fibre type in future should be average and reliable quality, breeders need to continue to have a range of options as fibre property types for spinner’s demands in the medium term. This range of material is present in the CSIRO program and will be progressed.

A collection of all ‘Theme’ Reports generated during phase one of the National Land and Water Resources Audit (1997 - 2002) in a two CD-ROM set. The reports are available as fully-searchable PDFs and the collection is a virtual library of the condition pf Australia’s natural resources.

International Soil and Tillage Research Organisation (ISTRO).

In late-May 2005, this group held a “Visual soil structure assessment” field meeting near Peronne in the Somme Valley, north-east France. The workshop was sponsored by the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA), Estrées-Mons, and ISTRO.

The aims of the meeting were as follows:

• Ten soil structure assessment methods from UK, France, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand and Switzerland were compared in the field under maize, sugar beet and pea crops in a long term tillage experiment on loess-derived soil. Three of the procedures were based on assessment of the whole soil profile to a depth of one metre. Seven were based on spade inspections of the topsoil.

• Possible improvements for each of the methods were discussed.

• Consideration was given to amalgamation of some of the techniques.

David McKenzie demonstrated the SOILpak “compaction severity” assessment procedures to the group. This method was developed by the Australian cotton industry approximately 15 years ago, and is part of the ‘Land and Water Management’ module in the Best Management Practices Manual. The workshop provided an opportunity to see how well the SOILpak assessment procedures compare with the best available practices in other countries, and allowed possible improvements to be explored.

An efficient and world standard computing system at ACRI has benefited all research programs through their use in data processing, storage, statistical analysis, modelling and the development of end-user packages. In addition the network services located at ACRI provide printing services and communication which includes e-mail and website.

The provision of these services has underpinned the quality of research conducted at ACRI and personnel rely heavily on continued and uninterrupted access to computing support. In many instances many initiatives for the cotton industry instigated by researchers and extension officers rely solely on access to computing support provided by this project.

With the increase in computing power and staff at ACRI, the need for sustained technical support directly to the user has expanded. The systems manager now supports 63 CSIRO, 49 NSW Ag and 5 others computer users. The approximate total number of computer terminals is 145. The general recommendation across the IT industry is that a system manager service approximately 50 computer terminals. The computer systems manager also supports the network servers (backup and communication) and phone system at ACRI.

This project supported the funding of Tony Pfeiffer who is an experienced Network manager and is permanently based at ACRI to provide network and computing support. He is available to all people at ACRI to provide computing assistance when necessary. He works closely with CSIRO IT and NSW Department of Primary Industries to coordinate further investment in computing services and infrastructure at the site. All project objectives have were achieved with a high degree of success enabling a reliable and functioning computer network and accessible computing services at ACRI which benefited all research and extension staff.

Biological “Soil health” is a highly complex issue. In broad terms, biologically active soils are

robust and resilient to change. Microbes produce complex arrays of metabolites, each species

contributing to, and interacting with a slightly different array of processes in soil. Moreover,

biologically active soil may confer a number of specific functions. These potentially include plant

growth enhancement, carbon sequestration, toxin degradation, mineral cycling and pathogen

suppression.

In the last three years methods to measure and quantify the soil biology via profiling of the

microbial community have changed dramatically. Previously, soil microbial diversity was

measured by inference using techniques which include direct counts, Fatty Acid Methyl Ester

(FAME) profiles, Biolog substrate utilisation, and biomass (see Schutter et al 2001). In more

recent studies, molecular DNA based measures of microbial diversity and community

composition have become more common. Molecular techniques too have their limitations and

analyses that include both molecular and other methods may provide a more holistic view of soil

biology and function.

Cotton growers are facing increasing pressure to manage resources more cost effectively and to be more accountable for the impact their decisions have on the surrounding environment. Decision support systems (DSS) have been developed to provide cotton growers with the best information available from research to assist with their management decision-making.

The aim of this project is to continue to identify critical issues where decision support tools can help growers and to develop and validate these tools. We have a range of new ideas and also requests from industry that need to be progressed over the next few years. This project will also maintain and support the existing software packages to ensure their ongoing relevance and performance. Finally, this project will also provide support for researchers such as developing programs to help with validation of models or present data on the WWW. The approach we propose to achieve this is to combine a dedicated programmer, to ensure that the most up to date software design and web management is used, with an experienced cotton agronomist (Ms Sandra Deutscher), to undertake field validation of software and to understand technical issues from the industry’s point of view when developing new tools.