The Australian CottongrowerP.O. Box 766, Toowoomba, 4350. Ph: (07) 4659 3555. Fax (07) 4638 4520. Email: cotton@greenmountpress.com.au Website: www.cottongrower.com.auDELIVERIES: 120 Herries St, Toowoomba, Qld. 4350.

EDITOR: David DowlingASSOCIATE EDITOR:  Lloyd O’ConnellGROUP SALES MANAGER: Norm NeeldPRODUCTION MANAGER:Mick AllanOFFICE MANAGER:   Catherine O’Connell

ADVERTISING:  Norm NeeldPh: (07) 5450 1720 Fax: (07) 5450 1102 Mobile: 0428 794 801

CONTENTS OF ADVERTISEMENTS are the responsibility of the advertisers. All statements and opinions expressed in The Australian Cottongrower are published after due consideration of information gained from sources believed to be authentic. The following of advice given is at the reader’s own risk, and no responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of the matter published herein. No portion in whole or part may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. Copyright 2011.Published by Berekua Pty. Ltd., 40 Creek Street, Brisbane. Registered by Australia Post Print Post Approved Publication number PP 405518/00026. ISSN 1442–5289.PUBLISHED: FEBRUARY, APRIL, JUNE, AUGUST, OCTOBER, DECEMBER. COTTON YEARBOOK PUBLISHED IN SEPTEMBER.

www.cottongrower.com.au

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 1

Cotton Industry Awards winners

Improving nutrient responses

Bollgard II and conventional yields – an annual debateIN

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contents  8  Australia’s carbon tax – how will it affect us?

 10  Australian Cotton Industry awards winners

Water Matters    14  Evaporation losses significantly reduced by storage

reconstruction

 16   Less crop but more drops?

 21   Recovering from herbicide damage – induced water stress

 nutrition feature    23  Improving the efficiency of nutrient responses

 ginning & fibre quality series    32  Results of nep survey

 36  Cottonscope gives separate measurement of fibre fineness and maturity

 45   Bollgard II and conventional yields – an annual debate

regular features  2  Editorial

  4  Cotton Research Roundup

marketing    28 World Commodity Watch

    30 The World Cotton Market

42    Classic Tractor Tales: McLaren tractors?

 48  Germinating Ideas

 51  News & New Products

 52  District Reports

front cover

While our longest ever cotton season slowly draws to a close, attention is quickly being focused on the next season which is now only a few weeks away. Cotton prices have fallen from their record high levels and the generally dry weather during winter – which helped with our protracted picking window – has also cast some doubt on the level of dryland cotton plant-

ings. The upshot is that expectations of the 2011–12 cotton crop may have to be scaled back, although the likelihood remains that we will have another record crop by next year.

It’s great to see the Australian industry back on its feet after so many years, and the scale of the recovery has been impressive. But I have just returned from a Greenmount Travel farm study tour to South America which puts that scale into perspective. Most cotton growers would have heard of Matto Grosso state in Brazil, which has been the driving force behind the dramatic expansion of Brazilian agriculture in recent years. Our study tours normally go to Matto Grosso, but this year we were convinced to head to the new frontier of Brazilian agriculture in Bahia state.

During the six hour drive from Brasilia through the cerrado savannah country, you could easily convince yourself you were in Australia’s Northern Territory. Then within the space of a few hundred metres, the road climbs up to a plateau and the country opens out into a magnificent farming vista.

From that point, the farming area of western Bahia extends for 600 km east and 600 km north. Mostly flat to slightly undulating, the soils are sandy and need a lot of lime and a lot of fertiliser, especially in the first few years. This is probably because they have been leeched by the 40 or 50 inches of rain they get – all of which falls between September and May, giving them an uninter-rupted dry picking season.

After four or five years of building their soils with lime, fertiliser and soybean and maize crops, they usually plant cotton. Average ‘dryland’ yields are close to three bales per acre and even to a magazine editor, the potential is there for a substantial increase.

As is normal in Brazil, their problem is logistics, with finished products needed to be trucked 1000 km at least to a port. But a new rail line is likely to increase their efficiency substantially.

It is always a good thing to keep an eye on your competitors, and this area is certainly one of those.

Editorial…� David�Dowling,�Editor

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AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 3

Carbon tax – how will it affect us?

A media storm has surrounded the announcement of a carbon tax for Australia. Cotton Australia has been working in the background, modeling the scenarios and lobbying key decision makers in Canberra. But what does the new carbon tax mean for agriculture and the cotton industry?

See story ........................... Page 8 

Awards winnersWatched by their

cotton industry peers and friends, the winners of the Australian Cotton Industry Awards were announced in Narrabri on Wednesday, August 10.See story ......................... Page 10

Less crop but more drops?

In 2010–11 a large scale irrigation experiment was established to determine whether alternative planting configurations such as single and double skip, generate more bales per megalitre in years where water is limited. Three water treatments were implemented across the different plant configurations to establish the relationship between crop stress and yield.

See story ......................... Page 16

Herbicide damageOver the years, growers

have tried a range of strategies to try to help crops recover from herbicide damage, including:• Additional irrigations;• Additional fertiliser; and,• Slashing.

See story ......................... Page 21 

Nutrient featureHow to respond to

low soil fertility depends upon how many nutrients appear limiting and which nutrients they are – mobile nutrients such as nitrogen (N) or sulfur (S) will need different application strategies than immobile nutrients like phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).

See story ......................... Page 23 

McLaren Tractors?The usual responses I

receive, when I raise the interesting subject of J & H McLaren Ltd and their range of farm tractors are – blank expressions! To be honest, it is not surprising that most Australian tractor enthusiasts are unaware of the existence of McLaren tractors.

See story ......................... Page 42

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4 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

COTTON COTTON COTTONRESEARCH ROUNDUP

BRUCE PYKE BRUCE FINNEY

STRESSED ECOSYSTEMS: BETTER DECISIONS FOR AUSTRALIA’S FUTURE

Natural resources scientist and post-doctoral fellow Dr Rhiannon Smith has been selected to participate in the Theo Murphy High Flyers Think Tank titled Stressed ecosystems: better decisions for Australia’s future in Brisbane in Septem-ber. The think tank is an initiative of the Australian Institute of Science, and Rhian-non’s cotton industry research undertaken in her PhD at University of New England on the value of red gum communities and natural areas for cotton production will be discussed in one of four case studies.

Other case studies are Ningaloo Marine Park, Melbourne’s peri-urban grasslands and Queensland’s Surat and Bowen Ba-sins.

The think tank is a valuable opportunity for some of Australia’s leading early and mid-career researchers to identify and pro-pose new approaches to understanding the effects of stresses on complex ecologi-cal systems.

SOUTHERN ExPO SUCCESSThe inaugural Southern NSW Cotton

Expo showcased the widespread success of many growers last season and was an ideal venue to explore production chal-lenges facing southern districts growers in future years. Up to 200 producers from all southern districts attended to hear from industry researchers and field experts.

Key take-home points were the im-portance of earliness and vigorous estab-lishment, accurate timing of irrigation, balanced nutrition and attention to timing of each operation to optimise yield and quality. The message of come-clean-go-clean delivered by Emerald-based cotton diseases specialist Susan Maas was well received, as was the session on integrated pest control with researcher Lewis Wilson.

Accompanying a full day of technical and production talks from the industry’s R&D experts was a trade display which attracted many of the cotton industry sup-pliers.

The Southern NSW Cotton Expo was organised by the Cotton Industry Delivery

and Delivery Team in association with the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Cotton Grow-ers Association.

The program had four key themes:• Nutrition and crop rotations;• Disease updates;• Integrated pest management; and,• Weed management.

 CHANGES TO R&D PROCUREMENT

CRDC has introduced new dates in 2011 for its annual open call for R&D proposals. This change allows more time for consultation with researchers on the proposals and with industry about priori-ties. Stage one of the annual call for R&D investment grant proposals calls for a two-page Preliminary Research Proposal (PRP).

Stage one call is for research, develop-ment or extension projects together with postgraduate scholarships. All PRPs were submitted on-line using the CRDC Clarity system by August 1, which is four weeks earlier than in previous years.

CRDC anticipates the Cotton Australia research panels will have provided their advice on PRPs by September 9. CRDC intends to provide feedback to all submis-sions by September 30. Proposals that

Rhiannon Smith, cotton industry NRM researcher and case study presenter for the Australian Institute of Science’s Theo Murphy High Flyers Think Tank.

Gavin Dal Broi, grower of Warrawidgee West with Namoi Cotton’s Jaimee Carrigan.

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Experience, integrity and local knowledge, CSD delivers what Australian Cotton Growers need.

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meet strategic and industry priority needs will be invited to participate in Stage 2 with development of Full Research Proposals (FRPs) due in a staged program of due dates from November 20 to 30, 2011.

CRDC will assess FRPs with industry ad-visory panels and will provide advice to re-searchers following its March 2012 board meeting.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCESThe 70th Plenary Meeting of the In-

ternational Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) will be held in Argentina during September 4–10, 2011. The Australian delegation will include CRDC Chair Mike Logan and General Manager for R&D In-vestment Bruce Pyke. The meeting will be-gin in Buenos Aires from September 4-8, and then there will be a special workshop in the heart of the Argentine cotton belt at Roque Sáenz Peña to focus on oppor-tunities for investment in the cotton value chain.

The Australian cotton industry supports a globally shared understanding of cotton R&D issues and priorities and the potential benefits in addressing such priorities at an international level.

The fifth world cotton research confer-ence (WCRC-5) is to be held in Mumbai India November 7–11, 2011 – the first time that an Asian producer has hosted the event.

The CRDC and Cotton CRC are sup-porting participation by up to 12 scientists from the Australian cotton research com-

munity. CRDC Communication Manager Rohan Boehm will be presenting a paper jointly written by Susan Maas and Duncan Weir of QDEEDI. The paper details the Australian cotton industry’s development and delivery system.

OPPORTUNITY kNOCkS FOR RURAL wOMEN

The RIRDC Rural Women’s Award is Australia’s pre-eminent Award for rural women. Applications close on World Rural Women’s Day – October 15, 2011. Appli-cations can also be downloaded and sub-mitted on-line from the RIRDC website: www.rirdc.gov.au Applications.

Australian RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2011 Runner-Up and Qld Winner was cotton industry advocate Barb Grey of Mungindi.

The Award supports women with dem-onstrated leadership capabilities who have the desire and commitment to make an even greater contribution to their indus-tries and communities.

State and Territory winners will receive a $10,000 financial bursary to implement their Award vision and State and Territory winners and runners-up will have the op-portunity to undertake the AICD Com-pany Directors Course and be supported with 12 months of facilitated individual strategic leadership support.

For further information, contact Edwina Clowes, National Coordinator, RIRDC Rural Women’s Award. Ph: 0417 727 544. Email: clowesedwina@bigpond.com.

COTTON INDUSTRY wORkFORCE UNDER THE 

SPOTLIGHTMark Hickman of QDEEDI and Rohan

Boehm of CRDC are convening a forum in late October that will explore future work-force development of the Australian cotton industry. Producers, industry bodies, agri-business and researchers are to be invited.

The forum is a product of Mark’s on-going leadership for human capacity de-velopment within the cotton industry.as supported by CRDC. The forum is in-tended to create an annual review that can progressively report on the status of hu-man capacity across the industry and how industry’s human capacity development is contributing to the industry’s Vision 2029.

Mark leads the cotton industry’s Devel-opment and Delivery Team (Cotton D&D) target area of ‘professional development’ which takes in skills and lifetime learning initiatives directed to growers.

In recent years Mark has reported to industry that there are many shortcom-ings in the industry’s strategic response to workforce challenges and CRDC is plan-ning to outline new R&D projects com-mencing in 2011–12 that are designed to kick-start the development of a long term workforce strategy for the industry.

For further information, contact Mark Hickman 07 46 881 206, 0407 113 096.

6 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

Australian RIRDC Rural Women’s Award 2011 Runner-Up and Qld Winner, Mungindi cotton producer, Barb Grey.

Agribusiness representatives Ian Robertson and Tony Glennon, A&G Machinery Griffith and Peter Treverrow, Yenda Prods, Yenda.

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A media storm has surrounded the announcement of a carbon tax for Australia, as it represents a ma-

jor change to Australia’s economy and a bold commitment to addressing climate change. Meanwhile, Cotton Australia has been working away in the background, modeling the scenarios and lobbying key decision makers in Canberra ahead of the announcement. But what does the new carbon tax mean for agriculture and the cotton industry?

The tax package was announced on Sunday, July 10 by the prime minister, and detailed the carbon price as well as a pack-age of initiatives designed to help families and businesses adjust. The ‘Clean Energy Package’ for addressing carbon pollution aims to reduce Australia’s emissions by 80 per cent below 2000 levels by 2050. The main mechanism is by setting a price on carbon of $23 per tonne that the 500 largest carbon emitters in the Australian economy will pay.

The carbon tax will rise by 2.5 per cent

per year for three years and eventually transition to a market-based emissions trading scheme. The theory is this will in-centivise business and families to reduce their emissions, thus alleviating the affects of climate change.

In short there’s not too much in it that the agriculture sector, or the cotton indus-try can complain about and this package is better for agriculture than the previously proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

Agriculture is exempt from the tax, and fuel for agricultural purposes is also exempt. On top of that, there’s an enormous finan-cial package for research and development and a Carbon Farming Initiative where farmers can voluntarily undertake work that earns them carbon credits, tradable for cash.

