The winter edition of CRDC's magazine, Spotlight, investigates the issue of big data and the evolution from precision agriculture to decision agriculture.

The Australian Cotton Comparative Analysis provides the industry benchmark for the economics of cotton growing in Australia. The report focuses on the economics of the 2018 crop from growers across the different cotton-growing valleys. It also presents trends that have been measured against more than ten years of data, and, for the third year, includes per bale figures.

The Cotton Comparative Analysis is a joint initiative of CRDC and Boyce Chartered Accountants.

The primary focus of this project is to develop sustainable, IPM based pest management systems for INGARD in north-western Australia. Key elements for the system include companion crop utilisation, pest threshold refinement in winter cotton and appropriate refuge crop options for the development of a regional Bt resistance management strategy.

Northern Australia offers potential for cotton industry development with an annual production value estimated to be $750M. However, past failures demonstrate the importance of rigorous industry planning and research to develop sustainable and ecologically sound management systems, particularly for insect pests.

The cotton industry relies on HVI measurements of cotton fibre quality for commercial trading. The current scoping study has confirmed the influence of cotton fibre length on the HVI Strength measurement i.e. cottons with longer fibre length characteristics appear to be artificially stronger in the HVI test than similar shorter cottons.

The methodology for this study utilised one cotton parent cut to produce a range of samples with different fibre length characteristics. Detailed single fibre testing confirmed that fibre strength and elongation values for the samples prepared at different lengths were the same i.e. the sample preparation technique of cutting the cotton sliver did not introduce any other unexpected damage of the cotton. The HVI measured strength values did vary between samples exhibiting a clear dependence on fibre length. Combining these two observations, it was concluded that the observed variation in the HVI strength values must be an artefact of the instrument test method.

The source of this error has been identified. The natural variation is the individual lengths of fibres with a cotton samples is such that in the HVI test some of the fibres will not fully span the distance between the two sets of breaking jaws. Thus the parameters.instrument will always have a tendance to slightly underestimate the breaking strength of the beard. Existing protocols to account of this through the current general calibration processes has been shown to be inadequate as the effect is dependent on the specific fibre length properties of individual cottons.

A first principle approach for correcting for this error was developed based on a detailed examination of both the internal operation of the HVI Strength Module and knowledge of the shape of the fibre length distribution. This resulted in the identification of a simple correction factor. Application of this correction factor removed the effect of fibre length on the corrected strength values.

This study also identified that the HVI Fibre Elongation values also contain a significant bias due to fibre length.

Adoption of the outcomes of this work will allow a more accurate determination of fibre strength and elongation which are important fibre quality

The cotton industry relies on GM cotton expressing insecticidal toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This provides resistance to key pests of cotton, the bollworm Helicoverpa armigera and the native budworm H. punctigera. Growers benefit by reduced losses to the pests, and the amount of insecticide used on cotton is down by 80%, with major environmental benefits. However, as with all toxins, there is potential for the pests to develop resistance. The industry has comprehensive Resistance Management Plans (RMPs) to counter this, based on scientific understanding of the genetics and ecology of the pests. RMPs are uniformly adopted as legal requirements for growing Bt cotton, and have prevented the failure of Bt cotton for over a decade. They are focused on H. armigera, because from the 1960s through the 1990s, this species repeatedly developed resistance to conventional insecticides, and its ecology was thought to favour the buildup of resistant alleles. In contrast, H. punctigera was thought to pose little risk, because it did not overwinter in cotton regions and immigration of susceptible moths from inland populations was common.

However, recent monitoring of the frequency of alleles conferring resistance to one of the two Bt toxins (Cry2Ab) has cast doubt on these assumptions. In the 2008-09 season Cry2Ab resistance in H. punctigera rose considerably above background levels, and higher than in H. armigera. This indicates that RMPs must place more emphasis on H. punctigera. It also suggests that either our previous understanding of the ecology of this species (based on work done mainly in the 1980's) was inadequate, or something (eg climate) has changed. This project aims to provide improved understanding of the ecology of H. punctigera, especially overwintering of pupae in cotton regions and immigration from non-cropping regions where there is no selection pressure from Bt cotton, notably inland Australia. It includes laboratory studies on the induction and termination of diapause in relation to temperature, daylength and insect nutrition, and field cage studies in cotton regions and in inland regions, to determine the level of overwintering survival and the timing of moth emergence.

