Ten years into the implementation of Vision 2029, industry growth is being realised and Australian cotton is well on the way to achieving an industry that is differentiated, responsible, tough, successful, respected, capable and innovative.

Industry organisations, including Cotton Australia, Cotton Research & Development Corporation and Cotton Seed Distributors as well AS CottonInfo, the industry’s

joint venture in extension, have aligned their strategic plans with

Vision 2029. The Australian Cotton Industry Forum continues to provide leadership in monitoring and reviewing the vision.

Much has changed over the last ten years in the operating environment for Australian agriculture and the cotton industry. Industry leaders, through the Australian Cotton

Industry Forum, have reviewed not only our progress but also refreshed the vision to ensure it remains contemporary and fit for purpose.

Importantly, everyone involved in Australian cotton has a role to play in achieving Vision 2029.

Ultra-High Pressure Water Jet technology has a number of industrial applications in product manufacturing. The technology uses water pumped through specialised nozzles at ultra-high pressures (50,000-60,000 psi) to create a high powered jet that can be used to very accurately cut through a broad range of materials ranging from steel to carrots. Researchers from the South Australian No Till Farmers Association (SANTFA) have been investigating the potential for this UHP Water Jet technology, termed AquaTill, to be retro-fitted to planting equipment for the purpose of cutting through fallen stubble that would otherwise obstruct the passage of the planting tynes through the soil surface. Compared to a standard cutting disc fitted to many planters for this purpose, AquaTill provides the advantage of cleanly cutting through stubble, eliminating the occurrence of trash ‘hair pinning’ during the planting operation.

Demonstrations of AquaTill in northern NSW by the SANTFA at field days during 2016 piqued the curiosity of a number of cotton growers who expressed an interest in seeing this technology tested for its potential to be used as an alternative method of cotton termination for traditional root cutting.

Root cutting is a commonly deployed crop destruction technique whereby two opposing and overlapping discs are drawn at ground level through the crop and used to cut through the main stem below the cotyledon nodes. Ineffective root cutting can occur when equipment is either not well set up or when in-field conditions are variable (un-even ground or stones), resulting in a percentage of plants that are not severed below the cotyledons and consequently grow back as ratoons, presenting a significant challenge for farm hygiene.

Global warming is surmised to result in major increases in climatic variability (i.e. severe deficiencies and excesses of water for plant production, higher frequency of sub- and supra- optimal growing season temperatures) and changes in pest incidence. In order to maintain yields and profitability, and thus ensure sustainability of the cotton industry, cotton farming systems need to demonstrate resilience in the face of the above mentioned environmental stresses. Resilience can be improved by using suitable tillage and stubble management systems, and crop rotations to improve soil quality and water conservation. Such improvements can be best demonstrated by monitoring in long-term experiments. Indicators of resilience include improvements in soil carbon and nutrients, water storage, soil physical and chemical quality, yield maintenance/profitability improvements over time, and changes in key soil faunal indicator species.

To maintain the productivity of the Australian Cotton Industry, cropping systems that are resilient to these climatic events and the associated soil processes must be identified. This is best done through long-term experiments that capture seasonal variability. The aim of this project was to continue three on-going long-term experiments on selected cropping systems that include practices such as crop rotations, stubble retention, tillage systems and fallow length. Measurements made on an annual basis will include soil carbon and nutrients, physical and chemical quality, crop yields and profitability. Collaborative projects with CSIRO, UNE and other research groups will research soil microbial dynamics of resilient cropping systems, carbon storage in the subsoil, disease incidence, nutrient decline and maintenance, and drainage.

During the previous research the short-term benefits of sowing corn on cotton yield, disease control and subsoil increases in soil carbon were observed. The longer-term impacts of sowing corn in cotton-based farming systems were further investigated in this project. In addition, benefits have been demonstrated in a long term experiment at ACRI with respect to soil faunal indicator species, N, energy use and water conservation in a retained stubble cotton-wheat-vetch system. This long-term investigation is being continued.

Fibre elongation contributes directly to yarn elongation and toughness, which are important particularly in fine count yarn spinning and realised yarn quality. Despite the importance of fibre elongation its measurement has been neglected by industry. A key reason for this has been the lack of confidence in its measurement by high volume instruments.

It is noted that fibre elongation is currently not measured in USDA, Australian or Commercial Standardization of Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC) HVI laboratory check tests, nor is any calibration value provided for USDA HVI calibration cottons. Given the effect of fibre elongation on yarn quality and increasing demand for fibre that performs well in fine count yarn, there is a need to address the measurement and management of elongation for the Australian and international cotton industry.

Over 600 fibre samples were collected and measured in this project. The broad aim was to address issues around the information available on fibre elongation values in Australian cotton.