Following months of engagement with policy makers and the National Farmers Federation, Cotton Australia was fairly certain that cotton would not be too ad-versely affected and details in relation to agriculture confirm that:

• Direct emissions from agriculture will be excluded from a carbon price;

• Fuel use in agriculture will not face a car-bon price (or an equivalent carbon price through cuts to fuel tax credits);

• Agriculture will receive funding for op-portunities including over $400 million over six years in carbon mitigation R&D and extension; and,

• Primary food processors will be pro-vided with some support to transition to low emissions technology.Ahead of this announcement, Cot-

ton Australia also engaged the Australian Farm Institute to conduct modeling on how various scenarios and carbon prices would affect the typical cotton farm. While the impacts are relatively small, the modeling at a $23 per tonne carbon price shows that a typical 400 hectare irrigated cotton farm is likely to incur total annual cost increases of 0.6 per cent or $9243, equating to a re-duction in net farm income of 2.1 per cent. The main components of this are likely to be increasing energy costs passed on by

Australia’s carbon tax – how will it affect us?

By Adam kay, CEO, Cotton Australia

Adam Kay.

the 500 companies subject to the carbon tax to their customers, for example electric-ity, fuel and fertiliser suppliers.

Cotton Australia and the cotton industry has until July 1, 2012 when the tax comes in to further understand the detail, com-municate the likely impacts clearly with growers and put plans in place to adjust. Cotton Australia will continue to work with the NFF and directly lobby decision mak-ers in Canberra to get the best outcomes for cotton farmers, and will have a chance

to comment on the legislation before it is introduced to parliament.

Cotton Australia also sees opportuni-ties through the Carbon Farming Initiative to turn this reform into a positive one for the industry, given cotton is such a small contributor to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The industry has been ahead of the game on this issue, with a number of key R&D projects into greenhouse gas mitiga-tion and abatement and Cotton Australia,

while concerned that some details are not clear, is generally satisfied that the indus-try’s efforts to have agriculture exempted have been rewarded.

For growers wanting more detail on the carbon tax, Cotton Australia has developed a Background Briefing document that’s available at www.cottonaustralia.com.au, and is also developing a similar document on the Carbon Farming Initiative.

You can also contact Cotton Australia’s policy team at any time on (02) 9669 5222.

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 9

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Watched by their cotton industry peers and friends, the winners of the Australian Cotton Indus-

try Awards were announced in Narrabri on Wednesday, August 10.

As the last official function for this year’s Cotton Collective, the awards recognise those talented and dedicated people who have made an outstanding contribution to the cotton industry.

Accepting Australian Cotton Industry Awards were:

CSD RESEARCHER OF THE YEAR AwARD wINNERDr Warwick Stiller

CSIRO Plant Industry, Narrabri, NSW

Dr Warwick Stiller is a cotton breeder who joined CSIRO Plant Industry in 1995 as a post graduate student, and has developed into a committed scientist and plant breeder who is globally recognised for his work.

Warwick has spent the past 16 years of his life in the cotton breeding scheme that was established to produce varieties for dryland productivity, stress tolerance and water use efficiency and he has played a leading role in delivering new varieties to the Australian cotton industry that deliver exceptional yield and quality and are the envy of our competitors.

CHRIS LEHMAN TRUST YOUNG ACHIEvER OF THE YEAR 

wINNER SPONSORED BY BAYER CROPSCIENCEFleur Anderson

President Dawson Valley Cotton Grower Association, Theodore,

QueenslandBorn into a cotton growing family on

the Darling Downs, Fleur Anderson has been around cotton all her life, and was thrown into the thick of it during the re-cent floods that devastated her small rural

community for the second year running. Some growers lost the lot, twice in the same season, and as the President of the Theodore Cotton Growers Association, Fleur stepped up to the plate and sup-ported her growers and community when it couldn’t get much tougher.

Fleur and her husband’s family farm was affected too, but undeterred, she set about gathering data across the valley that established the scale of the problem and ultimately helped lead to additional gov-ernment assistance.

AGRIRISk INNOvATIvE GROwER OF THE YEAR wINNER

Stuart and Maxine Armitage Cecil Plains, Queensland

By the end of December 2010, Stuart and Maxine Armitage had received 16 inches (400 mm) of rain and a good per-centage of their 240 hectares of cotton was under water. And as if that wasn’t bad

10 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

Australian Cotton Industry Awards winners

Awards winners, sponsors and presenters on centre stage.Fleur Anderson flanked by Geoff McIntyre and Debbie Lehman.

Stuart and Maxine Armitage with AgriRisk Managing Director, John van der Vegt.Dr Warwick Stiller.

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enough, they had picked just three cotton modules when another 4½ inches (114 mm) came pouring down, putting a stop to harvest for over a month.

With serious concerns for the mental health of some local growers and spirits pretty low in general, the Armitages faced this difficult issue head on, organising a number of support services to help peo-ple through. A mental health night was ar-ranged with a psychologist and respected GP that 90 locals attended, and a Relax and Revive night hosted by bush poet Mur-ray Hartin was a great social occasion with 120 attending.

MONSANTO GROwER OF THE YEAR wINNER

Ed Willis and Von Warner Thallon, Queensland

Bullamon Plains is an outstanding farm enterprise including 20,000 hectares of grazing, dryland and irrigated cropping lo-cated at Thallon, about 65 km south of St George in Queensland. Owned by the Wil-lis’, the farm has been in the family since 1928, with four generations of the family currently living on the property.

In the 2010–11 season, Bullamon Plains grew its largest ever cotton crop of 1432 hectares, with an average yield of 11.1 bales per hectare, taking out the lo-cal cotton crop competition for the past three years.

COTTON AUSTRALIA SERvICE TO INDUSTRY AwARD wINNER

Joanne Grainger Mungindi, Queensland

With almost three decades in the cotton industry, Joanne Grainger has represented the industry in many of its major policy fo-rums, donating countless hours of her own time for the betterment of the industry.

From 2007 to 2010, Joanne was the Chair of Cotton Australia (she joined the Board in 2002), where she oversaw the merger of the organisation with the Aus-tralian Cotton Growers Research Associa-tion.

This paved the way for a new indus-try structure that reduced duplication and streamlined the advocacy efforts of the in-dustry across all major policy areas.

Cotton Australia CEO Adam Kay says these awards recognise people from across the industry, both those with the youth and vigour to contribute again and again to their industry in the future, along with those who have been doing that serv-ice for many years.

“The Australian Cotton Industry Awards are in their eighth year, and as the resur-gent Australian cotton industry looks ahead to another record crop, our key strength will always remain in the people of our industry.”

“Cotton Australia thanks everyone in-volved, all who nominated and congratu-lates our finalists and winners who are leading the way for our industry,” he said.

The Awards were presented by sponsor representatives from Cotton Seed Distrib-utors, Bayer CropScience, AgriRisk, Mon-santo and Cotton Australia.

12 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

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Water Matters

Over the past 15 years, a reduction in water reliability has increased the importance of reducing on-

farm water losses and maximising irriga-tion efficiency.

‘Telleraga’, 48 kilometres west of Moree, has invested heavily in the past in sealing leaky channels and storages, reducing field lengths and implementing best practice ir-rigation scheduling using soil moisture monitoring equipment to maximise crop production and minimise water wastage.

The on-farm developments on ‘Tell-eraga’ included the redevelopment of an existing 172 hectare structure to include two 83 hectare cells in 2006. This was to allow water pumped into or captured

in the eastern cell to be transferred into the western cell to reduce evaporative and seepage water losses.

To realise the full potential of this work the ‘Telleraga’ team was successful in ap-plying for a financial incentive through the NSW Sustaining the Basin: Border Rivers-Gwydir project (STBBRG) to purchase and install a lift pump to transfer water between cells and enable the eastern half of the storage to be designated as a surge area and the western half to be utilised as primary storage.

Farm manager, Rowley King explained that planning is the key to getting good outcomes.

“Independent technical advice was in-

valuable in identifying that the best bang for our buck was in completing the pump station to reduce farm water losses,” he said.

“We estimate that on completion this project could potentially reduce our cur-rent water storage losses by 52 per cent and the water savings are anticipated to be around 30 to 40 ML per year,” Rowley said.

Rowley highlighted that this was a very worthwhile project to participate in for the team at ‘Telleraga’ and they would be keen to do more storage work if funds were available.

STBBRG was funded by the Australian Governments Water for the Future initiative.

14 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

Precision Irrigation Made Easy

CENTRE PIVOT andLATERAL MOVE IRRIGATION

Evaporation losses significantly reduced by storage reconstruction

By Janelle Montgomery, NSw DPI Irrigation Officer Moree

Rowley King with the new lift pump installed as part of the project.

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 15

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In 2010–11 a large scale irrigation ex-periment was established to determine whether alternative planting configura-

tions such as single and double skip, gen-erate more bales per megalitre in years where water is limited. Three water treat-ments (full, semi, limited) were implement-ed across the different plant configurations to establish the relationship between crop stress and yield.

Development of new approaches to in-crease crop water use efficiency is critical given the increased attention to water use in Australia and predicted climate change –

higher temperatures and more variable rain-fall. One of the key challenges growers have when they have water for a limited number of irrigations is confidently knowing when to use this water to optimise yield, quality and water use efficiency. Irrigation timing is criti-cal in cotton to minimise negative impacts on yield and fibre quality.

In 2008 the Gwydir Valley Irrigators As-sociation (GVIA) received funding from the Australian Government, as represented by the National Water Commission, to under-take a water efficiency project aimed at improving irrigation efficiency in the Aus-

tralian cotton industry, primarily in north west NSW. The funding was provided to implement a series of irrigation compari-son trials, designed and coordinated by growers for growers. A variation of the original project outline provided the op-portunity to support the Water Regime and Row Configuration experiment at Redbank, Moree. The funding provided assisted the project steering group to bet-ter resource the experiment throughout the growing season.

The concept and implementation of the experiment was initiated by GVIA, Austral-ian Food & Fibre Limited, ICMS Pty Ltd (Integrated Crop Management Services), Cotton Seed Distributors and CSIRO. Ir-rigation extension and technical support was also provided by NSW Department of Primary Industries. Funding from the Na-tional Water Commission and the gener-ous donation of the Smart Crop sensors by Smart Field enabled the experiment to be fully instrumented and managed with a fully replicated trial design.

METHODSThe experiment was planted on Sep-

tember 28, 2010 using Sicot 74BRF. Each plot was large enough (at least 24 rows wide) to allow separate irrigations to be applied to each plot and there were three replicates of each treatment. Row spacing treatments were solid (one metre spaced rows), single-skip (2 in, 1 out) and double skip (2 in, 2 out). The control treatment was solid with full irrigation according to normal farm scheduling and two partially irrigated treatments were applied to each row spacing.

The semi-irrigated treatment had three irrigations applied to each row spacing treatment and the limited-irrigated treat-ment had only one irrigation applied dur-ing the season. With the partially irrigated treatments the aim was to keep the crop growing during flowering to take advan-tage of any January or February rainfall so nodes about white flower were monitored and NAWF <7 considered a trigger point for irrigation in the semi-irrigated treat-ments. The last irrigation for the semi-irrigated treatment and the only irrigation for the limited treatments was applied ap-proaching cutout (NAWF<5) with the aim to provide water to allow further growth

16 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

Less crop but more drops?By Rose Brodrick (CSIRO), James Quinn (CSD), Zara Farrell (GvIA), Rod Jackson, 

Janelle Montgomery (NSw DPI), Michael Stone (ICMS), Alison Young, Ray Fox and Joe Robinson (AFF)

HIGHlIGHTS…• We compared the yield and water use of partially irrigated systems using solid, single-

skip and double skip configurations to a fully irrigated solid crop• Irrigations were scheduled using NAWF with the aim to keep the crop in the partially

irrigated system flowering as long as possible to take advantage of any in-crop rainfall where three irrigations were available or to finish the crop off where only one was planned

• The season was characterised by a very wet start and dry finish, with less ability for the partially irrigated treatments to capture rainfall than in a more typical year

• The solid, fully irrigated crop yielded over 12.5 bales per hectare but the single-skip semi-irrigated had a respectable yield of 8.65 bales per hectare with better irrigation water use efficiency

• Difficult to make conclusions about these systems from one year’s data and more research is needed to determine the potential of the single-skip semi-irrigated system (or others) in a partially irrigated production system.

FIGURE 1: Day Degrees and Rainfall at Redbank Experiment 2010–11 compared with the long-term averages for Moree

Source: Cottassist Climate Analysis Tool.

and boll set and to retain and mature bolls already set in those treatments.

Comprehensive soil water and plant development measurements were col-lected throughout the season. Capacitance probes and neutron moisture probes were installed in both the plant line and skip rows to monitor soil water. Plant mapping, nodes above white flower, heights, nodes, light interception, canopy cover and ma-turity were monitored at least weekly to determine differences in crop growth and development.

Canopy temperature sensors (Smart-crop sensors) were installed above the crop to determine crop stress indicated by canopy temperature in each treatment and two plots were made large enough to be monitored by CSIRO’s irriSAT system. The water balance was also calculated dur-ing the season using a calibrated canopy coefficient (Kc) approach by estimating canopy cover by using a 50 cm x 50 cm chequer board placed under the canopy with cover estimated by counting the proportion of visible squares compared

with those covered by the canopy. James Quinn (CSD) has been using this approach to estimate crop water use in different sys-tems where detailed soil moisture meas-urements are not available.

