Summer Scholarship Report - Diurnal movement of mirids in response to lynx spiders

The project was designed to increase the adoption of natural resource management best practice on farm, through working collaboratively with Regional NRM Bodies to achieve on ground change and develop regionally specific resources to improve the NRM skills and knowledge of growers.l

This research project involved the development and application of crop simulation tools to assist with crop management within the cotton industry. These tools allow risk assessments to be made about crop management decisions, which when combined with on-farm experience aims to maximise crop potential. In addition, by providing extension and research staff and other industry personnel with a simulation capacity through the project, the benefits to industry will be more widespread and gain greater exposure. Irrigated and dryland growers involved during this project have benefited from information generated by simulation technology and refined their crop management strategies. This project had several objectives in the application of crop simulation to the cotton industry.

Exploration of on-farm crop management scenarios using simulation in dryland and irrigated crop production.

One of the keys to developing software tools that generate information that growers and consulstants value, and have a true impact on crop management, has been through collaborative research on-farm. Linking soil sampling, soil characterisation for water holding capacity and the output from OZCOT has been shown to maximise yield potential under a range of growing conditions and seasons. Research in 2001-02 demonstrated the general principles required for modelling in-season for decision making, whilst subsquent research facilitated the development of a focussed tool for irrigation scheduling and water related decision making.

Provision of support to extension staff, researchers and industry personnel in the use of the ‘user-friendly’ OZCOT.

Providing support to industry staff using and related tools has been important to the uptake of these tools and promotion of simulation in cotton. This has involved training in ‘how to drive’ the software and how to interpret the information generated by these tools. This support has been achieved through training workshops held in each cotton growing valley for growers and consultants, and more focssued training for extension staff. Using OZCOT and HydroLOGIC, extension and industry staff have compared topics such as fruiting potential, yield potential under reduced water allocations and strategies to maximize available water.

Maintenance of a simulation capacity and skills within the CRC and cotton industry to enable growers and industry representative to access this technology.

The ability to generate complex crop potential information over a wide number of locations and crop management scenarios has been an important part of this projects success. This capacity has allowed investigation of issues such as sowing date, dryland potential, row spacing, water allocation, and irrigation scheduling. It has involved the application and evaluation of simulation in new areas and novel crop management strategies such as skip-row planted irrigated cotton. Focussed workshops have been conducted on the physiological response of cotton to water stress, the impact of reduced allocations, the implications of timing the first irrigation, and understanding the impact of stretching irrigation deficits during different crop stages.

Training in the to provide a proven framework for adoption.

Research conducted on-farm with growers and consultants allowed the investigation of local crop management issues in greater detail. This objective focussed on providing the appropriate training for this applied research, and methods for extension of information and tools to the cotton industry. Accreditation also aimed to maintain the credibility of the project officer as a trainer for OZCOT and related software. Since enrolling in the accreditation program in July 2001, numerous workshops were attended to assist with the accreditation process. Stage 1 of the scheme was finished in June 2001, and stage 2 was completed in June 2004.

On farm water quality monitoring - protocol and log book

Industrial trials as part of CRC Project No. 4.03.03 showed cotton through the MLC with a combing ratio of 19 had 0.02 inches or 0.53 mm more length in terms of UHML (a 2% increase), a 1.34 increase in length uniformity (a 2% increase) and a 1.16% decrease in SFC (a 12% decrease) than standard lint cleaners (SLC). The results also showed that whilst there was no significant difference in nep generation through a SLC or MLC, neps were consistently lower for the MLC at lower combing ratios. Although trash levels as measured by HVI and AFIS were consistently higher for LC systems with lower combing ratios including the MLC, the differences were not significant and not reflected in lower classing grades. At the conclusion of this project it was proposed that upgrades to the MLC including reducing the diameter of the new draft rollers, reducing the draft distance between the condenser doffing rollers and the new draft rollers and revising the draft ratios between roller sets, would further improve fibre length and reduce the number of neps and trash.Overall the results from samples processed through the upgraded MLC indicated statistically significant improvements in fibre properties for cotton with fibre lengths ranging from 1.095 inches to 1.20 inches. Length (UHML), length uniformity (ML/UHML %), short fibre index (SFI), USDA leaf grade and neps (AFIS) all improved when this type of cotton was processed through the MLC, although the improvements were minor in terms of fibre value. The effect of the upgraded MLC was more muted on longer cottons e.g., UHML > 1.17 inches, although like the shorter cottons produced cleaner cotton in terms of leaf grade