TThis project supported travel, which was conducted in order to participate in the course “Nematodes in Cropping Systems: Identification and Techniques, 2017”. This course provided training and hands-on experience for researchers in sampling, extraction, molecular and microscopic techniques, specimen preparation, culturing, diagnosis and identification of agriculturally important nematodes. The course provided the opportunity to interact with experts in the field as well as networking with course participants from various areas related to nematology research and diagnostics.

There is significant gap between the average industry yield and the top achievers in irrigated cotton industry of Australia. This gap can be reduced significantly by utilizing the opportunity to improve irrigation efficiency. Improving water use efficiency is also increasingly becoming critical with changing climate and the recent changes in government policy, both resulting in potentially less water available for growing irrigated crops including cotton. Australian cotton growers irrigate their crops by monitoring soil water status and their experience; however, many growers are not experienced.

It has been suggested that irrigation management based on plant’s water status might be superior to above mentioned methods as plants respond to both soil and aerial environment. However, easy-to-adopt plant-based irrigation approaches have been difficult to develop with most such methods limited for research purposes only. Canopy temperature which is an indirect measure of crop water status is gaining traction as a practicable method for irrigation scheduling as it can be measured continuously using commercially available infra-red sensors. It has been previously used to schedule irrigation by the BIOTIC (Biologically Identified Optimum Temperature Interactive Console) approach in lateral-overhead and drip systems, with quick irrigation response time (few hours) and capacity for multiple irrigations within a day. Under furrow systems, irrigation intervals are much longer (several days) and is a singular event. This characteristic limits the direct application of the BIOTIC approach to irrigation scheduling of furrow systems. In this study, we developed an approach for optimizing furrow irrigation scheduling using canopy temperature. A time threshold was developed based on the relationship between plant’s water status (leaf water potential) and canopy temperature. This time threshold is defined as the number of hours the cotton canopy temperature can stay above the optimum temperature for physiological functioning of cotton (i.e. 28 °C) without affecting yield. A cotton crop is irrigated when the accumulated stress hours reach the above mentioned time threshold. The feasibility of our approach was tested on cotton in three Australian cotton valleys over two seasons. Yield, yield components, and some fibre quality attributes were similar to those obtained in crops grown under the irrigation practices of high yielding producers using traditional irrigation scheduling approaches. Adoption of our irrigation approach could help boost confidence of irrigators and improve irrigation scheduling of the average cotton grower. Our approach incorporates many of the advantages of applying plant based measure of stress for optimizing irrigation scheduling. This project has truly developed a new and novel tool that will provide the cotton industry an opportunity to be a leader in adopting plant based approaches of irrigation scheduling.

The Australian cotton industry’s first Australian Grown Cotton Sustainability Report, published by CRDC and Cotton Australia, was released in November 2014. The Report is a major outcome of the industry's third environmental assessment, conducted in 2012, which tracks cotton's environmental performance. The Sustainability Report benchmarks how the industry is performing in terms of economic, environmental and social indicators, and charts this performance over time. It also sets high level targets for cotton in the areas of farm productivity, water use efficiency, carbon footprint, biodiversity and work-related injuries and fatalities - and importantly, commits to a plan of action. The Report will be reviewed regularly, to ensure the industry can continuously monitor and improve its performance.

Highlighting the achievements of CRDC's investment in cotton RD&E, ten years after the formation of the organisation.

This report presents the results of an impact assessment of a cluster of nine nutrition research projects funded by the CRDC over the years 2008-2016.

Nutrition is a critical component for profitable agricultural production. Australian cotton producers are heavily reliant on fertiliser inputs to provide crop nutrition, and this typically represents a substantial proportion of overall input costs. Rates, timings, and application methods all need to be optimised, while plant and soil testing methods need to provide information capable of enabling adjustment of these variables under different circumstances. Ongoing nutrition research is required to capitalise on new technologies, adjust current practices to new cultivars and farming systems, and address long-standing knowledge gaps.

In addition to these economic aspects, crop nutrition also has environmental implications in areas including greenhouse gas emissions and water quality.

While the projects in this cluster focused on a wide range of issues, there were two issues of prominence that were addressed. The first was that of nitrogen use efficiency, as growers were applying increasing volumes of nitrogen (N) fertiliser, either due to decreasing NUE or as ‘insurance’ for achieving high yields. The second was that of ongoing depletion of soil reserves of key nutrients, particularly phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).

In 2017, there has been plenty of good news for the Australian agricultural sector with the value of farm production forecast to increase by 8.3 percent, making it a record production year across a number of crop industries (ABARES, 2017). Although there are concerns that the productivity of Australian farms is plateauing, and understandably there is concerted efforts to improve research and technology to address this issue (Hall, Dijkman, Taylor, Williams, & Kelly, 2017). It is widely recognised that a key component required for driving agricultural production gains is a capable and motivated workforce, both throughout the supply chain and on-farm (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015).