RESULTSClimate

The 2010–11 season was cooler in terms of cumulative day degrees and char-acterised by above average rainfall up until Christmas followed by below average rain-fall from January to March (Figure 1). This

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 17

TABLE 1: Yield and water use in Redbank, Limited water Experiment 2010–11Treatments Average

yield bales per hectare

Estimated starting soil

moisture 28/9/10

Irrigation water

applied ML/Ha

Effective rainfall ML/Ha

Ending soil moisture at defoliation

ML/Ha

Total available

water ML/Ha

Bales/ML applied

irrigation water

Bales/ML total water (irrigation,

rainfall, and soil moisture reserves)

Estimated ETc

Solid – Full 12.54 2.20 4.15 2.28 1.15 7.48 3.02 1.68 7.35Solid – Semi 7.08 2.20 3.20 1.87 0.56 6.71 2.21 1.06 6.87Solid – Limited 6.67 2.20 1.43 1.94 0.00 5.57 4.66 1.20 5.82Single – Semi 8.65 2.20 2.64 1.61 0.57 5.88 3.28 1.47 7.32Single – Limited 6.26 2.20 1.11 1.69 0.11 4.89 5.65 1.28 6.39Double – Semi 6.81 2.20 2.28 1.53 0.61 5.39 2.99 1.26 7.52

Double - Limited 5.09 2.20 0.89 1.60 0.11 4.58 5.72 1.11 6.79

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meant that all the treatments had a full profile of soil moisture until late November and developed in relatively mild conditions in the first part of the growth period.

Irrigation schedulingThe first irrigation was applied to the

solid, fully irrigated treatment on Decem-ber 22 and this treatment was irrigated at around a 50–60 mm deficit a total of eight times during the season. The fully ir-rigated crop sustained NAWF above 8 until mid-January whereas the semi and limited water treatments rapidly declined from late December (Figure 2).

Irrigations were applied to all the semi-irrigated treatments on December 31 and to the solid treatment on January 14 and the single and double skip treatments on January 23 to prevent NAWF in the three row spacings from declining to <7 NAWF. The effect of the second irrigation led to an increase in NAWF in the semi-single skip and double skip treatments and de-layed the solid declining further.

The limited treatment received an irri-gation on January 14 when all row spac-ings had reached <5 NAWF to provide supplemental water at cutout to mature

and maintain the fruit already set, but the double skip treatment had only just reach 5 NAWF and responded to the irrigation by putting on more nodes (Figure 2). The final irrigation on the solid, fully irrigated and the semi-irrigated treatments was ap-plied on February 9. Real time water use measurements were difficult to calculate during the season, with no developed methodology for accounting for water use in the plant line and the skip.

Fruit developmentThe impact of each irrigation treatment

and row spacing was evident by tracking fruit development. Figure 3 shows fruit de-velopment in the plant line only (per linear metre so skip treatments need to be ad-justed to account for the skipped rows on an area basis).

Early in the flowering period there were few differences, which is not surprising given that all the treatments had a full pro-file at the beginning of December. In terms of total fruit numbers there were few differ-ences between the fully, semi and limited treatments until after the second irriga-tion when fruit numbers in the fully solid treatments became higher than the semi-irrigated treatments and the solid limited treatments had much lower fruit numbers.

In the linear metre, the semi-irrigated treatments and the single-skip and double skip limited treatments maintained reason-able fruit numbers until about three weeks after the second irrigation in the semi-irri-gated treatments and the only irrigation in the limited treatment when fruit numbers began to decline. The double skip, semi-irrigated treatment was able to maintain those numbers longer, due to increased water availability in the skips.

All of the skip row spacings were able to maintain greater fruit numbers in the lin-ear metre compared with either the solid, semi or solid, limited irrigation treatments. First position retention in the solid, fully irrigated treatment was over 60 per cent compared with 48 per cent for the single and double-skip semi-irrigated treatments.

First position retention was lowest in the solid, limited treatment with only 42 per cent of bolls retained. Boll distribution be-tween the solid, fully irrigated treatments and the single-skip semi irrigated treat-ments was similar, but the double-skip had over 30 per cent of mature bolls on veg-etative branches.

Yield and water useCalibrated neutron moisture meters, c-

probes and measurement of water applied at each irrigation provided a water balance

18 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

FIGURE 2: Nodes above white flower at Redbank 2010–11 a) Solid, fully irrigated treatments compared to the semi-irrigated treatments b) Solid, fully irrigated treatments compared to the limited irrigated treatments(a)

(b)

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for each row spacing and irrigation treat-ment. Irrigations were applied to every second row as per normal farm irrigation practice. A single siphon was used in each treatment (except for the solid, limited ir-rigation treatment where double siphons were required to prevent overflow in the head ditch). Where the irrigation interval was greater than 21 days between irriga-tions, the irrigation took more than 15 hrs to complete compared to 10–11 hrs for the fully irrigated treatment.

Accounting for the skip proved to be a challenge in calculating plant available soil water. Patterns of extraction were followed and plant available soil water adjusted for both the depth of extraction in the plant line and skipped rows. As all different row spacings maintained a full profile until the end of November due to above average spring rainfall, extraction across the three row spacings remained similar with extrac-tion within the plant line down to 60 cm at the time of the first irrigation in the solid, fully irrigated treatment.

By the end of December the skip row treatments had started to extract water from both the plant line and the skip, effectively giving the skip-row spacings access to more water than the solid treat-ments from that point on. By the end of the season, the semi and fully irrigated solid treatments were extracting moisture down to 100 cm, the limited solid treat-ment down to 120 cm, the single and double-skip semi irrigated treatments were extracting to 120 cm in the plant line and 100 cm in the skip. The single and double-skip limited irrigation treatments were ex-tracting water from 120 cm in both the plant line and the skip by the end of the season.

Estimating crop evapotranspiration (ETc) using the chequer board method to calibrate it to the crop worked very well in the solid, fully irrigated and the semi-irrigated treatments, but this approach over-estimated water use in the limited ir-rigations and skip row treatments because it does not account for declines in crop

water use due to plant stress and tended to over estimate the amount of water in the skip-rows (Table 1).

Yields were highest in the solid, fully ir-rigated treatment, followed by the single-skip, semi irrigated treatment and the solid, semi irrigated treatment (Table 1). Water use however was higher in the solid, fully irrigated and solid, semi irrigated treat-ment when compared to the single-skip semi-irrigated treatment, which had the highest irrigation water use efficiency and higher total water use efficiency than any of the other partially irrigated treatments.

The solid, fully irrigated treatments took longer to mature than the other treat-ments and rainfall in March led to the fully irrigated treatment having higher effective rainfall and more stored soil moisture re-maining at the end of the season than the other treatments.

CONCLUSIONEvaluating these systems based on one

season’s data is not possible but the sin-gle-skip semi irrigated treatment had the highest irrigation water use efficiency and maintained reasonable yields. It is impor-tant to note that very little in-crop rainfall fell during the later part of the season and so the ability for the skip row treatments to capture more rainfall than the fully solid treatments was less than would be ex-pected in a more typical season.

The semi-irrigated treatments required a significant amount of water in each of the three irrigations which needs to be con-sidered when planning a partially-irrigated approach – three irrigations in a partially irrigated system is not necessarily equal to three in a fully-irrigated system.

In hindsight we may have scheduled the final irrigation earlier in the semi-irrigated treatments to maintain fruit numbers. Crop water use rapidly declined in the partially ir-rigated treatments before the final irrigation and the crop wasn’t able to recover to fully utilise the final irrigation, evident by over 0.5 ML of stored soil moisture remaining in the profile in the semi-irrigated treatments.

Water use is difficult to calculate in real time in skip row systems and requires the development of new tools or technologies to accurately determine. The efficiency gain in the single-skip irrigated treatment indicates that it may have potential in a limited water situation, but more research is needed to develop irrigation strategies for limited water situations, across a range of environments to understand the conse-quences of the timing and amount of ir-rigation applied on plant stress, yield and quality.

20 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

FIGURE 3: Average fruit counts in each treatment, irrigation dates are indicated on the figure

Over the years, growers have tried a range of strategies to try to help crops recover from herbicide

damage, including:• Additional irrigations;• Additional fertiliser; and,• Slashing.

All of which appear to give little or no benefit.

But an observation made over the past couple of seasons was that phenoxy dam-age (typically 2,4–D damage) was reduced where cotton plants were stressed at the time of exposure to the herbicide.

This observation appears to have some merit, as the phenoxy herbicides act by causing uncontrolled cell division and growth (as well as a range of other effects), so that the plant literally grows itself to death. It stands to reason that a phenoxy herbicide will have little effect on a plant which is not growing.

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 21

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Recovering from herbicide damage – induced water stress

By Graham Charles, Research Agronomist, NSw DPI, Cotton CRC & CRDC

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The theory is also supported by obser-vations in the south, where 2,4–D applica-tions to control saffron thistles in wheat in winter can be ineffective if the applications are followed by a series of cloudy days or heavy frosts, where the weeds are not ac-tively growing.

TESTING THE THEORYAn experiment to test the stress theory

was established at ACRI on October 9, 2009, in what was a hot, dry spring. The crop was exposed to one per cent of a typical field rate of 2,4–D amine (16 ml of Amicide 625 per hectare) applied at eight nodes of crop growth on November 27, six days before the 1st in-crop irriga-tion (on December 3), and 24 days before the second irrigation (on December 21). Water stress was imposed on some treat-ments following the herbicide damage by skipping either the first or both the first and second irrigations.

The results of the first part of the experi-ment were quite disappointing (Table 1), with the crop showing no yield reduction due to the herbicide damage and no ef-fect of the water stress – except a small increase in yield on the stressed plots. So, did something go wrong? Yes, it rained, with 47 ml recorded on the day of the sec-ond irrigation and a further 186 ml in the

following 11 days. The only yield effect of the treatments was a yield increase where the irrigations were missed, presumably due to a reduction in waterlogging on these treatments.

Nevertheless, the herbicide damage and the irrigation delay each caused a delay in crop maturity of seven or more days, with no indication that delaying the irrigations improved crop recovery from the herbi-cide damage (Table 2). None of the treat-ments affected fibre quality.

A SECOND TRYThe treatments were repeated with the

next two irrigations, with the 2,4–D ap-plied at 18 nodes of crop growth, on Janu-ary 11. This spray, again at one per cent, occurred 10 days before the third irriga-tion (January 21), and 24 days before the fourth irrigation (February 4), with some treatments skipping these two irrigations.

Again rain occurred on the three days following the fourth irrigation (46 ml), but this time the rain had little impact on the results.

This time the data did support the theory that a stressed plant would be less affected by 2,4–D damage, with a reduc-tion in the effect of 2,4–D damage due to imposing water stress after the herbicide exposure: from a 19 per cent reduction in

yield from 2,4–D damage with full irriga-tion, down to a nine per cent reduction with two missed irrigations when com-pared with treatments with the same water regime but without the herbicide damage (Table 3). But missing two irrigations in the middle of the season caused a 34 per cent yield reduction (in the absence of 2,4–D), so any benefit by reducing the impact of the 2,4–D damage was more than lost by the damage caused by missing the irriga-tions.

Looking at it another way. The 2,4–D damage caused a 2.5 bale yield loss under full irrigation. Imposing water stress after the damage was first noticed resulted in a further 2.5 bale yield loss, with a 5.0 bale yield loss from the combination of 2,4–D and water stress! Imposing water stress is a really bad way of dealing with 2,4–D dam-age.

Again, the herbicide damage and the ir-rigation delay each caused a delay in crop maturity of seven or more days, with no indication that delaying the irrigations im-proved crop recovery from the herbicide damage (Table 4). None of the treatments affected fibre quality.

So, the theory of using moisture stress to ameliorate 2,4–D damage appears to be sound, but in practice it’s like cutting off your arm to save your hand. It just doesn’t work.

The option of not irrigating a 2,4–D damaged crop for a few weeks mid-season to see how bad the damage is, is a poor option. The decision to persist with or to terminate a crop should be made as soon as possible after damage is observed and the crop given every opportunity to com-pensate, if this is the decision.

For more information on herbicide damage and crop response, see the Cotton CRC website at: www.cottoncrc.org.au/content/Industry/Tools/Herbicide_Damage_Identification.aspx

This project was funded by Industry & Investment NSW, the CRDC and the Cotton CRC. Thanks go to my support staff involved in this work and to Rose Brodrick for her helpful comments.

22 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

TABLE 2: Days delay in crop maturity from a one per cent rate of 2,4–D at eight nodes

Irrigations in November and DecemberFull irrigation Missed 1st irrigation Missed 1st & 2nd irrigations

Untreated — 7 71% 2,4–D 22 15 21

TABLE 4: Days delay in crop maturity from a one per cent rate of 2,4–D at 18 nodes

Irrigations in January and FebruaryFull irrigation Missed 3rd irrigation Missed 3rd & 4th irrigations

Untreated — 7 71% 2,4–D 14 26 18

TABLE 3: Impact on lint yield of exposure to a one per cent rate of 2,4–D at 18 nodes

Irrigations in January and FebruaryFull irrigation Missed 3rd irrigation Missed 3rd & 4th irrigations

Untreated 12.7 13.0 8.41% 2,4–D 10.2 10.9 7.7Yield reduction 19% 16% 9%

TABLE 1: Impact on lint yield of exposure to a one per cent rate of 2,4–D at eight nodes

Irrigations in November and DecemberFull irrigation Missed 1st irrigation Missed 1st & 2nd irrigations

Untreated 12.7 13.0 13.71% 2,4–D 13.2 13.4 13.7

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 23

How to respond to low soil fertility depends upon how many nutrients appear limiting and which nutrients they are – mobile nutrients such as ni-

trogen (N) or sulfur (S) will need different application strategies than immobile nutrients like phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).

