Final Report as participant in the 2004 Australian Rural Leadership Program

The results of annual disease surveys continue to indicate the importance of soil-borne plant pathogens. Seedling diseases are controlled by the use of fungicide seed treatments. Current and potential seed treatments are being evaluated in annual field experiments. Verticillium wilt has been effectively controlled by the repeated use of resistant cultivars. Black root rot and Fusarium wilt are widespread and particularly significant. Black root rot is found in all cotton production areas but is more important in the cooler areas. The pathogen has been dispersed by the activities of cotton growers. There is no evidence of host plant resistance to black root rot of cotton and current control options are limited to biofumigation with a green manure crop of vetch, summer flooding and delaying the planting time to avoid cool conditions early in the season. The distribution of Fusarium wilt is continuing to increase. The pathogen appears to have originated from native populations of Fusarium oxysporum and resistance to the pathogen has been found in some native Gossypium spp. Slow but significant progress has been made in breeding cotton cultivars with better resistance to the pathogen. Progress has also been made in understanding some of the mechanisms of resistance. Several control options have been, or are being, evaluated and an integrated disease management strategy for Fusarium wilt is being developed. The strategy currently includes delayed incorporation of residues from the previous crop, bare fallow rotation, delayed planting into moisture, use of a cultivar with a high F.rank and use of rolling cultivators to minimise damage to the roots.

Benchmarking is a process of collecting data to enable comparison. It allows an enterprise to strive for improvement by comparing current performance to appropriate internal or external performance measures.

The CottonInfo Team has embraced online video media to spread the message on best practice cotton production.

This project aimed to fill a gap that existed in developing management strategies in the field that optimised cotton fibre properties.

Final Report abstract - Transformation and gene silencing technologies to control helicoverpa armigera

Project aimed to :Identify new scouting and information collecting tools and decision support systems for the Australian cotton industry that utilise wireless internet technologies and advanced handheld device.Develop new decision support tools and explore means of commercialising these to a wider agribusiness community. Demonstrate real commitment to developing regional solutions using the latest technology and research from the CCC CRC and Telstra.

Contamination, even if it is a single foreign fibre, can lead to the downgrading of yarn, fabric or garments to second quality or even the total rejection of an entire consignment and is thus a very important fibre parameter.The Australian Cotton CRC Mill Survey rated contamination as one of the most favourable fibre properties of Australian cotton. However, there has been concern that incidences of some contaminants are increasing. This was supported by ITMF Contamination Survey findings from 1999 to 2005, which showed an increase in the number of contaminated Australian cotton bales delivered to overseas spinning mills. The major source of contamination identified in these surveys is organic matter such as leaves, feathers, paper and leather followed by string and fabric made from plastic film and from jute and hessianThe objective of this project was to accurately quantify the degree and sources of contaminants found in Australian cotton. CSIRO conducted a survey of ginning companies and gathered samples to determine the type and amount of contamination present in modules. The survey found that the majority of contaminants found in modules were metallic pieces from harvesters, module builders and from transportation of modules to the gins. This was followed by 'other', which included items such as mobile phones, shotgun shells, beer cans, oil cans, two-way radios, etc., followed by module ropes, plastic which included plastic bags, grass and timber, grease and oil which is mainly due to hydraulic oil, followed by fabric which includes rags and cloth followed by tarp which refers to module covers.

There is consensus both locally and internationally that the measurement of cotton fibre properties by the traditional method o subjective classing should be replaced with the measurements by the relevant instruments in High Volume Instrument (HVI) lines. However, there are a number of technical and operational issues to overcome before objective measurement of these parameters is accepted with confidence by the cotton trade.

Project CRC109 was a separately funded project with aims to examine the whole ginning process critically and focus on identifying new technology and systems in gin pre-cleaning, ginning itself, lint cleaning and/or baling appropriate for Australian cotton. To this end CRC109 has been an information gathering project partly extending on the knowledge gained through the CRDC project CTFT9 but also initiating new understanding of other areas in the gin. The outcome of CRC109 is represented in the second of the new CRDC and CCC CRC ginning projects, which has the objective of measuring fibre moisture accurately in the gin and providing a feedback system to driers and/or humidifiers in order to modulate moisture in the fibre.