OBJECTIVES OF TRAVEL To attend the 1 lth Biennial Conference of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society (APPS), present a paper on recent research from CRDC Project DANlOOC and attend a practical workshop on disease management at the conference. To meet and interact with leading pathologists and mycorrhizologists from the Australasian region.

Dr Christian was invited to attend the USDA-ARS's Helicoverpa/Heliothis (H/H) Meeting in College Station Texas on 7 and 8 October 1997. This meeting is the major meeting of AAS scientists involved in H/H research in the US and is only held every 3 years (the last meeting held in Texas in 1994 - which Dr Christian also attended). In addition to USDA staff, the invitation to attend the meeting was also extended to all other researchers in the US working on H/H. The meeting provided an excellent opportunity for interactions with USDA's scientists involved in H/H research and the only chance to meet, in one place, many of the scientists working in this area in the USA. This meeting also formed part of the USDA's planning process for H/H research for the next five years and therefore provided a valuable insight into the () directions that will be taken in this area of research in the USA during this timeframe. () In addition to attending the meeting in Texas, Dr Christian also visited collaborators at the USDA's laboratories in Columbia Mo. to discuss future collaborations on NPVs for control of Helicoverpa. This collaboration has been on-going for the last several years and has provided the foundation for much of the host range testing that has been carried out in the program Genetic Engineering of Helicoverpa NPVs.

Objectives: To purchase a new autosampler in order to provide faster, more accurate analysis of cotton samples.

This Project has provided the Department of Primary Industries cotton Development Extension Officers with good quality portable computers and mobile telephones ensuring maximum effectiveness of their role in the cotton industry extension programs for the development and demonstration of cotton decision support systems and packages as an integral part of field trials and demonstrations and in industry workshops

One hundred & seventy people were given training in soil assessment and management Hands-on training in soil management was given to one hundred & seventy members of the Australian cotton industry at a series of 11 courses between October 1997 and September 1999. The courses were held in the Narrabri, Warren, Moree, Emerald, Dalby, Wee Waa, Goondiwindi, Gunnedah, Theodore. Walgett and Bourke districts. The main aim of the courses was to demonstrate how to use 'SO!Lpak for Cotton Growers, Third Edition ' *, with emphasis on soil sampling for yield map interpretation. Soil monitoring for farm accreditation schemes also was discussed. Most of the soil inspections were carried out via 1.5 metre deep backhoe pits, which usually were dug in * McKenzi e, D .C. (ed.) 1998. SOILpak for Cotton Growers, Third Edition. 395 pp. (NSW Agriculture, Orange.) triplicate. The courses focussed on the needs of Private Consultants and Government Advisers associated with the cotton industry - a summary of course attendees is shown in Table 1. Details are in Appendix 1. David McKenzie also demonstrated soil description

PROJECT OBJECTIVES 1. To assess the performance of the new distributor across a wide range of outlet numbers,, flow rates and tank pressures with both conventional gas and Cold-flo product., 2. To assess the performance of the new distributor in conjunction with a range of metering, devices (ie. both controllers and regulators).,

Project Objective Year 1: To order and purchase a new file server and install it at ACRI.

The aim of this project is to evaluate annually a large number of cotton breeding lines and cultivars for yield and quality characteristics in Queensland in collaboration with the CSIRO cotton breeding programs at Narrabri. The following trial program provides the milestones for this project. 1. Australian Cotton Cultivar Trials ( 4 irrigated sites - Brookstead on the Darling Downs and Theodore, Biloela and Emerald in central Queensland, plus 2 dryland sites- Dalby on the Darling Downs and Biloela in central Queensland. 2. Short Season Trials on the Darling Downs (1 site - Brookstead) 3. Full Season Trials in central Queensland (2 sites - Biloela, Emerald) 4. Hot Area - Material Trials in central Queensland (1 site - Emerald) 5. lngard Variety Trials (Emerald in central Queensland and Brookstead on the Darling Downs)

To ensure the viability of cotton research into the ears of agronomy, entomology and pathology by NSW Agriculture staff at the Australian Cotton Research Institute

This project was to provide the basic technical support at the molecular level for CSIRO' s cotton breeding program to develop new transgenic cotton varieties with improved agronomic characteristics. During the three years of the project, which was a continuation of a previous CRDC project in the same area, the three technical staff supported by the grant carried out extensive screening of transgenic breeding lines (over 500,000 samples) containing the insecticidal INGARD gene, the CryIIA gene and the herbicide resistance gene Roundup Ready and various combinations of these genes in a variety of elite backgrounds. This screening work allowed the cotton breeders at Narrabri to identify those plants containing the novel genes that could be advanced in the breeding process. This is obviously an essential component of the more conventional parts of the breeding process related to the carrying out of crosses and the evaluation of the agronomic performance of the lines and directly contributed to the release of five transgenic IN GARD cultivars in 1996 and a sixth cultivar in the 1998 season. On-going screening as part of a new CRDC project will have contributed to the development of new IN GARD cultivars for the next decade and the two gene Bt varieties to hopefully be released in 2000 or soon after. The same technical team has also produced many hundreds of new transgenic cotton plants containing both experimental genes aimed at improving the pest and disease tolerance of cotton and potentially new commercial traits such as tolerance to the herbicide bromoxynil that are still in the evaluation phase