As cotton is naturally sensitive to a range of herbicides used for the control of broadleaf weeds, post-emergence suppression of such weeds is limited to relatively inefficient lay-by herbicides and mechanical means including interrow cultivation and hand chipping. Cotton cannot be treated with over-the-top applications of effective broadleaf herbicides such as Roundup and 2,4-D, and is, intact, often adversely affected by the drift of 2,4-D sprayed on grain crops in nearby fields. The introduction of genes for herbicide resistance by genetic engineering of cotton may not only provide resistance to this drift damage, but could also make possible the direct application of previously toxic herbicides to the cotton crop, thereby increasing the options for weed control.

The last year has seen a growing public concern over the use of chemical pesticides for the control of insect pests in cotton at a time when the Cotton Industry itself is still facing the real risk that these chemical pesticides will become ineffective due to the development of resistance by the insects. Improvements in the natural tolerance of cotton varieties to insect attack, by whatever means, should satisfy both parties by, one the one hand, reducing the need for pesticide application and its consequent deleterious impacts on the environment, and, on the other, by providing another weapon in the arsenal for the control of insects by an Integrated Pest Management strategy. One strategy that has been suggested, and currently under assessment by the breeders at Narrabri, is to increase cotton's Host Plant Resistance to Heliothis by breeding for the production of allelochemicals that the insects will find unpalatable. While this approach may be successful, the yield and quality penalties of producing these chemicals remains uncertain. We have adopted an alternative approach that will use genetic engineering to introduce into cotton genes for the production of insecticidal proteins that will be toxic to Heliothis larvae, but hopefully with little yield or quality penalty since the expression of these genes can be very tightly regulated to the cotton tissues at most risk to insect attack.

This project utilises information from Emerald and other irrigation districts in the State to develop a scheduling system, WATERSCHED, as part of a Cotton Management Decision Program. OBJECTIVES 1. To determine cotton yield response functions to differing levels of irrigation water and nutrients, to enable farmers to make better decisions on use of those input resources. 2. To develop a Cotton Management Decision Program which provides commercially relevant options of water scheduling and fertiliser application for extension officers, consultants and cotton growers, to optimise crop profitability. To increase the adoption by farmers of beneficial water management and fertiliser practices.

"Evaluation of yield component changes in Australian cotton cultivars":The aim of this summer scholarship project was to measure the changes that have occurred in the yield components of Australian cotton cultivars including environmental impacts. It also allows for the importance of each component to be determined in terms of contribution to overall yield. Trials were conducted using six cultivars(DP 16, Namcala, Sicala 40, Sicot 189, Sicot 71 and Sicot 71B) grown in three locations(Boggabilla (near Goondiwindi), ACRI (Narrabri) and Carroll (near Breeza)) representing hot, intermediate and cool climates for growing cotton respectively.

Plant mapping was carried out during the growing season and final harvest data was also measured, but is yet to be collated. Preliminary results from the plant mapping show that the Bollgard® II cultivar was less tipped out than the other conventional cultivars. These conventional cultivars were tipped out over 85% of the time across all three sites. The Bollgard® II cultivar acquired bolls earlier and retained more bolls throughout the season than any of the other cultivars measured. The Bollgard® II cultivar also showed greater reliability at producing a greater number of squares across all three environments. Final harvest will provide data to show whether the Bollgard® II cultivar will yield more than the conventional cultivars, as well as demonstrating how the yield components of Australian cotton cultivars have changed over time. (Kilby)

"The effectiveness of Lynx Spiders (Oxyopes amoenus) and Damsel Bugs (Nabis kingergii) at controlling Green Mirids (Creontiades dilutus) in Cotton":The purpose of the experiments conducted were to determine whether the Australian Lynx spider, Oxyopes amoenus, and the Damsel bug, Nabis kingergii, had any potential in the control of the Green Mirid, Creontiades dilutus, in Bt cotton in Australia.

The predators and pests were firstly combined to try and determine if either of the predators was effective in mirid control. Secondly, the mirid size preference was determined for each predator and, finally, how many of the mirids the predators could eat before becoming satiated.(Barnett)

The purpose of the travel was for Sarah Cooper to attend and present her research paper at the 6th Congress of European Microbiologists (FEMS Federation of European Microbiological Societies), Maastricht, the Netherlands. This conference is one of the leading meetings of its kind and brings together approximately 3000 microbiologists from around the world. As part of my communication strategy this congress provided the perfect opportunity to disseminate my research to the wider scientific community and it was a privilege to present my PhD findings at such a renowned congress. It is a biennial conference, therefore limited opportunity to attend this conference within researcher candidature. It is important that research results be presented as soon as possible and attending this congress enabled the researcher to do so.

Both the conference abstract can be found on page four of this report along with a copy of the given presentation.

Gin stands are responsible for the removal of fibre from the seed. Seed fingers are an important part of the gin stand and are used to control the seed roll load. Yet mechanically the seed fingers are undeveloped in terms of their control and ability to be set. Until now seed fingers were set manually by the ginner who typically selects and then fixes a mechanical setting. This setting have been then not routinely adjusted because of the inconvenience in stopping the gin stand to make adjustments. Bagshaw (2012) in his research presented constant variations in seed roll density and the forces exerted on the roll box casing across the length of the seed roll. His research showed seed roll density could change significantly many times over a one minute period as material in the seed roll is charged and discharged. It was assumed that development of an automated seed finger system that has the capability to constantly self-adjust would improve distribution of forces on the seed fingers.

