COVID-19 has made social gatherings challenging in the past 12 months and has placed restrictions around people getting together and transferring and extending information. This has not stopped the enthusiasm across the cotton industry and this year CSD’s Field Day hosted around 90 people, who attended to hear from leaders in their field on what research and trials are being conducted.
This year’s annual field day at Wee Waa was organised by CSD’s extension team in conjunction with CSIRO, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Lower Namoi Cotton Growers Association, Crown Analytical Services and Goanna Ag.
During the field day, the audience was shown newly developed extension materials to guide them on the best agronomic practices for cotton production. This included the new tools available to members of CSD, such as BARRY – Biometric Agronomy for Realising Representative Yield, STEFF – Simulated Time to Establish First Flower, as well as the other online decision making tools for crop growth.
Other presentations included the topics of plant-based sensing technology (canopy sensors) on improving irrigation scheduling, as well as using existing probe technology with the new “GoSat” analytical system from Goanna Ag on improving crop water use.
The CSIRO cotton breeding program continues to work on its long-term objectives of developing varieties with improved yield, disease resistance, fibre quality and containing a package of GM traits of relevance to the Australian cotton grower. On the day, the team discussed the work they have been conducting around sodicity tolerance, Bollgard® 3 XtendFlex®, lygus, host plant resistance, abiotic stress and disease resistance.
Disease is a big concern within the industry and on the day, Crown Analytical Service presented on their new testing technology tools to measure and monitor disease. This DNA technology is enabling grower to quickly test and monitor disease within a field, identify any hot spots and manage depending upon what disease you might have.
The field day also showcased some of the trials being conducted on CSD Farms, including:
CSD’s discovery trial program: this is the initial phase of the FastStart™ program, where a wide selection of treatments are screened for their effectiveness in aiding germination, establishment and early season cotton growth. These treatments are potential products that if they show promise, will be filtered through to commercial sized trials the following season.
Seedling vigour trial program: this is part of CSD’s ongoing seedling vigour research project to look into the factors that determine final field establishment. The program is designed to be run concurrently with laboratory based testing methods to assess the accuracy of the methods for predicting field establishment.
CSD’s disease trials: as the industry continues to expand and the planting window widens there is a need to breed and rank varieties with increased Verticillium resistance as well as develop management practices to combat the disease. CSD Farms has a Verticillium wilt nursery to conduct trials and this year has two trials; one looking at determining V-ranks for varieties and the other in management practices to combat the disease.
Insecticide trials: this season’s insecticide trial was aimed at investigating a new product in the market that may have the potential to control early seedling pests such as thrip and wireworm. As well as on CSD Farms, this trial was conducted a further eight times across other cotton growing regions.
Delaying maturity: the delayed flowering demonstration is a trial investigating the effects that cutting the stem of the cotton plant at certain intervals will have on the flowering progression of the crop. It is aimed at delaying flowering through the warmest months of summer.