Recognising the value of people in production outcomes, the Cotton Research Development Corporation (CRDC) has been investing in research and developing a workforce development strategy for the cotton industry. In the workforce development strategy action plan, it is noted:

While cotton growers lead the world in many areas of farm management, general evidence suggests that, like other agrifood industries, human resource management is not keeping pace with changing business models.The challenge for the cotton industry is whether the talent for innovation can be adapted to developing a more sustainable approach to securing a workforce (Agrifood Skills Solutions, 2015, p. 19).

A key aspect of persuading and engaging cotton growers to implement changes in their business is the use of evidence specific to the cotton farm context. The CRDC’s (2013a) multi-disciplinary “People” program of research aims to capture evidence to inform the practical implementation of the workforce development strategy and demonstrate the impacts that different aspects of workforce development has in improving cotton farm productivity. The current research project is funded by the CRDC and contributes to this agenda.

In attempting to tackle current on-farm workforce attraction and retention issues, the cotton industry aims for each cotton farm to be viewed as a desirable workplace where employees can achieve overall job satisfaction (Agrifood Skills Solutions, 2015). For the individual, job satisfaction has been linked to a number of positive health and wellbeing outcomes, and is one domain that can influence overall life satisfaction (Faragher, Cass & Cooper, 2005; Ford, Heinen, & Langkamer, 2007; Lent et al., 2005). Job satisfaction also has been linked to worker productivity, commitment and reduced turnover intentions (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001; Griffeth, Hom, Gaertner, 2000; Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002). In seeking to understand the antecedents of job satisfaction in the cotton farm context, I argue that there is a need to better understand the psychological factors that impact a farm worker’s career experiences and result in the individual’s attitudinal appraisal. Vocational Psychology and, more specifically, Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) offers an ideal lense through which to view such a phenomena.

This thesis reports on research into the application of the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) of job satisfaction in a sample of Australian farm workers. The SCCT job satisfaction model maps the relationships between five predictor variables: (a) personality and affective traits; (b) goal and efficacy-relevant environmental barriers, supports and resources; (c) self-efficacy; (d) expected and received work conditions and outcomes; and (e) goals and goal-directed activity, and their direct and indirect influence on fostering (or inhibiting) the individual’s experience of work satisfaction (Lent & Brown, 2006a). SCCT is a dominant theory in the Vocational Psychology discipline and has been tested for generalisability in a wide range of cultures and work contexts. As yet, it has not been extensively applied to understand the career motivations of the Australian agricultural workforce. The current research addresses this gap in the vocational psychology literature and attempts to counter the agentic assumptions of the SCCT by proposing the addition of work volition to the model.

The literature on career motivations for Australian agricultural workers is reviewed, informing consideration for the application of the SCCT in this context. The proposed testing of the SCCT Model of Job Satisfaction in the Australian farming context draws on other existing theories and frameworks including, the Psychology of Working, self-efficacy theory, person-organisation fit theory, organisational support theory, and job demands-resources theory. In this way, the SCCT is used to synthesise multiple perspectives of contributing factors to job satisfaction and provide a comprehensive understanding of psychological factors that influence attraction and retention of workers to the Australian agricultural industry and more specifically to the Australian cotton industry.

A sequential mixed methods design is used to position the farm work context as central to testing the SCCT Model of Job Satisfaction. Firstly, semi-structured interviews conducted with Australian cotton farm workers and growers were used to collect data which described the SCCT constructs in the farming context. Following thematic analysis of these data, the face validity of measures that operationalised the SCCT constructs was discussed. Furthermore, a new measure to capture farm worker self-efficacy was developed. Respondent’s descriptions of work volition were used to inform the integration of this construct into the newly proposed SCCT Model of Farm Worker Job Satisfaction. The second study surveyed farm workers and used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test two conceptual models; (a) the SCCT Model of Farm Worker Job Satisfaction and (b) the SCCT Model of Farm Worker Job Satisfaction including work volition.

The results found sufficient evidence to support the generalisability of the SCCT Model of Job Satisfaction to the Australian agricultural context and the cotton farm context. Although, it would appear that the relationships between self-efficacy and the SCCT antecedent and outcome constructs are more complex than the direct relationships hypothesised. While the addition of work volition to the SCCT Model of Farm Worker Job Satisfaction added little to the prediction of reported levels of job satisfaction, this did contribute to the explanation of the relationships between the SCCT predictor variables. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed and recommendations for application of the findings and future research are made.