Soil testing can be used to assess the likely nutrient constraints, but soil testing and soil test interpretation is not a precise science. Rather, it is an indicator of the likelihood of a response to a fertiliser nutrient, as well as a gross indicator of the amount of nutrient that might be required to achieve a target yield. Both will vary with target yield and soil/environmental conditions.

These testing limitations are more evident when sam-ples are assessed only in the top 10 cm of the profile, as this layer does not provide a good enough estimate of fertility – either of immobile nutrients like P and K, or

featurenutrition

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First position fruit Total bolls per plant Kelpak Standard

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Kelpak has been proved world wide to provide following benefits:• promotion of larger and more vigorous root systems due

to additional supply of auxins to crops; which leads to better water use efficiency, better uptake of immobile nutrients, enhanced plant health to reduce effects of soil-borne diseases, general stress tolerance and slows senescence.

Kelpak was trialed in cotton in the Toobeah region, west of Goondiwindi to investigate its effectiveness in irrigated cotton production.

Kelpak was applied at 2 L/ha at the 12 node growth stage and again 2 weeks later. The control plot had no treatment of Kelpak. Harvest results were obtained by picking the same number of rows either side of the treatment line until a module from each treatment was obtained.

The key impact on plant health in this trial was the lack of boll shed compared to the untreated control (see graph 2). Both the first position fruit and total bolls per plant counts after defoliation were statistically higher with the addition of Kelpak. This improved boll retention which lead to increased yields. The net economic return was significant when taking into account costs for the treatment vs. increase in yield.

Agrichem is very encouraged with these results and is intending to do more intensive trials in the coming cotton season across a number of irrigation valleys in 2011/12.

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NOTE: All suggested rates of application are designed for typical Australian conditions and as such should be used as a guide only. Each farmer’s climatic conditions, water quality, soil types, application processes and practices may differ and therefore necessitate corrections to ensure optimum results. It is recommended that when applying to a crop or area for the first time, or in combination with other chemicals, a small test area should be sprayed and observed prior to the total crop spray. Where possible, it is recommended that regular leaf (sap) tests are conducted to determine actual plant nutrient availability during each growing cycle. Soil tests at least once per year are essential.

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Improving the efficiency of nutrient responsesBy Mike Bell and David Lester, QAAFI and DEEDI

Residual benefits of deep placed P are consistently showing up in sorghum crops.

of mobile nutrients like N and S. While we routinely test a soil profile for nitrate-N, and occasionally for S (which can also be present in subsoils as gypsum), we have tra-ditionally not tested below 10 cm for P or K.

We have been advocating testing the 10–30 cm layer as well as the 0–10 cm layer for P and K, to fill in this missing information about the background fertility of the soils we are trying to manage.

People baulk at conducting another costly soil test, but once an initial assessment has been made, the normal 0–10 cm monitoring can be resumed. Fertility in deeper layers changes more slowly than in the top 10 cm, where crop residues and starter fertiliser can make significant im-pacts from season to season.

But what is in these deeper layers can define the ferti-liser strategy needed to maximise productivity and fertiliser use efficiency, and this has been the focus of our current research program.

Crop responses to P, k and S fertiliserThe early stages of this research focussed only on the

placement of additional P below the soil surface layer (ie in addition to any normal starter P applications), aiming to restore P fertility into the upper part of the root zone (10–30 cm) where much plant available P had been re-moved over time.

Responsive sites (such as those shown in Table 1) were generally characterised by low Colwell (<10 mg/kg) and low BSES P (<15–20 mg/kg) in the subsoil, but as is shown for grain yields or biomass response (Warra in 2010, when no grain harvest was possible), responses tended to be greater in the 2009 season.

Considering the very dry winter in 2009 and the exact opposite in 2010, such differences were consistent with a greater reliance on subsoil P in drier years (ie poorer access to topsoil P).

nutr

ition feature

24 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

AT A GlANCE…Soil P and K reserves have declined, and in some

situations reached levels limiting crop growth – especially in the 10–30 cm layer where most uptake of these nutrients occurs in drier conditions. We suggest soil testing after looking at yield maps or soil type areas to identify potential fertility constraints, and make sure you test both the topsoil (0–10 cm) and subsoil (10–30 cm).

Research on placement and depth of P and K fertilisers is currently underway for grains and cotton, with indications of stronger responses as the volume of fertilised soil increases (ie. more frequent bands). Initial attempts to examine single nutrient responses can be complicated by the fact that a number of sites appear to have multiple nutrient limits on crop growth. Fixing a low P condition may have little impact unless other limiting nutrients are also addressed (ie. K or S).

Combinations of P, K and/or S in field experiments are producing some strong crop responses. But if yield potential is increased significantly it is important to remember that more available N (soil reserves and fertiliser) will be needed to meet the greater yield target.

Consider doing some on-farm test strips and/or plant tissue testing to monitor crop status, especially in poorer performing parts of the paddock.

TABLE 1: Response to P fertilisers at Clifton and warra experimental sites in 2009 and 2010

Site Year CropTreatments

Nil P Starter P Starter P + 40P deep

High P + starter P

Clifton2009 Wheat 2160 2350 2770 26102010 Wheat 4010 4130 4450 4570

Warra2009 Wheat 2100 2020 2410 24702010 Chickpeas** 6380 7070 6750 7260

**Biomass only – chickpea yields lost

FIGURE 1: P and k application placement strategies

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 25

To summarise a number of trial results, some sites had consistent increases in crop growth for crop-after-crop; others were more hit-and-miss. In some cases the lack of response on a low P soil was due to inadequate N supply to allow the additional yield potential to be realised, but this was not always the case.

Re-examining the soil test data from a number of these suggested that perhaps more than just P alone may have been limiting crop performance. This is dis-cussed later in this article.

How should I apply P or k to my soil?This is where our research is currently focussed – an-

swering the questions about the amount of soil to try and enrich to maximise crop response. We’re looking at nine placement combinations (Figure 1) where the P or K are split between shallow, deep or both shallow and deep at 25, 50 or 100 cm band spacings.

Three sites for P have been established, one for K and two more are planned for this summer (irrigated cotton). All sites have additional N and S applied across all plots, to eliminate other possible interactions. Two of these had winter cereals last year with one failing due to poor es-tablishment following the disturbance in the deep fertiliser placement. One was double cropped to mungbean follow-ing wheat and a second was sown to sorghum.

The very wet 2010 and 2010–11 seasons proved challenging, with some crops either not harvested or clearly affected by fungal pathogens. In addition, estab-lishment variability in crops sown soon after excessive disturbance caused by deep placement of fertiliser re-duced our ability to detect treatment differences, but we hope to see clearer responses in subsequent crops as the disturbance effects wash out of the system.

This may be more a factor of our application equip-

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FIGURE 2: wheat (Clifton) and sorghum (warra) grain yield response to P band spacing (averaged over application depths)

ment, but at this stage of the research we are more con-cerned with characterising responsive sites and seeing how big the yield responses are when nutrient deficits are corrected (ie how good are our soil testing methods and is it worthwhile to correct any deficiencies?) than we are at fine tuning fertiliser rigs.

Results from P sites in both wheat and sorghum from last year (Figure 2) suggest that more bands are produc-ing larger responses than fewer – in other words, the more soil we can enrich with P the better chance we have of roots accessing that P for crop growth.

Last winter’s wet weather minimised any depth effects at the Clifton site, but surprisingly there were sugges-tions of better responses to deep P applications in the similarly wet summer sorghum at Warra (deep P pro-duced 15 per cent higher yields than shallow P).

The residual benefits of deep placed P have been con-sistent and long-lasting at a site at Brookstead, where a 15 per cent increase has been recorded every year for five consecutive sorghum crops, above and beyond that from starter P alone.

Evidence of interacting effects of P, k and STo investigate the occurrence of multiple nutrient lim-

its at a site, a series of additional experiments exploring the impact of adding P, K and S, alone and in combi-nation, were established in 2010. Treatments consisted broadly of control, P only, K only, S only, then P with K, P with S, K with S and PKS together. Nutrient rates used are 40 kg P (MAP or a fluid source), 200 kg K (SOP or MOP), and 40–80 kg S (SOA or ATS), with the high ap-plication rates designed to allow impacts to be followed through an extended crop rotation.

Application was split between shallow and deep layers, to maximise the volume of soil enriched (and hence the opportunity for crop root access). Urea was applied to ei-ther balance the N application from MAP, SOA, ATS or applied at a rate to make N non-limiting. Plot sizes start at 20 m long and around 8 m wide, with four reps initially. Five sites where initiated for cotton last summer (2010–11) ranging from the Chinchilla area to Collarenebri.

A new site for winter 2011 has been established at Moree, and summer 2011–12 sites are planned for Central and Southern Qld and Northern NSW. All are intended to be evaluated over a series of crops at each site, rather than one-off snap-shots, helping us to under-stand the residual value of fertilisers applied in northern soils and climates.

Some sites have clearly shown interactive responses, such as the dryland cotton site near Chinchilla (Figure 3) with S in combination with P, K or both increasing dry matter production by about 10–15 per cent. Addi-tive effects of K application with P were also recorded in dryland sorghum at Warra last summer (2010–11), with yields averaging 23 per cent higher (equivalent to >600 kg grain per hectare) when K and P were applied together, compared to P alone.

An interim approach to diagnosing multi-nutrient limitations

Given the relatively recent commencement of subsoil P and K testing and the emergence of S as a possible ad-ditional limitation, there is still considerable uncertainty in interpreting subsoil test results and devising effective fertiliser responses. Therefore, before undertaking a large scale revision of any program of nutrient applica-tion, consider undertaking a couple of other data gather-ing exercises on your farm – plant tissue analysis and/or nutrient test strips.

Tissue testing can be a useful indicator of marginal crop nutrient status, particularly if used in conjunction with yield maps or aerial images to compare zones of contrasting crop performance. The results will give an indication of the interaction between soil nutrient stocks and active plant roots under the current seasonal conditions. Recent research is showing us that yield losses of 20–30 per cent can be occurring due to low nutrient availability without definitive deficiency symptoms appearing.

If tissue tests indicate low nutrient status, a more targeted soil sampling strategy would be the next step

nutr

ition feature

26 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

FIGURE 3: Cotton dry matter near Chinchilla, 2010–11

Dryland cotton is showing interactive responses to applications of P, K and S.

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 27

– again using information on crop variability to target areas of concern.

Remember to conduct comprehensive soil tests to at least 30 cm, preferably in two increments (0–10 cm and 10–30 cm), to maximise the information. If soil test results are low or marginal for P, K or S consider dis-cussing with your advisor if some test strips can be estab-lished to investigate if any of these nutrients are limiting crop performance.

For example, try an additive recipe applying extra P, S or K, or combinations of these nutrients, to your current program. Treatments may then look something like:1. N only2. N with P3. N with P and S, or N with P and K and S

If considering putting in a test strip, apply reasonable rates. In the case of extra P (i.e. above and beyond what you apply as starter fertiliser), try adding about 40 kg P per hectare (200 kg per hectare of MAP or TSP). For the others, try at least 15 kg S per hectare (75–100 kg SOA per hectare) or 100 kg K per hectare (200 kg Muriate of Potash or 240 kg Sulfate of Potash) as a reasonable start.

Using sulfate of potash would apply both S and K together (41 per cent K 18 per cent S).

The potassium fertilisers could be included by broad-casting and incorporating using a tillage operation ini-

tially, and the same could apply to P if the PBI was low (i.e. <150). If using sulfate of ammonia as an S fertiliser, you may also increase the N applied in the remaining treatments (N only or N and P) by 15–20 kg N per hec-tare to balance that applied with ammonium sulfate.

Blends of Ammonium Phosphate fertilisers and Sulfate of Ammonia can also be applied with seed, but confirm the maximum suggested rate with your advisor or fertiliser supplier beforehand. As discussed earlier (particularly for P and K), the problems are often most important in the lay-ers below the top 10 cm, so applying these products only with seed (ie shallow applications, treating a very limited soil volume) may not provide the whole answer.

Remember, it’s not about treating the whole paddock or farm – just an area to see if it makes a difference relative to your current practice. These high rates will allow you to look for effects over a series of crops, thus minimising any chance of ‘losing’ any single crop responses to small addi-tions in a tillage effect that may reduce crop establishment.

Once you have identified any nutritional issues, and the size of the response, you can then set about devising a practical management strategy to address it.

Contact Mike Bell Ph: (07) 4160 0730, Email: bell4@uq.edu.au or David Lester Ph: (07) 4639 8888, Email: david.lester@deedi.qld.gov.au

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AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 27

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WORLD COMMODITY WATCH

USTemperatures in the US continue to soar with another week of temperatures in the Rolling Plains well above 100° Fahrenheit. This only adds pressure to an already stressed crop in Texas, with over 90 per cent of the state’s crop in extreme drought conditions. The latest crop progress report reveals that 57 per cent of the Texas crop is in very poor to poor condition, so the export market is not holding its breath for an abundance of high grade from this state. Picking has commenced in South Texas with the 21,921 bales classed as at August 4 revealing good colour but a shorter staple length.