The principal aim of this project is to pilot a system for remote identification of cotton pests using mobile technology, wireless microscopes and the Pestpoint software developed by the Plant Biosecurity CRC(PBCRC).

Currently, pest identification is largely done in an adhoc manner. A person who finds a pest may either identify it themselves or ask for an opinion from an experienced peer or peers, or in a difficult case, consult an expert. Most people, (consultants, specialists, growers, extension officers) have networks of peers and expert contacts who they consult in such cases. But in most cases, whether a person identifies a pest themselves or consults peers or experts, the identification is not recorded or if it is, it is only accessible to an individual or within an agency. Moreover, the inconvenience and logistics of handling and transporting pest specimens may often deter people from even seeking an identification. So in the current system, we fail to record valuable pest information and have limited options for identifying and diagnosing pest problems.

The PBCRC has developed a system that attempts to overcome both of these problems. We know that many pests can be identified from images and we now have wireless microscopes and cameras in mobile devices that can capture high quality, high magnification images in the field. We also have powerful software (Pestpoint) and internet connectivity that can be used to create communication networks so that people can share pest images and seek assistance for identifying pests. Pestpoint allows people to create virtual networks with their peer groups and to share, discuss, capture, store and retrieve their pest information for future reference – all from their mobile device.

Improved methods of assessing crop nutrient status in early season cotton will allow growers to remediate their crops and improve fertilizer management practices. By optimising the nutrition of cotton crops, growers can avoid nutritional stresses that can reduce the economic viability of commercial cotton growing. Monitoring nutrient status of individual cotton crops will allow precise fertilizer recommendations to be formulated. Soil and plant tissue tests have been available to the industry for many years but this technology has not been widely accepted because of the time consumed in sampling procedures, cost, inexperience in interpreting analytical results and variations in laboratory procedures and reporting of results. Growers often use soil testing as their only indication of crop nutrition requirements. Plant tissue testing offers a better indication of crop nutrition than soil testing, but it has not been adopted in commercial cotton production. NIR technology has the potential to facilitate and reduce the costs of nutrient analysis of cotton plant material. Similarly, development of the SPAD chlorophyll meter to allow in-field assessment of crop N nutrition will reduce response time for making N fertilizer management decisions.

Cropping systems experiments are currently being used to evaluate the sustainability of various cotton systems. An important component is the inclusion of legume crops for grain or green manuring. This assists in maintaining desirable levels of soil organic matter, with improved soil quality, soil N reserves and availability of other plant nutrients. Legume cropping provides direct economic benefits to growers through reduced N fertilizer requirement and indirect long-term benefits through enhanced sustainability achieved by remediation of soil chemical and physical properties. Management practices which reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers and which conserve and improve our soil resources are environmentally responsible and ecologically sound.

'Biodiversity' refers to the diversity of genes, species, ecosystems and ecoregions. Like other

sectors in the Australian economy, the cotton industry has a duty of care to ensure its

environmental sustainability, including conserving and enhancing the biodiversity upon which

it depends and minimising negative environmental impacts. Australia ratified the United

Nations Convention on BiologicaI Diversity, in June 1992. The Convention noted the global

loss of biodiversity as a result of human activities, identified the need to conserve biodiversity

in viable areas of natural or restored habitat, and recognised the need to mitigate the processes

that most threaten biodiversity. Subsequent Commonwealth and State legislation and policies

have given effect to the Convention.

Biodiversity is important for ecosystem (life support), ethical, aesthetic and cultural and

economic reasons. The challenge is to balance utilisation of biodiversity on the one hand with

its conservation to ensure that present and future human welfare is not compromised. This is

not easy due to the value judgements and diversity of private and public interests involved, as

well as the incomplete nature of the science of biodiversity and its poor predictive power for

decision making. This report aims to revioew the literature of past and current cotton-funded research and is limited to

Queensland and New South Wales cotton growing areas.

An automatic flow analyser was purchased to analyse nitrate, phosphate, chloride and sulfate. The monies for the instrument were a combination of CRDC, Australian Cotton CRC and University of Sydney funding.

Many of the cotton resourced projects involve the analysis of anions such as Nitrate (NO3-), Ammonium (NH4+), Phosphate (PO43-), Chloride (Cl-) and Sulfate (SO42-) in soil extractions or water samples. This is particular true for all projects interested in soil fertility, soil salinity and water quality. The analysis of these anions is cumbersome, and involves several wet chemistry steps. The current procedure is to outsource the nitrate and Phosphate analysis. The analyses from these outsourcing companies however are mainly aimed at soil fertility parameters. The instruments used for the automated analysis, the flow injection analysers, are not only capable of measuring nitrate and phosphate but can in fact analyse several anions in solution. In particular we are interested in analysing chloride and sulfate, since these anions are most important in terms of soil salinity and water quality.

The instrument has been purchased last March and has since been going through an installation and testing phase. The instrument is currently capable of analysing up to 100 samples per hour of nitrate, ammonium, phosphate and chloride in soil and plant extracts and waters. We are currently at the end of the testing phase and are drawing up a plan for operation and costing of sample analysis. This costing will be based solely on technical assistance, chemical costs and replacement of instrument parts. The analysis of sulphate would still have to be developed and therefore will take some time.

The intended use of the instrument is to support cotton funded and other projects within the University of Sydney. In addition we will be able to analyse samples for researchers on cotton funded projects outside the University of Sydney on a cost recovery basis.