CRDC's Strategic RD&E Plan for 2023-28 is Clever Cotton.

Clever Cotton sets out CRDC's vision for a sophisticated, prosperous and sustainable Australian cotton industry that is strongly connected to its value chain. 

Through this plan, CRDC aims to deliver $1 billion in additional value to the Australian cotton industry through RD&E. The plan will help the industry thrive by increasing productivity and profitability, sustainably addressing the impacts of climate change, and improving decision-making using data and digital technologies.

Clever Cotton sets out how CRDC is going to achieve this: the goals, investment approach, and planned impact for the next five years. Over the life of the plan, the Australian Government and Australia's cotton growers will invest $125 million into cotton RD&E via CRDC and Clever Cotton. This investment will be split across the three pillars and nine investment areas of this plan.

CRDC's Annual Operational Plan for 2023-24 (AOP): the first annual operational plan under the CRDC's Strategic RD&E Plan 2023-28.

The 2023-24 CRDC Researchers' Handbook is a key resource for all researchers working with or seeking investment from 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 - like CRDC's grant management system, Fluxx - are provided in the Handbook.

The Winter 2023 edition of Spotlight takes a closer look at the new CRDC Strategic RD&E Plan for 2023-28 – Clever Cotton – which will shortly be signed off by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, before coming into effect on 1 July. In this edition, we bring you an update on what Clever Cotton means for cotton RD&E, and the list of our 2023-24 investments.

This edition also look at the work CRDC's Innovation Broker Stacey Vogel and the Sustainability Working Group have been undertaking of late: talking to landholders about their thoughts on native vegetation and setting targets for the industry. These issues are complex – like others that fall within the PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK Sustainability Framework – and so CRDC and Cotton Australia are working with growers to ensure we, as an industry, get them right.

CRDC's also seeking feedback on a new tool to calculate greenhouse gas emissions on cotton farms. Until now, there has been no method to collect this information. Importantly, this tool is based on those developed for other primary industries, like grains, sheep and beef, to ensure consistency across different commodities – and it will help underpin a whole-of-farm tool being built now with CRDC’s support. We invite growers to try out the new tool and provide feedback.

And finally, it’s that time of year again: cotton growers are invited to provide feedback to CRDC on a number of issues and aspects of cotton growing via the annual CRDC Grower Survey, which opens on 1 June. 

All this, and more, in Spotlight.

This document provides a brief outline of the projects CRDC has invested in for 2023-24 (current as of April 2023).

The 2023 Australian Cotton Production Manual is a critical reference tool for cotton growers. The manual is a one-stop-shop for growers, outlining all the various decisions that need to be made on-farm in preparation for, and during, cotton production. The manual provides an understanding of cotton physiology, and discusses important considerations for both productivity and profitability. The Australian Cotton Production Manual is published by CRDC and CottonInfo and is updated each year to incorporate the latest research and consistent improvements in industry best practice.

The Spring 2022 edition of CRDC's magazine, Spotlight, features the return of the Australian Cotton Conference after a four year hiatus.

The 2022 conference was a huge three days with a record crowd and a theme of ‘Here for Good’ with presentations and panel topics structured around the industry’s PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. Sustainability Framework, underpinned by CRDC’s RD&E.

The 2022 conference marked two major milestones for cotton industry organisations – our congratulations to Cotton Australia on reaching 50 years of service to the industry, and to CottonInfo on celebrating its 10th anniversary. It was at the 2012 conference that CRDC, Cotton Australia and CSD announced the partnership of what has become an enduring and successful model of R&D extension. In this edition, we bring you some of the many CottonInfo achievements and activities to celebrate, and focus in on two of our Regional Extension Officers to hear their thoughts.

Those who attended conference will recognise some of the names and faces that we feature in this edition, as we take a closer look at cotton developments in northern Australia. CRDC supported a contingent of WA, NT and Far North Qld growers and agronomists to attend the conference to be a part of a discussion panel, and their session was one of the most well-attended on the program. As an industry built on sharing information and experience, there was a great deal of interest from attendees to see how crop managers in the north are overcoming conditions not experienced in southern regions.

Report to sponsors on conference outcomes

The spring edition of CRDC's magazine, Spotlight, highlights the improved performance of the cotton industry on many levels.

In this issue, hear from Goondiwindi grower Nigel Corish, who reports on the outcomes of his Nuffield Scholarship (supported by CRDC and Cotton Australia) into nitrogen use efficiency and soil health. Read about the growers who achieved record yields, and the practices they employed on-farm to help reach them (plus the researchers working in this field about the potential for further yield increases).

Meet Victorian innovator Peter Cocciardi who invented a flow-regulating valve "capable of revolutionising the irrigation sector in Australia," and the recipients of the 2015 Cotton Industry Awards, including CRDC Director and St George cotton grower Cleave Rogan. And take a look at the findings from the Australian Cotton Comparative Analysis, produced by Boyce Chartered Accountants and CRDC, which reveals financial performance and profitability information for growers.

In this Spotlight we report on research in the Central QLD growing region of Emerald investigating the viability of changing planting dates to accommodate the weather