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.

The course covered an introduction to IP, what types of IP existed(copywright, PBR, patents) and what is involved in securing IP (costs and duration). Several cases were presented to the participants as examples. Two case studies of CRDC 'real' proposals were conducted and the participants were subdivided and asked the simple question, 'should we fund this project?'. The groups were provided a IP checklist to compare the application and see if sufficient information was provided.

The project objective of increasing understanding of Canopy Temperature Sensors(CTS) in cotton production systems was achieved by using the technology on farm. The growers were extended information during the season on CTS to further understand how stress events affect cotton growth. A case study that captures the grower experiences over the past four seasons has been produced and can be used by researchers to gain an understanding of how the growers are using the technology and what benefits they are seeing at a farm level. It also shares the key learnings that the cotton growers and the service provider gained over a four-year period. This research provides a summary of the learnings and experience that growers have gained after four seasons of using CTS in the Macquarie Valley. The Macquarie growers saw potential in CTS as another tool to help schedule irrigations to maximise crop production. They used them over four seasons from 2015 to 2018. Porosity Services was contracted to supply the CTS, and each site was integrated with soil moisture probes and weather stations and provide a web-viewing platform for all Macquarie Cotton Grower Association(MCGA) members. CSIRO provided the CTS sensors in 2016 and then from 2016, 17 & 18, Porosity Services was contracted to supply the CTS, and each site was integrated with soil moisture probes and weather stations and provide a web-viewing platform for all MCGA members.

This project was designed to assess the potential of a plant derived antifungal gene (NaD1) for control of cotton pathogens. The NaD1 gene codes for a small protein called a plant defensin. Previous in vitro assays have shown that purified NaD1 can inhibit the germination and hyphal growth of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp vasinfectum (Fov) which causes Fusarium wilt in cotton.

The major aim of the project was to assess the efficacy of the defensin protein, NaD1, against three cotton pathogens: Fusarium oxysporum, Verticillium dahliae which causes Verticillium wilt and Thielaviopsis basicola which causes black root rot.

Four transgenic cotton lines transformed with the NaD1 gene were supplied by Hexima Ltd for this project. The lines expressed the NaD1 protein at high levels in the leaves and roots of seedlings. At least three of the lines had a single copy of the NaD1 gene. The lines were assessed in glasshouse bioassays using either a seedling dip infection method or an infected soil based method. In limited trials, one transgenic line showed enhanced resistance to Fov and T. basicola. Further bioassays with this line to confirm the project findings is planned. In the long term it is hoped that this gene can be transferred into elite varieties to enhance the resistance of Fov in the field.