BrasilHarvest continues unabated and the hot and dry weather remains perfect for picking. It is estimated Mato Grosso is currently at 45 per cent picked, while Bahia remains slightly ahead at 55 per cent. Yields appear to be slightly poorer than expected, but quality indications at this stage are favourable. We estimate that perhaps 20 per cent of Mato Grosso’s cotton has been ginned.

Queensland Cotton has the longest supply chain in the Australian cotton industry.

From the field to the shirt you wear, Queensland Cotton is at every step.

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11.05

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2009 2010 2011

$AU

D v

s $U

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Australian dollar vs US dollar

40557085

100115130145160175190205

40557085

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2009 2010 2011

US

cent

s/lb

New York cotton futuresSource: Queensland Cotton Source: Queensland Cotton

WORLD COMMODITY WATCH

AustraliaThe current season is finally drawing to a close with most gins looking to wrap up by mid to late September, except for the tough nuts in South West Queensland who will gin through to October. Much excitement is in the air for a large 2012 crop, planting of which will get underway in no less than six weeks. Southern NSW will experience the largest increase to planting hectares, with some 50,000 hectares expected to be planted in the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan Valleys alone.

ChinaAll reports indicate a generally good progress of new crop. Variable rainfall has fallen on crops along the Yangzte, but by all reports, has allowed the crop to progress well with bolls in early opening stages. Temperatures across central Hebei and Henan have been typical of this time of year, reaching mid-30°C.

Chinese Domestic MarketThe pressure of plentiful new-crop supply and lacklustre demand has taken its toll on the Chinese domestic markets in the last month, with both the CNCE and ZCE depreciating significantly. The Chinese Government remains adamant that the cotton reserve procurement price will remain at 19,800 yuan ($A2940)/tonne on the China Cotton (CC) Index, and will commence from September if price conditions are met. As at August 4, the CC Index was 19,716 yuan ($A2928)/tonne. Mills generally report an average of six weeks stock on hand, and remain cautious of adding to these existing supplies, bought at higher prices.

* Ex-gin price bids and basis for middling 1 1/8 inch cotton

350400450500550600650700750800850900950

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2009 2010 2011

$AU

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IndiaPlanting in India has been accelerated this year due to favourable monsoonal rains. As of the end of July, 10,556,100 hectares had been planted, which is up 4.13 per cent compared to this time last year. Arrivals data of old crop (2010–11) has been revised by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to 31,990,000 bales (170 kg) of lint.

Indian Government Export PolicyMuch conjecture has continued over the last month as to whether the Indian Government would in fact allow exports of Indian cotton to the market. This decision was finally confirmed this week when a press release by the Textiles Security reported that export registrations will be allowed, without quantitative restriction, until the end of September. How this will be perceived in the marketplace, and what impact this has on global basis is something worth watching closely!

Queensland Cotton has the longest supply chain in the Australian cotton industry.

55 Wyandra Street, Newstead Queensland Australia 4006, Tel: 61 7 3250 3300 Fax: 61 7 3852 1600

From the field to the shirt you wear, Queensland Cotton is at every step.

-12-10

-8-6-4-202468

10

-12-10

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10

2009 2010 2011

US

cent

s/lb

Australian basis*Australian cotton price*Source: Queensland Cotton Source: Queensland Cotton

The deterioration in market conditions described when we last contributed to The Australian Cottongrower,

in May, has deepened. Over the past two months, international prices have lost sub-stantial ground, without stimulating any meaningful improvement in demand.

The slowdown in consumption has be-come still more evident during the period, and proved far more severe than seemed possible earlier in the season. Faced with a damaging combination of falling yarn prices, lack of demand from the down-stream textile sector, and burdensome, high-priced raw cotton inventories, many mills have opted to curtail output.

Estimates of consumption during the 2010–11 season, now drawing to a close, have been further reduced. Since the early months of the season, a period of buoyancy in the yarn market that already must seem a distant memory to spinners, the reduction in our estimate of world consumption exceeds two million tonnes, or eight per cent.

Expectations of a strong recovery in 2011–12, which still seemed plausi-ble a couple of months ago, have been tempered by the reality that demand re-mains in the doldrums. We now foresee a far more modest rise in consumption, of just under three per cent, to roughly 24,500,000 tonnes.

On the supply side, the principal de-velopment has been the reduction of production forecasts in the United States. Continued drought in Texas has taken a heavy toll of cotton in the country’s single largest producing state. Cotton Outlook’s US forecast has been reduced to below 16 million statistical bales (480 lbs), against the 18 million or so produced in 2010–11.

In other major producing countries, planting and early plant development have taken place in broadly favourable condi-tions. China is estimated to have increased plantings by a little over five per cent, and Pakistan by some seven per cent. More land is likely to be devoted to cotton In

India, where sowing is currently in full swing. Optimism has been renewed by the resumption of monsoon rains, following a brief hiatus in early July. Less optimism is in evidence in Central Asia, whether ap-prehension is expressed with regard to the adequacy of water for irrigation, and in West and Central Africa, where seasonal rainfall is late.

The upshot of recent changes to our supply and demand estimates (in which falling consumption has been the domi-nant theme) has been to show a modest surplus of production over consumption in 2010–11, and a far more substantial margin by which the former is forecast to exceed the latter during the season ahead. The recovery in world supply is close to two million tonnes, against a contraction of well over three million tonnes 2009–10 that set in train the extraordinary bull run that ended in March of this year.

At the time of writing, the Cotlook 2011–12 A Index – which reflects prices

30 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

marketing

cotton_aust@cargill.comwww.cargill.com.au

Phil SloanPO Box 1203GOONDIWINDI Qld 4390Ph: (07) 4671 0222Fax: (07) 4671 3833

Cargill’s Cotton Division – specialising in buying cotton bales

AGENTS:Pete JohnsonLeft Field SolutionsMob: 0409 893 139Paul Kelly Moree Real EstateMOREEPh: (02) 6751 1100David DuganTRANGIEPh: (02) 6888 7122

Roger McCumstieBRISBANEPh: (07) 3367 2629

MOREE REAL ESTATE

Specialists in the Sale and Valuation of Rural Properties• Rural Properties • Cargill Cotton Agents• Town Sales • Registered Valuers• Property Management • Auctions• Clearing Sales

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After Hours:Paul Kelly 0428 281 428 Cliff Brown 02 6752 3970 Allan Gobbert 0428 523 375

The World Cotton MarketBy Michael Edwards, Cotton Outlook

for shipment from October onwards – stands at about 115.00 cents per lb, hav-ing shed some 34 cents, or 23 per cent of its value, since the beginning of June. Whether the downward momentum has run its course, and at what level prices might stabilise, are the questions of the moment.

Although nearby demand has for some time been exceptionally selective, some tentative signs of new buying interest for forward shipment cotton, Australian and Brazilian having occupied the limelight, have lately emerged from China. The re-

awakening of Chinese mill buying interest is no doubt not unrelated to the fact that international prices have moved to a dis-count, relative to the level at which the Chi-nese government, in an exceptional move, has declared its intention to purchase cot-ton from the domestic 2011–12 crop.

Assuming that confidence is placed in the government’s commitment, the Chi-nese mill buyer should feel reassured that downside risk is limited, when purchases from the international market are made at prices below the government’s support price (which, when adjusted to CFR terms,

and for the various import duty structures, equates to about 117.00–120.00 US cents per lb).

While merchants may hope that the new Chinese support mechanism will re-store some stability to the market, in the short-term, contractual issues represent a far more pressing preoccupation. In cer-tain markets, the dramatic fall in raw cot-ton and yarn prices has placed in doubt the performance of sales contracts entered into at or near the market’s highs. The principle of sanctity of contract is being tested as never before.

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 31

marketing

Apparent changes in world stocks Cotlook consumption estimate – 2010–11

Ginning & Fibre Quality Series

Ginning & Fibre Qualityproudly brought to you with the support of…

A tradition of service since 1849

In today’s highly competitive and incredibly diverse global tex-tile market, product quality is paramount. In order for spinners to produce yarns that can be converted into high quality woven

and knitted fabrics with little or no difficulty, emphasis is placed on fibre quality and the maintenance of this quality across the entire cotton processing pipeline.

The Australian Cotton CRC project ‘Quality Issues for Austral-ian Cotton from a Mill Perspective’ surveyed more than 30 spin-ning mills in 2003 and 2004 for their perceptions of Australian cotton fibre quality.

The survey, which took samples from each mill’s laydown, found the nep content in Australian cotton was too high com-pared with other premium Upland cotton growths and at the time, did not meet the requirements of domestic and more impor-tantly, international spinners. The survey and tests on a range of comparative growths confirmed previously anecdotal information that the nep content in Australian cotton was high, for the pro-duction of high quality fine count ring spun yarns.

A nep can be defined as a small knot (or cluster) of entangled fibres consisting entirely of fibres (for example a fibre nep) or con-sisting of foreign matter (e.g. seed-coat fragment) entangled with fibres. Neps adversely affect the appearance of cotton yarns and fabric and are usually associated with lower yarn strength, loss in processing time and efficiency in spinning and less uniform yarn.

Dyed or printed fabric appearance is negatively influenced by the presence of neps. Neps often comprise immature or ‘dead’ fibres that absorb less dye and reflect light differently. They most often appear as white spots or ‘flecks’ on finished fabric. Although noticeable on fabrics dyed in lighter shades, these specks become particularly noticeable on fabrics dyed into dark shades, such as black, navy, brown and green. This can cause fabrics to be down-graded or rejected as there are currently no effective means of covering or removing the imperfections once they are present in the fabric.

As a result, high quality spinners require the nep content in

cotton lint to be less than 250 neps/gram, which according to the latest Uster Statistics (2007) can be considered to be average, with 100 neps/gram considered to be excellent and >500 neps/gram poor. The Cotton CRC survey conducted in 2003–04 found that the nep levels in Australian cotton ranged from 164–496 neps/gram, with an average of 276 neps/gram.

In 2005 CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE) purchased an Advanced Fiber Information Instrument (AFIS PRO) which is used predominantly for nep testing in the world with over 900 instruments installed in 59 countries. The purchase of the AFIS allowed for the first time, nep levels in Australian cotton to be objectively surveyed. With funding from the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) a survey of nep levels in Australian fibre was conducted over three years 2007, 2008 and 2009.

The advantage of collecting data over three growing seasons is that an assessment of the effect by growing conditions on fibre quality and subsequent nep generation may also be considered. The three years had distinctly different climate and growing con-ditions. The 2009 and 2007 seasons experienced above aver-age temperatures with the 2007 season amongst the hottest on record. These warmer than average conditions resulted in higher Micronaire values. In contrast the 2008 season was the mildest season in the last 50 years resulting in a lower and more variable Micronaire and fibre maturity values.

METHODOLOGYA large number of samples were collected with the assistance of

the Australian Cotton Shippers Association (ACSA) and the Cot-ton Classers Association of Australia (CCAA). All members of the CCAA collected one sample per gin run during the three seasons with samples collected from all the corporate and private gins that were operational during this time. Samples collected by the CCAA were forwarded to CMSE together with their bale number, High Volume Instrument (HVI) fibre properties, as well as growing area, variety and gin.

At CMSE samples were tested using the AFIS PRO to measure neps, seed coat neps (SCN) and short fibre content (SFC). Fibre fineness or linear density (defined as the mass per unit length of a fibre, with the unit millitex (mg/km)) was determined by the CSIRO developed Cottonscan. The maturity of the cotton was determined by combining the fineness measurement from Cot-tonscan with the independently measured Micronaire value de-termined by HVI. The average fibre maturity was then calculated using Lord’s empirical relationship between Micronaire, maturity ratio and fineness.

The results obtained were compared to the 2007 Uster Statis-

32 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

Results of nep surveyBy Marinus H.J van der Sluijs, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Geelong

Ginning & Fibre Quality Series

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tics, which has been collated by Uster Technologies Incorporated for close on 50 years. These statistics are widely used in the textile industry as a quality reference for the classification and bench-marking of fibres and yarns.

Table 1 lists the Uster Statistic percentile values for fibrous and seed coat neps (SCN), per cent short fibre content by weight (SFC (w) %). The fineness (linear density) was determined using the Cot-tonscan instrument and the maturity ratio was calculated. Results from this survey were compared against the Uster Statistics to benchmark Australian cotton.

The 50 per cent percentile is considered to be the average value, meaning that half the samples collected have values less than 270 neps and half the samples are greater than 270 neps. The table also shows that five per cent of samples have a nep value less that 110 neps/g. It is also notes that the fibres that have less neps are more mature.

In total 3097 samples were collected over the three seasons. Table 2 gives an overview of the samples collected and used for this survey. The ‘Combined’ results represent 2758 samples from the main varieties grown and from gins that were operational for at least two of the three years. Excluded from the ‘combined’ re-sults are those varieties, gins and locations that contributed less than 10 samples over the survey period.

RESULTSOverall results

An overview of the combined results for all the fibre properties measured in the three seasons is provided in Table 3.

