The rationale for the development of a national experiment within the Sustainable Grazing Systems (SGS) Key Program is outlined, together with a brief description of the sites, their focus of study and the results of

Heliothis armigera has been a growing problem for many years, While the cotton producers have borne the brunt of it, reports of increasing damage to crops such as pulses, sorghum an maize have become more frequent.

Precision Agriculture (PA) involves the management of sites or regions within a field based on local requirements rather than field average requirements.

Verticillium wilt and Fusarium wilt, vascular diseases caused by the soil-borne fungal pathogens Verticillium dahliae and Fusarium oxysporumf.sp vasinfectum, respectively, are among the most important diseases of cott

As low densities of heliothis may survive on Bt transgenic plants late in the season, a specific late season control for heliothis is valuable to reduce the survival of individuals resistant to Bt toxin.

Microbial damage to raw cotton, sometimes referred to as weathering damage, is a common event in most parts of the world. Microbes, viz. bacteria and fungi, are omnipresent in the environment.

Most crop plants suffer a decline in growth when exposed to saline conditions although cotton is classified as a salt-tolerant crop.

In his paper to you, Mike Logan, our youngest Cotton Australia Board Director, said to you, &quote;unless we have the support of the local communities, we are doomed to extinction&quote;.

In cotton, phosphorus (P) is important for early seedling vigour, plant establishment and root development.

We compared the responses of dryland and irrigated cotton to damage caused by two spotted spider mites in a field experiment at Narrabri. Mites colonies developed at similar rates in irrigated and dryland crops.

Transgenic Bt (Ingard) cotton has been the biggest step achieved so farm reducing insecticide applications to cotton in Australia.

Many growers show little or no interest in their cotton once it leaves the farm gate.

Microplitis demolitor (Wilkinson) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is a critical component of IPM in Australian cotton.

Good average irrigated yields have been achieved on the Darling Downs by most growers this season while dryland crops on average did not fare so well due to the unseasonal hot dry conditions.

Tractors and harvesters that steer themselves would have sounded like science fiction 10 years ago, yet today there are several systems which can effectively guide machinery.

The adoption of integrated Pest Management technologies and strategies, which are being extensively researched and developed in the cotton industry, has been very limited.

Farming systems are continually attracting interest amongst the growing community, since input costs are continually increasing and returns behave in a cyclic nature.

Australian cotton production relies heavily on the use of pesticides for control of Helicoverpa spp. As a result insecticide resistance has become a major problem (Daly and Paschalidis 1994).

The human resource is the most important resource in our industry. Human resource managers and trainers often repeat these words in such presentations as this.

The imperatives for a comprehensive training scheme in the cotton industry are easily identifiable: looming skills shortage, new and complex technologies to be adopted, best management practices to be implemented and