The DPI has been evaluating unsprayed strip crops planted beside dryland INGARD cotton as nurseries for beneficial arthropods over the past three seasons. This work has included evaluations of lablab, soybean, maize and sorghum in this role (Scholz et al 2000, Scholz et al. 2002). All of these crops harboured predatory insects and spiders at various times of the season, but not all of them readily harboured parasitoids. Trichogramma egg parasitoids are important beneficials on the Downs, and were most common in sorghum and maize, and less abundant in lablab and soybeans. Ideally an unsprayed nursery that harbours both predators and parasitoids is more desirable than one that primarily harbours predators. Unsprayed cotton offers potential to serve as a nursery for both predators and parasitoids, and was evaluated in this role during the 2001/02 season.

Ground rig and aerial application treatments were setup to deliver endosulfan to young cotton using 'large droplet placement' (LDP). Both treatments delivered similar amounts of the product to the target, despite the aircraft applying the full rate of the product, versus a banded rate (40%) for the ground rig treatment. In field efficacy conducted at commercial checking intervals (as measured by larval mortality, fruit retention ratios and damage levels) were equivalent for both the ground rig and aerially applied endosulfan. Laboratory bioassays conducted on field sprayed leaves showed a greater decline in larval mortality overtime for the ground rig than the aerial treatment. The fate of the additional insecticide applied by the aircraft was distributed between increased deposition on the ground and as drift leaving the field. At 400 metres downwind, the ground rig treatment resulted in one sixteenth the drift compared to the aerial treatment. The potential for commercially available anti-evaporant adjuvants to help reduce off target movement of fine droplets was evaluated using a new facility and techniques developed by CPAS.

OBJECTIVES (i) To evaluate the reliability of current SIR.A TAC sampling procedures and conversion equations relating proportion infestation to mean number of insects per plant. (ii) To develop sampling systems able to cope with a range of crop conditions including variable stand density and different cotton varieties. (iii) Investigate by simulation the threshold procedures for Heliothis to allow for variable plant density and growth stage.

To measure the effect of biotic factors (host crop, body size) and abiotic factors (temperature, humidity) on reproductive development, fecundity and longevity of adult Heliothis punctigera and H. armigera for incorporation into simulation models of Heliothis population dynamics.

A survey form asking the cost of weed control, the major weed problems and the herbicides used was sent to fifty two cotton growers from the seven major cotton areas of New South Wales. On average, weed control costs the cotton grower $187 /ha annually. The major components of this cost are $76/ha for herbicides in cotton and $67 /ha for hand chipping. The most important cotton weeds are noogoora burr, bathurst burr, nutgrass, Chinese lantern and peach vine. Although these weeds are problems on a large proportion of the cotton growing area, repeated use of herbicides, cultivation and chipping are reducing their importance. However, nutgass, which is a major weed problem on 15% of the cotton area, is escaping the weed management practices currently used and is rapidly spreading in many fields. Brown beetle grass is an important weed on irrigation channels and is not controlled by the registered herbicides. Trifluralin, diuron and fluometuron herbicides are used in cotton by over 60% of cotton growers. Glyphosate is used by 59% of growers in fallows before cocton, and atrazine, diuron and glyphosate are used by over 60% of growers to control weeds on irrigation channels. Generally cotton growers are dissatisfied with the high cost of weed control, and the ineffectiveness of control of problem weeds such as nutgrass. Growers recommended chat research into nutgrass control should be given top priority.

Field work was conducted over the 1988/89 and 1989/90 cotton growing seasons in the Central Highlands of Queensland. Pheromone dispensers, specially formulated for P. scutigera, were obtained from Shin-Etsu Chemical Company Ltd, Japan. In 1989/90 the P. gossypiella pheromone formulation . was trialed, and in 1988/89 a microencapsulated formulation produced by Allied Colloids (Australia Pty Ltd) was also trialed. Experiments Q were generally conducted in large fields (2.7 - 18.3 ha) and dispensers applied at a rate of 1,000/ha (78 mg (AI) (Z,Z)- and (Z,E)- isomers of 7,11 hexadecadienyl acetate mixed in a 9:1 ratio). Effects of treatments were assayed using pheromone traps (both years), regular fruit samples (usually 100 per time, both years), mating table trials (year 2) and dissection of females caught in light traps, (to determine mated status, year 2).

Despite the great potential for increasing cotton productivity through the genetic engineering of fibre development, little progress has so far been made in this area. This is in sharp contrast to the success of pest and herbicide resistant transgenic cotton that have already made a large impact on agriculture in both the U. S. and Australia (2). The major impediment to fibre engineering is our poor understanding of the biology of the cotton fibre, particularly, the identities and functions of genes controlling various fibre developmental processes (I, 2,3,4). Consequently, a recent major thrust has been on elucidating the molecular and cellular basis for fibre development and the cloning of a number of genes highly expressed in developing cotton fibres

The cost of running and maintaining cotton experimental trials at ACRI is a cost that has increased over years of research as more trials have evolved. The purpose of this project is provide such funding in order that all operational costs of growing experimental cotton for NSW Agriculture are met.

This project has assured the vability of cotton experiments at ACRI over the last three seasons undertaken by NSW Agricultufe.

The Cotton Industry has benefited from the practical research programs that have operated from this centre. Greater understanding of crop agronomy and disease control has assisted growers to increase yields while entomological studies on insect resistance has ensured a viable cotton industry.

The majority of cotton growers in the Australian cotton industry are familiar with an integrated approach to insect pest management. Researchers and agronomists often tout integrated pest management or IPM as the most sustainable approach for managing insect pests in cotton. The development of IPM systems reflects societies' expectations that pest management systems will neither degrade the environment nor will they cause health problems. Hence, the primary focus of an IPM strategy should be to reduce the reliance on synthetic pesticides (Wilson 2000). Integrated weed management (IWM) is an extension of the principles of IPM as applied to weed management. The focus of an IWM program is the development of sustainable weed management practices that ensure good control of weed problems while minimising the threats of herbicide resistance and species shift to the Australian cotton industry.

Fusarium wilt of cotton (Gossypium. spp. ) is caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum schletend f.sp vasinfectum (Atk) Snyder and Hansen (Fov). The disease has been recorded in most of the world's major cotton growing areas and causes significant losses in the USA, Tanzania, Egypt, and India (Smith et al 1981) and China (Chen et al, 1985). Australia was considered to be free from the wilt pathogen until 1993, when it was confirmed in Queensland (Kochman, 1995). Fov was also recently discovered in the Philippines. Wilted cotton plants have been collected from field sites throughout the Queensland and New South Wales growing areas since 1993. Several hundred isolates of Fov have been recovered from such material and examined in laboratory and glasshouse studies to determine the range of genetic and pathogenic diversity in the Australian fungal population. Where possible, Australian isolates have also been compared with isolates of Fov imported under quarantine from other countries