The results show that the samples had an average nep content of 313 neps/gram, an average of 24 SCN/gram, and an average SFC (w) of 9.2 per cent. The samples also had an average fineness of 198 mtex and a maturity ratio of 0.82. Although the nep and SFC results are above values preferred by international fine count spinners it is encouraging to note that nearly 60 per cent of the samples had a nep content of < 300 neps/gram. If the industry

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 33

TABLE 1: Uster statistics for raw cotton lintPercentile

%Neps

count/gSCN

count/gSFC(w)

%Fineness

mtexMaturity

ratio 5 110 8 4.0 145 0.9525 190 15 6.0 155 0.9350 270 22 7.8 163 0.9075 370 28 9.8 173 0.8795 450 35 11.5 181 0.85

TABLE 2: Details of samples collectedDetails 2007 2008 2009 CombinedNumber of samples 895 982 1220 2758Number of regions 8 9 10 9Number of varieties 33 35 34 23Number of gins 32 23 29 26

TABLE 3: Average combined fibre propertiesNeps cnt/g

SCN cnt/g

SFC(w) %

Fineness mtex

Maturity catio

Average 313 24 9.2 198 0.82Minimum 150 9 4.5 124 0.40Maximum 1407 76 26.9 255 1.09Range 1257 67 22.4 131 0.69Std. dev. 98.7 7.3 1.7 15.8 0.07

Ginning & Fibre Quality Series

can focus on the 40 per cent that had a nep content >300 and particularly those with a nep content of > 400 neps/gram the perception of Australian cotton amongst spinners, in regards to nep content, would be improved.

Figure 1 shows a histogram of the three years as well as the ‘Combined’ results highlighting the variability in the nep content results.

Growing seasonNot surprisingly the 2008 crop year produced the highest aver-

age nep content across all the regions as it was one of the mildest (coolest) seasons in the past 50 years. Most of the regions had less than half their average days over 35°C and accumulated ap-proximately five per cent less degrees days during the season. The Lachlan valley experienced a slightly warmer than average season. These conditions resulted in low Micronaire values, with 25 per cent of the samples received having a Micronaire value of ≤3.8 with a correspondingly low maturity. Low fibre maturity may lead to higher nep creation during ginning as fibres are more prone to bending and buckling.

Growing regionsThe samples received and tested originated from 10 growing

areas. We did not include the results for Theodore and Bourke as only a small number of samples were collected from these regions.

The average nep results expressed with y-error bars of one standard deviation giving an indication of the variation for the regions over the three years are shown in Figure 2. It can be seen

that the average nep values across all regions varied by less than 100 neps/gram. While not significantly different from many other regions, the Lachlan Valley with an average of 335 neps/gram had the highest average and highest variation in nep content for any one valley. Emerald produced the cotton with the lowest level of variability in nep content.

So it is not surprising that the gin in the Lachlan Valley is also amongst the gins with the highest average nep content. At 275 neps/gram samples from St George had the lowest nep content, and correspondingly the three gins from this area had the lowest av-erage nep content. These differences are mainly due to the climatic conditions experienced during these growing seasons, the varieties used at the time as well as the gins where the cotton was ginned.

GinsOver the three years samples from 34 gins were received and

tested. As a number of these gins did not operate for at least two of the three years we highlight only the 28 gins that were operational for at least two of the three years. Due to the sensitive nature of the results the gins have been allocated with a unique code which has been communicated to the gin managers.

The average nep content for the three crop years from these 28 gins is shown in Figure 3. It can be seen that at an average of 388 neps/gram that samples from gin number 13 had the high-est nep content, followed by gin numbers 4, 27 and 29. If we ignore gin number 7 as only a few samples were received from that gin; at 245 neps/gram samples from gin number 31 had the lowest nep content. Six of the gins had an average nep content of <270 neps/gram, with nine gins averaging between 270 and 300 neps/gram and 13 gins averaging >300neps/gram.

Comparison with other growthsSo how do the nep results obtained from this survey compare

to other cotton growths used around the world? As part of the CRDC 2009–10 Mill Survey project fibre samples were gath-ered from bale lay-downs in mills that participated in the survey. Samples were collected four times from spinning companies from April 2009 through to December 2010. As can be seen in Fig-ure 4, test results on fibre samples from lay-downs surveyed were averaged for each growth, i.e., country or area of origin, and expressed with y-error bars of one standard deviation giving an in-dication of the variation. Standard deviations were not expressed for averages of two or less test results.

As expected cotton that is handpicked and/or roller ginned has lower nep content than cottons that are machine picked. Thus cotton from India and Africa as well as SJV roller ginned cotton

34 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

FIGURE 1: Nep content for 2007, 2008, 2009 and combined

FIGURE 2: Average nep content per region for 2007–09 seasons

FIGURE 3: Average nep content per gin for 2007–09 seasons

Ginning & Fibre Quality Series

had the lowest nep counts. Machine picked, saw ginned cotton generally averaged between 250 and 350 neps/gram. With a nep count of 308 neps/gram, Australian cotton compares to cotton from Brazil and some cotton from the US. A number of the cot-tons from the US and Chad had higher nep counts than Austral-ian cotton.

Relationship between fibre property and nepIn order to determine the relationship between the physical

characteristics of the fibre and nep content and also to determine which fibre property is the best predictor of neps, a correlation matrix was calculated. Fibre length, length uniformity, strength and Micronaire as measured by HVI instrument as well as fibre fineness from the Cottonscan and calculated maturity values were used in this analysis. Seed coat neps and SFCw as measured by the AFIS were also included.

The results show (Table 4) that in all cases Micronaire always emerged as the most significant fibre property in terms of deter-mining nep levels (r=-0.67) with the next most important fibre property being fineness (r=-0.58) followed by calculated maturity (r=-0.43). The results show that generally nep content increased as Micronaire, fineness, maturity, uniformity ratio and strength decreased and SFC increased.

There does not seem to be any significant fibre property that can be used to predict SCN as all the correlations were weak.

A detailed analysis was conducted to determine the affect of; variety, region, gin and crop year on nep creation. We found crop year was the most significant factor followed by region, gin and variety. It is not surprising that the crop year was the most significant variable given that climatic conditions during cotton growth play a major part in final fibre quality. This is highlighted

when considering that the 2008 crop year was one of the mild-est (coolest) seasons in 50 years, resulting in the production of mainly fine and immature fibre, which is more prone to bending and buckling and a propensity to nep. This resulted in the 2008 crop year having the highest nep content of the three years. In contrast the 2007 crop year experienced one of the hottest years on record resulting in the production of mainly coarse and largely mature fibre that do not bend and buckle easily – and the lowest nep content of the three years.

A further detailed analysis which accounted for the differences in sample size and combinations for each season, region, variety, and gin was able to show that the crop year had a large impact on neps (25 per cent of variation) followed by gin (20 per cent of variation) followed by a small impact of variety (seven per cent of variation).

CONCLUSIONThe results of the nep survey show that Australian cotton has

an average nep content of 313 neps/gram, an average of 24 seed coat neps/gram, and an average short fibre content of 9.2 per cent. This was above the nep content of 250 neps/gram preferred by international fine count spinners and also above the 270 neps/gram considered to be average according to the 2007 Uster Statistics. Despite this fact Australian cotton does compare favourably with other cottons, such as cotton from Brazil and the US that has been machine picked and saw ginned as well as cot-ton from Chad.

Analysis has shown that Micronaire was the most significant fibre property in terms of determining nep levels. Nep content increases as Micronaire, fineness, maturity, uniformity ratio and strength decrease and SFC increase.

When considering factors such as crop year, region, gin and variety; crop year and gin were the most significant. This suggests that the biggest opportunities to improve neps are to develop prac-tices that accommodate seasonal conditions (e.g. crop maturity, defoliation and harvesting management) and adaptive ginning practices (e.g. reduce speeds and less lint cleaning when cotton is clean) and incorporate into various BMPs. While neps do not form part of the Premium and Discount sheets this may change in the future as neps become more of an issue for spinners.

The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Cotton Research and Development Corporation and CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering. He also acknowledges the assistance of Graham Higgerson and Shiming Liu in compiling this report. He would also like to thank and Susan Miller, Susan Horne, Liz Coles and Geni Kodzra for testing the samples.

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 35

TABLE 4: Correlations for three years combinedLength Uniformity Strength Micronaire Neps SCN SFC(w) Fineness Maturity

Length 1.00 0.43 0.24 –0.32 0.13 –0.11 –0.34 –0.22 –0.26Uniformity 0.43 1.00 0.42 0.11 –0.22 –0.08 –0.35 0.09 0.08Strength 0.24 0.42 1.00 0.08 –0.16 0.00 –0.14 0.07 0.05Micronaire –0.32 0.11 0.08 1.00 –0.67 –0.04 –0.07 0.72 0.78Neps 0.13 –0.22 –0.16 –0.67 1.00 0.23 0.30 –0.58 –0.43SCN –0.11 –0.08 0.00 –0.04 0.23 1.00 0.41 –0.09 0.02SFC(w) –0.34 –0.35 –0.14 –0.07 0.30 0.41 1.00 –0.13 0.01Fineness –0.22 0.09 0.07 0.72 –0.58 –0.09 –0.13 1.00 0.13Maturity –0.26 0.08 0.05 0.78 –0.43 0.02 0.01 0.13 1.00

FIGURE 4: Average nep count of bale lay-down samples collected during 2009–10 Mill Survey

36 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

Cottonscope is a new instrument that measures cotton fibre fine-ness and maturity quickly, directly

and accurately in the same measurement. At the moment, because of the cotton in-dustry’s historical reliance on the micro-naire instrument, no information on these properties is given to the market. The new Cottonscope instrument provides an op-portunity for the market to revalue cotton on the basis of its fineness and maturity properties, and provide growers with real incentives to produce fine, mature cotton for spinners.

The micronaire instrument, which measures the pressure differential of air forced or pulled through a compressed plug of raw cotton fibres, was originally used to measure cotton fibre fineness. But it was soon understood that the instrument actually measured a combination of fine-ness and maturity.

Cottonscope – separate measuerment of fibre fineness and maturityBy Geoff Naylor1, Shouren Yang1, Stuart Gordon1, Mark Brims2 and Hy Hwang2

Cottonscope provides the opportunity for incentives to produce fine, mature cotton.

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A cotton fibre is a single elongated cell that grows from the epidermis of the cot-ton seed. Cotton fibre fineness is defined in terms of linear density, such as in mil-ligrams/kilometre (millitex – mtex), while fibre maturity is defined as the relative thick-ening of the fibre cell wall. Fibre wall thick-ening is related directly to the maturity ratio scale, which is the number of thick-walled fi-bres as described by standard methods such as the ASTM D-1422 (2005).

Knowing these parameters is essential to successful plant breeding, eg in the selec-tion of new cultivars with fine, mature fibre; in the classification of premium cotton fibre and in the spinning of fine count yarn.

Cotton fibres are hollow and their cross-sectional shapes are rarely circular, which confounds the relationship between air flow and cotton fibre fineness. While it is true high micronaire values can indicate coarser

fibre and low micronaire values can indicate immaturity, this rule fails when fineness and maturity properties are examined closely. Low micronaire cotton can be fine and mature and conversely high micronaire cot-ton can be coarse and immature.

The ambiguity of the micronaire scale means that the market for cotton, espe-cially to spin fine count yarn, does not receive accurate information on the real quality of the cotton it buys. An ongoing consequence is that yarn quality and mill productivity suffer when the spinner uses fibres that are too coarse for the fineness of yarn being spun, or that are too immature to achieve a quality product. Yarn evenness is directly affected by fibre fineness, and the final appearance of yarn and fabric is af-fected directly by fibre maturity.

Figure 1 shows micronaire and fineness values for a large number of commercial

cotton samples collected over 18 months – each sample representing a particular growth or origin in the bale laydowns from three large, export oriented Chinese spin-ning mills. Export quality Ne 40 (14.8 tex) and 50 (11.8 tex) combed cotton yarns were produced from these laydowns. The graph also shows the maturity of each sample with the darker blue, smaller dots representing increasing fibre maturity. Each point rep-resents a combined sample of baled cotton from the US, China, Australia and Brazil.

The red line on the graph represents the micronaire value (3.5) below which cotton is discounted for fear that it is im-mature. The yellow line represents the micronaire value (4.9) above which cotton is discounted due to perceptions that the fibre is too coarse.

The interesting point is that the bulk of the samples from these laydowns fit in the

38 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

FIGURE 3: Cottonscope instrument and the field-of-view analysed to determine fineness and maturity

FIGURE 4: Maturity ratio reference values for Texas Tech reference cottons versus Cottonscope values

FIGURE 1: Micronaire vs. fineness values for samples of different origin and maturity from bale laydowns used to produce Ne 40 (14.8 tex) and Ne 50 (11.8 tex) yarn

FIGURE 2: Premiums paid for raw wool on fibre fineness measured in terms of diameter (microns (μm))

middle of the micronaire range where there are no price signals. Not even for extreme differences such as the samples circled in group 1 (fine and mature) and the samples circled in group 2 (coarse and immature) on the plot. It is very well understood these two groups of cotton will produce very different quality yarn. Yarn manufactured using the coarser, immature fibre will be more uneven and weaker, and when dyed will be less lustrous and unattractive.

An anomaly in the pricing of cotton is that while no premiums are paid for fibre fineness, very good premiums are paid for cotton yarn on the basis of its fineness (and quality). In order to spin cotton fibre into high quality ring-spun yarn, a spinner needs at least 80 fibres in the yarn cross section. For Ne 40 (14.8 tex) yarn this means fibres should have an average fineness of 185 mtex and for Ne 50 (11.8 tex) yarn the av-erage fineness should be 148 mtex.

While the 80 fibres incorporates a safety margin (there is some compensation by other fibre properties, such as length and strength) the fact is that fewer fibres in the yarn cross-section leads to inherently higher yarn mass variation, which in turn leads to lower yarn strength and poorer appearance in fabric.