Field surveys of inland regions during the winter breeding period will determine host plant responses to rainfall and abundance of Helicoverpa larvae, and spring trapping studies and surveys in spring crops will estimate levels of migration. Results will be compared with earlier studies in the 1980's and 1990's to investigate the possibility of long-term changes to the ecology of H. punctigera. Findings will be reflected in changes to RMPs for Bt cotton.

The 2019-20 CRDC Researchers' Handbook is a key resource for all researchers working with, or interested in applying for funding from, the CRDC. Updated annually, the Handbook outlines the key information researchers need to know, including key dates, the application process, funding and stipends available, the payment, evaluation and reporting processes and the CRDC’s intellectual property policy. These, and other critical details needed by researchers are provided in the Handbook.

The CSIRO cotton breeding program based at Narrabri has been very successful in developing varieties adapted to all cotton production regions in Australia. At least 90% of the cotton grown in Australia are varieties developed at Narrabri. The breeding program includes many objective including: high yield, high fibre quality, disease resistance and tolerance to insect damage. These targets are applied to cotton production areas that range from hot locations such as central Queensland to cool districts such as the upper Namoi valley and southern NSW. Such diverse locations require different characteristics for optimum production. Breeding requires large numbers of experiments and breeding lines. This program now has in excess of 15,000 yield plots at 15 different locations; there are also about 30,000 single plants harvested at the early generation stage of the breeding process. New varieties released to the Australian cotton industry in recent years include conventional types Si okra S-101, Sicot 189, Si okra V-16 and Sic ala 40 and transgenic varieties Siokra L-23i, Sicot 189i, SicaJa V-2i, Siokra V-15i and Sicot SOL There are new breeding lines close to commercial release.

CRDC 2015/16 Summer Scholarships (S/S ) Purpose- Strategic Plan Targets 1.Farmers 2. Industry 3.Customers 4. People 5.Performance Summer Scholarship Programme - 8 weeks

Ongoing research at ACRI into cotton diseases confirmed the need for best practice to be exercised to avoid disease transfer from one location to another.The need for this was confirmed by pathology staff at ACRI who tested vehicles visiting ACRI and found Black root Rot , Veticilium and Fusarium pathogens present . This clearly presented a risk to the research trials at ACRI especially if Fusarium Wilt was to be imported onto the farm. It was also recognised that ACRI is a hub of the Cotton Industry with many grower visitors and that many off station sites are visited by ACRI staff. The pathology staff advised that in order to prevent disease transfer it would be necessary to improve the washdown facilities at ACRI and adopt a come clean go clean policy.The facility would also double as a best management practice demonstration facility to industry.

The effects of rotation crops and their management on soil properties of Vertosols, cotton yield and profitability were monitored from 1993 to 2001 in 3 irrigated field trials in NSW (Warren in the Macquarie valley, and Merah North and Wee Waa in the lower Namoi valley), and 2 dryland trials in Queensland (Warra in the Darling Downs and Emerald in the Central Highlands).

Measurements taken in all trials were: soil physical and chemical properties to a depth of 0.6m in (e. g. soil organic matter, plastic limit, strength with a penetrometer, soil structure, exchangeable Ca, Mg, K and Na, pH, electrical conductivity). Profile water content to 1.2m, nutrient uptake, crop growth, cotton lint yield and fibre quality were also measured. Economic returns in irrigated sites were evaluated by comparing seasonal and cumulative gross margins. Commencing from the 2000-01 cotton season spatial and temporal deep drainage (with the chloride mass balance model) and nutrient leaching were measured at ACRI (cotton sown into standing wheat stubble), Wee Waa (wheat-cotton) and 3 rotations (continuous cotton, wheat-cotton and doIichos-cotton) at Merah North.