Every incident of spray drift that has occurred in our cotton growing areas has one common factor - an error in the judgment made by the applicator. If applicators had appropriate knowledge of nozzle outputs, droplet behaviour and the influence of weather, then planned and conducted their sprays accordingly, spray drift could be eliminated.

Staff of the NSW Department of Primary Industries, Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd. and the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries annually survey the distribution, incidence and severity of diseases in commercial cotton crops in all production areas of Eastern Australia. The results of these surveys provide an invaluable guide for planning and evaluating pathology research.

The critical period for weed control is a concept designed to optimise weed management and herbicide use in systems reliant on post emergent herbicides for weed control and is particularly useful in systems into which herbicide tolerant crops have been introduced

In the 1996/97 season the Australian industry adopted an insect-resistant variety of cotton (INGARD) that is specific to the group of insects including the target pests Helicoverpa armigera and H. punctigera but excluding natural predators and parasitoids. To prolong the efficacy of transgenic cotton against Helicoverpa species, a resistance management plan (RMP) was implemented. This plan was largely based on information from studies of the ecology and population genetics of H. armigera, and the outputs of computer simulation models that used biological information to predict the likelihood of resistance under different scenarios.

Bollgard II and selective insecticides have dramatically increased the opportunity for adopting integrated pest management (IPM) in the Australian cotton system. However, reduced or more selective spraying has allowed the emergence of some pests as potential problems, especially sucking pests such as mirids and green vegetable bug.

Fibre quality is an important consideration for Australian cotton farm profitability and industry credibility in the world marketplace. Recent significant issues relating to fibre quality in the industry include maintaining fibre length, prevalence of high micronaire, and the perception of high levels of neps. Fibre development responds directly to the environment, crop management and stresses. Understanding clearly the reasons why these fibre quality issues persist, and why they differ for regions, seasons and for different crop management practices can aid in developing management guidelines. This paper presents a brief summary of: the physiology of fibre development and impacts of agronomy and environmental influences that change the growth of the fibre; consequences of different fibre propeties that are changed in the field and the consquences for textile production; some general recommendations for agronomic management for preserving fibre quality; and a discussion of current dedicated research to further this knowledge and deliver it to benefit the industry.

Australian irrigated cotton growers are committed to improving their water use efficiency for economic, environmental, social and political reasons. The Australian cotton industry is predominantly irrigated by furrow irrigation with siphons. Increasing the performance of such systems generally requires an intensification of the existing labour requirements while the current labour force is dwindling. Various alternatives have and are being considered but there is a lack of data that exists about comparisons of alternatives to fully optimised furrow irrigated field and even more so a lack of data about the individual potential of each system to perform better. The siphon-less project was developed to address this knowledge gap by using the same methods to measure and the same water use efficiency indices to assess the performance of each alternative system and an adjacent furrow irrigated field. Four systems, located throughout the Border Rivers and Lower Balonne catchments, were assessed over the 2005/06 summer including: Overhead Irrigation (Lateral Move), Bank-less Channel, Bank-less Head Ditch and Pipes Through the Banks. The following water use efficiency indices were calculated: Gross production Water Use Efficiency Index, Application Efficiency and Distribution Uniformity. In addition final infiltration rates, gross margin including development, operational and input costs were generated for each field under investigation. Results have demonstrated that the siphon-less irrigation systems compared reasonably well and in one case exceeded the water use efficiency of the adjacent furrow irrigated field. The development of siphon-less systems is more costly while the operating costs vary between systems. All systems have shown that there is still room for improvement. While furrow irrigation with siphons remains the pre-dominant irrigation method of the Australian cotton industry efforts towards improving the performance of this system still remains of paramount importance.

In agricultural systems, soil quality is thought of in terms of productive land that can maintain or increases farm profitability, as well as conserving soil resources so that future farming generations can make a living. Management practices which can modify soil quality include tillage systems and crop rotations. A large proportion of cotton grown in Australia has been grown with various rotation crops (mainly cereals) with corn and vetch increasing in recent years. Wheat rotation crops can improve soil quality indicators such as subsoil structure, salinity and sodicity under irrigated and dryland conditions, while leguminous crops can increase available nitrogen. Generally, soil organic carbon is unaffected by rotations crops and it is uncertain whether rotation crops change cotton water use efficiency. Profitability of cotton-rotation crop sequences varies with the relative price of cotton to wheat. Cotton-rotation crop sequences may be more resilient to price increases in fuel and fertiliser due to lower overall input costs.

Achievable paddock yields now frequently overreach the science and yields upon which our current crop nutrition practices are based. To date managing high yield cotton has been done with a lack of verifiable evidence based strategies but more based on seasonal tactics. In the current atmosphere of high yield expectations, increasing nutrient prices, and varying cotton prices, continuation of the increasing nutrient addition approach poses risks both to the stability of production and the environment. Increasing rates of nutrients applied must be done in a considered and balance approach with nutrient use efficiency keeping pace with increasing yield. A large divergence in this relationship can be an early symptom of increase environmental risk and potential increase in volatility of production economics

There are significant price and profitability challenges for Australian cotton at present and likely into the future. Changes at all levels of the production and processing steps can address the challenges and it will be best if all contribute some innovation. As plant breeders we recognise our responsibility and this paper discusses some of the technical challenges for progress and presents some likely new varieties and traits which may become available in the short to medium term.