For yarn finer than 11.8 tex the number of fibres in the yarn cross-section becomes more critical. Fine count yarns with supe-rior evenness and strength cannot be spun from coarse fibres no matter how long or strong they are. If the fibre fineness of cot-ton is known then it is straight forward for the spinner to accurately determine the average number of fibres in the yarn cross-section. This is something the spinner can-not do with the micronaire value.

The anomaly does not extend to other natural and man-made fibres, where dis-

tinct premiums are paid for fine fibre. Fig-ure 2 shows the reward paid by the market to wool growers for production of fine wool fibre. With the development of widely accepted fineness testing instrumentation (eg the OFDA and the Sirolan Laserscan), the market for fine wools has been deter-mined directly and growers have subse-quently been properly rewarded. Similar premiums exist for the fineness of polyes-ter staple fibre and filament.

THE COTTONSCOPE INSTRUMENT

The Cottonscope is a new instrument manufactured by Australian company Cot-tonscope Pty Ltd (see www.cottonscope.com) that measures cotton fibre fineness and maturity directly and quickly (<30 sec-onds/test, excluding snippet preparation). This means values given by the instrument are accurate, and its speed means that the values have a level of precision that can be used by the market. Figure 3 shows a picture of the Cottonscope instrument and the field-of-view that is analysed.

The technical breakthroughs of the Cot-tonscope instrument include:• Development of a water ‘bowl’ for fibre

snippets, which allows rapid and ran-dom dispersal of the snippets for mea-surement;

• The coupling of transmitted polarized light through the water system, which enables excellent resolution of fibres for imaging and removes the need to mount fibres in messy mounting media;

• An innovative lighting and optical sys-tem, which allows aspects of the fibre of interest to be highlighted and easily separated in image processing; and,

• The application of unique image and data analysis algorithms to extract infor-

mation on the fineness and maturity of a specimen.The traditional birefringence measure-

ment of cotton fibre maturity, which is utilised in the Cottonscope instrument, in-volves examining fibres situated between crossed polarizing lenses and a special re-tardation plate under a light microscope on the basis of the interference colours they transmit. The interference colours transmit-ted by the fibres based on their degree of birefringence relates directly with their cell wall thickening (or maturity).

As well as speed, the disadvantage of this test previously was that an operator had to make an arbitrary subjective assess-ment of the colours assumed by the fibres, which contributed to large discrepancies in results. Moreover, as a result of variations in the quality of the optics, eg in the thick-ness of retardation plates, and illumination, these systems are very difficult to match and calibrate. Cottonscope uses coloured light emitting diodes and polarisers, but no retar-dation plate, which makes the system more stable and easier to match and calibrate.

The Cottonscope fineness measure-ment is similarly based on a traditional di-rect method for measuring fibre fineness, which is also disadvantaged by the time in preparing and measuring fibres and conse-quently by the imprecision of results. The direct approach of measuring fineness (linear density) requires a known mass of snippets from a sample to be weighed and then the total length of the fibres in that specimen to be measured so that the mass per unit length can be calculated.

In the Cottonscope, the total length is determined by forming a uniform suspen-sion and therefore uniform concentration of fibre snippets in the water ‘bowl’ of the instrument. The suspension is then passed

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 39

FIGURE 5: Linear density (fineness) reference values for Texas Tech reference cottons versus Cottonscope values

FIGURE 6: The reproducibility of maturity ratio values on three Cottonscope instruments (nos. CS0004, CS0005 and CS0006)

across the instrument’s optical cell where the snippets are photographed and their images measured for length by image analysis. By equating the concentration of snippets in the suspension and measuring the total fibre length of snippets in fields-of-view within the suspension, a value of linear density is determined.

The performance of CottonscopeA Cottonscope measurement of 20,000

fibre snippets is completed in 30 seconds making it an ideal technology for commer-cial adaptation.

The Cottonscope results for maturity and finess showed a very strongcorrelation with results produced by older, more time consuming methods (see Figures 4 and 5).

THE ADvANTAGESThe most important advantage of the

Cottonscope instrument is the value of the market opportunity in defining cot-ton quality. If the technology were widely used, and importantly recognised by lead-ing traders and spinners, cotton breeders could focus their efforts on producing finer more mature cottons for which premiums could be earned.

The evolution of such a premium would require a movement away from the base grade pricing system, and as such would represent a fundamental shift in the clas-sification of cotton. Indeed for cotton generally, the specification of fineness and maturity strengthens cotton’s market position with respect to competition from man-made fibres, the specification provid-ing better information for processing and value-adding to the fibre.

Another price impact to be considered is the effect of a new pricing system being ap-plied to cotton that is currently discounted because it has a micronaire reading outside the base grade. Such a discount might be avoided if it was demonstrated that the fi-bre was fine but mature. But, because test-ing would invariably be done across the board (to support a new pricing system) the net gain to the industry might be small as coarser and immature cotton was appropri-ately discounted. Consequently, these price impacts are not likely to be significant.1CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Belmont VIC, Australia 2BSC Electronics Pty. Ltd., Ardross WA, AustraliaThe authors gratefully acknowledge the financial contribution by the Australian Cotton Research and Development Corporation, the Cotton Catchment Communities Cooperative Research Centre and CSIRO. The authors are also indebted to Dr Eric Hequet and colleagues at the Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute of Texas Tech for the reference cottons used to calibrate and check the Cottonscope instrument.

40 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

COTTON FIBRE IN THE SPOTlIGHTCottonscope has been selected as a finalist in the 2011 Engineers Excellence Awards

in Sydney in September.Funded through the Cotton Catchment Communities Cooperative Research Centre

(Cotton CRC) and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), Cottonscope was the brainchild of CSIRO scientists.

Dr Stuart Gordon Project leader, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering said it’s rewarding to have Cottonscope acknowledged on the national stage.

“The search for an accurate and quick way to measure fibre fineness and maturity has been the subject of more than 40 years of international research. Cottonscope aims to revolutionise the way cotton is measured,” said Stuart.

Stuart said fineness and maturity are considered among the most important properties by spinning mills across the globe.

“Fineness determines how fine a yarn can be spun from particular cotton,” he said.“While fibre maturity determines the consistency and quality of the appearance of the

dyed yarn, fabric or garment.”Stuart said the industry currently uses a technique called micronaire to test for fineness

and maturity.“It measures the specific surface area of a fibre sample by recording the air pressure

differential across a plug of cotton fibres,” said Stuart.“But studies have shown the micronaire value, when related to cotton, is ambiguous

as a coarse immature sample and a finer more mature sample can both have the same micronaire value.”

The Cottonscope test is a fully automated microscope and camera system that captures colour images of ~50 mg of cotton snippets suspended in a small water bowl.

“The microscope lens tube is permanently submerged in water and two light emitting diodes (lEDs) are used to transmit light through the snippets,” said Stuart.

“The two lEDs are red and green; the red and green light combines to illuminate the fibres in a yellow light. Fibres appear dark or translucent if they are immature and red if mature.”

The average length of the test is approximately 25 seconds. Stuart said Cottonscope could potentially put more money in the pockets of cotton growers.

“Currently growers aim to produce cotton with micronaire values between 3.5 and 4.9 in order to avoid the discounts that apply outside those ranges.”

“But if the Cottonscope technology is adopted more widely, cotton breeders could focus their efforts on producing finer more mature cottons for which premiums could be earned,” he said.

Cottonscope is a fully automated microscope and camera system to measure fineness and maturity.

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The usual responses I receive, when I raise the in-teresting subject of J & H McLaren Ltd and their range of farm tractors are – blank expressions! To be hon-est,  it  is  not  surprising  that  most  Australian  tractor enthusiasts are unaware of the existence of McLaren tractors. To my knowledge none were ever exported to this country, at least under the McLaren name.

Steam buffs however (that august body of engineering intellec-tuals, permanently attired in blue grandpa overalls, with slide rules projecting from their top pockets and rags stained with greasy pu-tridity hanging from their belts) are fully aware that around 1890 the first of the McLaren steamers (as distinct from tractors) arrived in Australia from The Midlands Engine Works in Leeds, England. These included traction engines and cable ploughing engines.

In many ways the destiny of J & H McLaren Ltd followed simi-lar paths to those of their competitors, John Fowler Ltd and Wil-liam Marshall Sons and Co. These three English firms emerged into prominence in the late nineteenth century, largely on the reputations of their steam stationary and traction engines.

Following the signing of the armistice in 1918 at the termina-tion of “The War to End all Wars”, it was obvious to the McLaren management that steam was about to be replaced by the internal combustion engine.

Significantly, Marshall and Co at that time decided to redirect its design efforts back to steam, having become disenchanted with a decade of a profitless excursion into the realms of giant petrol powered tractors.

But Fowler, also of Leeds, shared the McLaren philosophy and embarked upon a program of producing a range of internal com-bustion engined tractors. Significantly though, Fowler emulated the trend of the majority of British engine manufacturers by in-vesting, initially at least, in the development of petrol engines for their tractors.

But McLaren exhibited a degree of innovative foresight, by de-ciding that the real future lay in diesel power. In this regard, the McLaren design boffins focused their attention on the German firm Daimler Benz, which was at that time leading the world with their design of compression ignition diesel fuelled engines, suit-able for powering agricultural tractors.

For the record it should be stated that the Mannheim based Benz organisation produced its first tractor in 1919. The big machine was powered by a 50 hp four cylinder 8.1 litre petrol powered engine. (Interestingly it resembled very closely the Lanz Landbaumotor, which incorporated a four cylinder petrol engine built by Kamper of Berlin).

Towards the latter end of 1919, Benz produced a prototype 25 hp two cylinder diesel engine which eventually was used to power the three wheeled and then the four wheeled Benz Sendling. This was the world’s first volume produced diesel powered tractor.

McLaren obtained the sole distribution rights for the Benz Sen-dling throughout Great Britain and her empire. In Britain the trac-tors were assembled and later part manufactured at the Leeds based McLaren’s Midland Engine Works. For the home market they were sold as the McLaren Two Cylinder Diesel Tractor, but export models retained the name of Benz Sendling.

The first Benz Sendling exported to Australia by McLaren ar-

42 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

McLaren tractors?By Ian M. Johnston

CLASSIC TRACTOR TALES

A 1907 McLaren seven hp (No. 919) steam traction engine owned by Alan Brittan of Rangiora, New Zealand. (Photo: IMJ)

A superb example of an ultra rare 1925 32 hp Benz Sendling, preserved for posterity by The Booleroo Steam and Traction Preservation Society Inc of South Australia. Greg McCallum is the operator. The tractor was exported to Australia by the Daimler Benz British agent J & H McLaren Ltd, who also had distribution rights throughout the British Empire. Messrs E Schrapal & Son of Tanunda was the local South Australian dealer. In Britain, Benz Sendling tractors were sold as the McLaren Two Cylinder Diesel Tractor. See text. (Photo: IMJ)

rived in 1925. Gibson, Battle & Co Ltd of Sydney and Melbourne had long been associated with the importation of McLaren steam-ers, but the distribution of the Benz Sendling tractors went to John Langlands and Son and The Diesel Tractor Company. Lo-cal agents were appointed in the various states.

A Benz Sendling was put on trial at the Hawkesbury Agricul-tural College, in 1926. Two Oliver disc ploughs (four and five disc) were hooked up to the tractor and in hard going, 5.5 acres were ploughed in one hour. The fuel consumption was measured as being one gallon of crude oil per acre.

In 1925 Karl Benz and Gottleib Daimler merged their com-panies to form Daimler Benz. By that time Benz was also enjoy-ing considerable success with a four cylinder diesel engine which

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 43

The McLaren-Benz two cylinder liquid cooled full compression diesel engine had a 5.3 inch bore and a 7.9 inch stroke. The compression ratio was a relatively low 15 to 1, which meant that the engine required the assistance of pre-heating by a blow lamp or igniters to enable it to be cranked into life. (IMJ archives)

This archival drawing shows the right side of a ‘MACLAREN’ fitted with an underbelly winder (winch). The interchangeable gears carried at the front were used to alter the speed of the winder. (IMJ archives)

The left side of a unit equipped with a rear vertical winder. This was the type most favoured for cable ploughing. (IMJ archives)

Pictured is a ‘MACLAREN’ equipped with a rear vertical winder plus Sawah patented wheels. An identical tractor was used by the Royal Dutch Government to winch a huge delver, during the partial draining of the Zuider Zee. Between 1930 and 1932, two million cubic metres of dirt were delved to create 1830 kilometres of drainage ditches. (IMJ archives)

The four cylinder McLaren-Benz Diesel Engine utilised the Lanova principle of pre-chamber (indirect) ignition, which permitted a variety of fuels to be used. This was a distinct advantage as many of the units were exported into remote regions. Each of the four cylinders had individual fuel pumps, the pressure being set a 70 kilos per square centimetre (1000 psi). The maximum 70 hp was developed at a governed 800 rpm. (IMJ archives)

McLaren decided would be well suited for fitting to a new heavy-weight tractor, by now well advanced on the drawing board.

But the McLaren marketing people were having second thoughts about their project. They noted the demise of the Mar-shall heavyweights some years earlier and also were becoming increasingly conscious of the inroads being made into the farming scene by smaller more efficient tractors – in particular the Ford-son. Accordingly a decision was taken to abandon the concept of a large hauling tractor and instead the design was changed to that of a powerful diesel powered cable ploughing ‘engine’.