Native fish populations in the Murray-Darling Basin are estimated at 10 % of pre-European settlement levels. Whilst multiple key threatening processes have contributed to this decline, the impact of fish losses at water diversions has been largely underestimated and remains unaddressed. There is mounting evidence that significant numbers of fish (ranging from hundreds to millions at individual diversions) are being lost from rivers through water abstraction. Whilst the true extent of the impact across the entire Basin remains uncertain, given the extent of water diversion from most rivers, it is likely that fish entrainment is significant and will need to be addressed if a recovery in native fish populations is to be achieved.Fish screens can be used to protect fish populations whilst maintaining irrigator entitlements. Although several different screening approaches are currently applied elsewhere in the world, most of which would be suitable for application in the Murray-Darling Basin, it is essential that technologies are designed with the needs of local fish species in mind. In particular, screens will need to meet certain design criteria (e.g. maximum velocities at the screen face, or be made out of suitable material) that ensure fish are excluded from abstracted water and do not suffer injury or mortality. Currently no such criteria or guidelines exist for the design of screens suitable for Australian native fish, and this study has been the first to collect data relevant to the Murray-Darling Basin.A combination of field and laboratory-based experiments at simulated intake screens was used to test a variety of approach velocities (velocities in front of and perpendicular to the screen face) and screening materials. It was found that the installation of fish screens has great potential to significantly reduce fish entrainment at intakes and, in some cases, mortality at an experimental intake was reduced from over 90 % (unscreened) to less than 2 % (when screened) in the laboratory. Approach velocities (measured 8 cm from the screen) of up to 0.4 m/sec (1.5 m/sec slot velocity through the screen) were effective in reducing entrainment of juvenile golden perch and silver perch in laboratory trials, with very little injury or mortality resulting from incidental screen contacts or impingement. In comparison, field observations of an assemblage of fish at a screen in a river demonstrated that even modest increases in approach velocity (from 0.1 to 0.5 m/sec) produced a significant increase in the rate of screen contact for fish smaller than 150 mm, with the impact being more marked the smaller fish were.

This report is the formal final report to the CCC CRC Project &#39Fibre to Fabric Training&#39 (CCC CRC Project Number ). This project initiative which was started under the Australian Cotton CRC was to develop a training course to give people employed in the cotton production including the ginning and merchant sectors an intensive introduction to the operations of a modem cotton spinning, fabric formation and dyeing and finishing mill and how fibre quality impacts upon these operations in terms of end-product quality and processing efficiency.

This project has sort to identify the potential to measure the value added from training of on farm employees. This has been achieved by reviewing the literature on valuing training and interviewing industry stakeholders to develop an understanding of the training system. Once the system was defined, opportunities to measure and improve the systems were identified.There is significant diversity in the labour productivity metrics such as area per employee (174ha to 290ha per employee), bales per employee (1260 to 2290) and cost of labour per bale ($23 to $36). These differences do require further analysis to allow meaningful benchmarks as machinery assets and use of contractors for farming and picking impact them. Although there are challenges to compare metrics between farms, in their current form they do provide useful measures for the same farm over time.The process of shifting employees towards their productive potential will require an understanding of the specific skills required for cotton production tasks on farm. The Cotton Basics course provides a logical breakdown of the task that are impacted by employee capacity. This project recommends that the Dreyfus Model of skills acquisition be used as scale of capacity for each of these tasks. By breaking down the employees role and ability to specific tasks and skill level, capacity development can be targeted and value to the farm business quantified

The goal of this project was to develop enzymes against one particular chemistry, namely the toxic metabolites of phenylurea herbicides like diuron. The reasons for this choice were that a scoping study conducted for the CCC CRC by Dr Ivan Kennedy, University of Sydney, identified diuron as the priority target for enzymatic bioremediation in the Australian cotton industry. We had already made good progress in isolating a gene/enzyme system that degrades diuron (and other phenylureas). However there are a set of aniline metabolites of phenylureas that are quite readily produced both biotically and abioticallyin the environment and which have problematic levels of vertebrate toxicity (albeit they are no longer herbicidal). In the case of diuron (and some other major products like linuron) the most troublesome of these is dichloroaniline. It might be problematic to commercialise an enzyme mix to degrade phenylureas that did not also degrade these aniline metaboltes.

This project is a joint initiative of the MDBC and the cotton industry to determine an appropriate model for the introduction of an industry wide environmental audit and certification scheme. The project is a component of a Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) programme to investigate the “Feasibility and benefits of introducing an appropriate audit and certification model to foster better management practice in natural resources management in the irrigation regions across the Murray-Darling Basin”. Another component of the MDBC programme is investigating related preliminary issues for the rice, dairy and viticulture irrigation industries, as well as Land and Water Management Planning Groups, Rural Water Authorities, Municipalities and Catchment Authorities throughout the Murray-Darling Basin. This project builds on the extensive work on environmental management that has already been undertaken in the cotton industry by the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), and Cotton Australia. These organisations have played leading roles in developing and implementing environmentally responsible practices on cotton farms. In particular, CRDC and Cotton Australia have been responsible for the success of the industry’s programme for the safe use of pesticides, the BMP Programme. This report highlights the importance of implementing a comprehensive environmental programme in the cotton industry, and outlines the features considered essential for an effective industry programme. The report concludes that a certified industry environmental management system already introduced in the Executive Summary can effectively build on the current industry environmental programme, ensuring that current and future environmental and associated issues facing the industry continue to be properly addressed. The report outlines the advantages of developing the BMP Programme in line with an EMS, as well as the costs that this would entail. Recommended actions and timeframes for the implementation of an industry EMS are also included.