Around 1930, cable ploughing was still extensively practiced in Britain and other parts of Europe by contractors and wealthy land-owners. Steam traction engines with underbelly winches to haul in the thick cables, pulled the big ploughs back and forth across the fields. It was considered by McLaren that a diesel powered unit would be more efficient for the job and that there was a niche market waiting to be supplied.

Accordingly the long awaited machine was released in 1930, equipped with a Benz-McLaren 70 hp diesel engine. It was indeed innovative in many ways. The massive engine was located east/west across the centre of the tractor, and a choice was offered of either a horizontal underbelly or rear located vertical winding drum.

The principle of the vertical drum was excellent, as it was able to be supported by bearings on each end of the shaft. This created much greater rigidity than the single support of the underbelly winder. In addition, the problem of the cable becoming entangled by falling down the drum was negated. Of course with the rear drum concept the tractor could not move forward parallel with the field without a deal of manoeuvring.

The four cylinder Benz-McLaren engine featured three cams for each exhaust valve. The camshaft could be moved laterally, thus providing nil, half and full compression. The two cylinder pilot starting engine rotated the main crankshaft, by means of a connecting Reynolds chain, initially in the half compression mode, then at 170 rpm the cam automatically engaged full compression, at which time the big engine would fire into life. It developed its maximum 70 brake hp at 800 rpm

The liquid coolant of the eight hp pilot engine was drawn from the same radiator as the main engine. Its two cylinders were ar-ranged in vee formation.

From an engineering design point of view the McLaren Ca-ble Plough Engine was a success. Its performance was outstand-

ing, particularly when operating under harsh conditions in such distance places as the Middle East, South East Asia and South America.

But it was horrendously expensive and The Great Depression was in full swing. Farmers everywhere were more interested in investing in one of the new lightweight general purpose tractors that could be purchased for a fraction of the cost. As a conse-quence, returns from the limited number of McLarens sold did not equate their manufacturing costs. Not surprisingly production of the McLaren Cable Plough Engine was discontinued after only two years.

FOOTNOTE: The spelling of J & H McLaren was ‘McLaren’. The same spelling was also used on all steamers and the re-badged Benz/Sendling tractors. But inexplicably the cable plough engines used the spelling ‘MACLAREN’!

44 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

A close up view of the V twin donkey engine used for starting the big four cylinder McLaren-Benz diesel engine. Note the spelling of ‘McLaren’ yet the tractor name plate on the engine radiator was spelt ‘MACLAREN’! (Photo: Henry Rosskilly) An abandoned MACLAREN Pioneer Roller. (Note the name plate).

Interestingly the two cylinder diesel power unit is the same as fitted to the McLaren-Benz Sendling tractor. (Photo: Henry Rosskilly)

IAN’S MYSTERY TRACTOR QUIZQuestion: Can you name this tractor ?Clue: The diesel engine has two pots on the other side too!Degree of Difficulty: Even Google could have problems with this one!Answer: See page 56.(Photo: IMJ courtesy Booleroo Steam and Traction Preservation Society Inc)

Australian cotton growers have been quick to embrace Bollgard II tech-nology with more than 90 per cent

of the 2010–11 crop consisting of varie-ties with this trait, and a similar amount ex-pected in 2011–12. But in some regions there are growers who choose to grow all or part of their farms to non-Bollgard II va-rieties for many reasons, sparking annual debates about which has performed better from a cost and income perspective.

An excellent case study to demonstrate the year-by-year differences between con-ventional and Bollgard II cotton comes from research conducted by CSD in col-laboration with Smith Brothers Ag, who grow irrigated cotton near Mungindi, Tal-wood and Goondiwindi. They predomi-nantly grow conventional cotton, being involved annually with large-scale rep-licated variety trials. Over the past three seasons there have been five trials across two properties, with a Bollgard II variety,

Sicot 71B, included in each trial, providing a good insight into the differences between both technologies.

On all trials, the Sicot 71B entry re-ceived the same insect management as the conventional cotton in the remainder of the field. While insect control costs were not covered in detail in this study, anec-dotally, the average cost of conventional management was similar to that of the Bollgard II crops in the district.

Across the five trials, Sicot 71 yielded more than Sicot 71B three times, yielded less once and was equal in yield on one occasion, resulting in an average three per cent yield advantage to Sicot 71 (Table 1).

There are some inherent differences between varieties including fibre traits and turnout which these trials highlighted (Table 2) – of most note is Sicot 71’s shorter staple length and one per cent higher gin turnout.

why the differences in yield?Boll weight: Detailed analysis of the

three trials in 2010 and 2011 revealed Sicot 71 bolls had greater than nine per cent more lint per boll than those of Sicot 71B – an inherent trait of this variety. This characteristic has been identified in other studies also.

This means that Sicot 71B needs to produce almost 10 per cent more bolls per metre to achieve the same yield.

Conventional cotton will usually receive some level of sub-threshold helicoverpa damage which ultimately means higher levels of branching due to tip or terminal damage plus lower fruit retention than equivalent Bollgard II crops. This was very evident when comparing the Bollgard II in-serts in the conventionally managed trials (see Figure 1).

Detailed monitoring of crops, including the one pictured in Figure 1, using CSD’s segmented picking technique clearly illus-trated this phenomenon (Figure 2). The Bollgard II had double the first position fruit retention of the conventional variety but less than 10 per cent of fruit on veg-etative, or lateral branches. Conversely, on the conventional variety, more than one third of the total fruit were on vegetative branches.

The observation after the 2009 trials where the conventional variety yielded 3.0 and 8.5 per cent higher was that the Boll-gard II was being limited to some degree in the number of fruit it could put on because it was so heavily reliant on main-stem fruit.

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 45

Bollgard II and conventional yields – an annual debate

By David kelly, Extension & Development Agronomist, CSD

FIGURE 1: Conventional Sicot 71 (left) and Sicot 71B (right) in the 2009 trial at Talwood – the Bollgard II variety is much more main stem oriented and has not filled out across the rows as much as the conventional cotton

TABLE 1: Yield summary of five CSD trials with Smith Brothers Ag over three seasons – yields determined by commercial harvesting and ginning

Yield (bales/ha)Year Location Sicot 71 Sicot 71B Difference2009 Goondiwindi 10.93 10.61 +3.0%

Talwood 13.73 12.66 +8.5%2010 Goondiwindi 11.61 11.67 –0.5%

Talwood 10.83 11.43 –5.3%2011 Talwood 12.79 11.79 +8.5%Average 12.03 11.68 +3.0%

TABLE 2: Average yield and fibre quality from five CSD trials with Smith Brothers Ag over three seasons

Sicot 71 Sicot 71B DifferenceYield (bales/ha) 12.03 11.68 +0.35Turnout (%) 40.0 39.0 +1.0Length (inch) 1.13 1.20 –0.07Length (32nds) 36 38Strength (g/tex) 30.3 29.0 +1.3Micronaire 4.4 4.3 +0.1

By being tipped out and creating more vegetative branches, the conventional cot-ton was creating more opportunities for greater boll numbers – in doing so, it was extending the fruiting and boll filling period until later in the season.

In full-season areas such as Talwood and Mungindi, there is normally ample season length to allow this to happen – and will be more pronounced in seasons with good

growing conditions later in the season. This observation is reinforced when we com-pare the differences in yield between the conventional and Bollgard II variety (%) and the day degree accumulation for the latter part of the season (Figure 3). Although this is a relatively small data-set, it does suggest that in seasons with a cooler than average finish, the Bollgard II may perform better than the conventional and in a warmer

than average late season, the reverse ap-plies with the conventional doing better.

Can we make Bollgard II yield more if we make it branch more?

In the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons, three small-plot trials were conducted with the simple task of finding out whether in-flicting early season damage to Bollgard II plants would cause them to form more vegetative branches, thus giving it the op-portunity to set more fruit. These trials were set up within the large scale repli-cated variety trials.

There were four treatments:• Sicot 71 – no damage;• Sicot 71 – damaged;• Sicot 71B – no damage; and,• Sicot 71B – damaged.

The damage inflicted involved the man-ual removal of the top three nodes from the crop when it was about seven nodes – around the time of first square (Figure 4). This damage was not designed to repli-cate any insect damage – rather delay the maturity and create more branching in the Bollgard II.

The damage had an obvious impact – delaying node, and early fruit development by several weeks (Figure 5).

From a plant architecture point of view, the inflicted damage caused the Bollgard II crops to branch more – putting a greater proportion of fruit on vegetative branches and looking similar to a conventional plant (Figure 6).

The yield results from the small plot tri-als did not replicate the results from the commercial harvest, in that the Sicot 71B yielded, on average, seven per cent better than the Sicot 71. In all trials the damage treatment reduced the yield on average by 13 per cent in both the conventional and Bollgard II variety (Table 4).

This was principally due to 11 per cent fewer bolls in the Bollgard II and nine per cent fewer in the conventional. There was

46 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

FIGURE 3: Relative yield of Sicot 71 and Sicot 71B in five trials over three seasons compared to the day degree accumulation from 15 January to 31 March relative to the long term average for that region

FIGURE 4: Damage was inflicted by removing the top three nodes of the plant around squaring

FIGURE 2: istribution of bolls on Sicot 71B and Sicot 71 in the same trial fields – average of two crops, Goondiwindi 2009 and Talwood 2009

SICOT 71BMainstem first position retention 68%Proportion of total fruit first position main stem 71%

Proportion of fruit on vegetative branches 9%

SICOT 71Mainstem first position retention 34%Proportion of total fruit first position main stem 36%

Proportion of fruit on vegetative branches 35%

Note ‘Veg’ means fruit on vegetative branches, ‘FP’ means the fruiting branch on the main stem, ‘1st pos’ means first position fruit, ‘2nd pos+’ means second, third or fourth position fruit.

little or no impact on boll weight. The dam-age treatment resulted in lower micronaire in both varieties – probably due to delaying the maturity of bolls to a cooler part of the season. Strength was also reduced in both varieties, possibly a product of the lower micronaire (Table 5).

CONCLUSIONExperience across the Australian cot-

ton industry since the introduction of Boll-gard II varieties has shown similar yields between both technologies. This suggests the insect control being achieved by those using conventional cotton is good and the best varieties available in both technolo-gies have similar yield potentials.

Over the past seven years as Bollgard II and Roundup Ready varieties have be-come the major component of the na-tional crop, growers have been able to put more effort into other parts of their crop management as weed and insect control has become simpler. This has meant more intense monitoring and reactive manage-ment to things such as irrigation timing, crop nutrition and plant growth manage-ment with the challenge being extracting the most yield out of Bollgard II by provid-ing what the crop needs right to the end of boll-fill – thus increasing the likelihood

of producing good fruit right to the top of the plant.

These concepts were covered in detail in an article in the Oct–Nov 2010 Austral-ian Cottongrower where we illustrated that each additional 10 bolls per metre equated to one bale per hectare extra yield. In Bollgard II crops, where first posi-tion retention is generally good, these ex-tra bolls were generally placed on second and third positions as well as on vegetative branches – fruit that is usually set in the later part of the season.

The results of the experiments in this small study suggest that creating more branching in Bollgard II by inflicting heavy early season damage did not, on its own, increase Bollgard II yields in the full season regions on the Queensland/NSW border. Despite the fact the damage created more branching, it reduced boll numbers and ul-timately reduced yield.

Regardless of whether a crop is Boll-gard II or not, increasing boll numbers will ultimately improve lint yield. In some seasons, the high retention main-stem dominant Bollgard II crops will be an ad-vantage while the later-maturing branched conventional crops may be better suited to other years. In either case, it’s a matter of

managing crops on their merit – providing what they need when they need it.

Reference: Kelly D, Quinn J, Marshall J, Eveleigh R, and Ford B (2010) Managing for high yields – experiences from the past six years. The Australian Cottongrower. 31:6 pp37-41.

Thanks to Glen Smith, Mick Freeman and Anthony Morgan from Smith Brothers Ag for their ongoing support of the CSD variety trial program. Thanks to Dr Warwick Stiller, CSIRO plant industry for providing statistical analysis and guidance for this research.

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 47

FIGURE 6: Treatments from the small plot trial at harvest. Bollgard II with damage (left), Bollgard II without damage (centre) and conventional without imposed damage (right)

FIGURE 5: Damaged (top) and undamaged (bottom) Bollgard II two weeks after damaged was applied

TABLE 4: Mean lint yields (bales/ha) for all three trialsSicot 71 Sicot 71B

Nil Damage Nil DamageAverage of 5 trials 15.67 14.08 16.69 14.44 Treatment P<0.01

Treatment x variety nsns indicates a non-significant difference P<0.01 indicates a significant difference (99% probability)

TABLE 5: Mean lint yields (bales/ha), boll ststistics and fibre quality for all three trials

Sicot 71 Sicot 71BNil Damage Nil Damage

Turnout (%) 46.09 45.96 44.83 45.40 F pr Treatment ns F pr Treatment x variety ns

Boll numbers 139.2 126.6 162.8 145.1 F pr Treatment P<0.01 F pr Treatment x variety ns

Boll weight (g lint)

2.55 2.53 2.33 2.25 F pr Treatment ns F pr Treatment x variety ns

Staple Length (inch)

1.20 1.21 1.22 1.22 F pr Treatment ns F pr Treatment x variety ns

Strength (g/tex)

31.4 32.0 30.4 31.4 F pr Treatment P<0.05 F pr Treatment x variety ns

Micronaire 4.44 4.37 4.39 4.14 F pr Treatment P<0.05 F pr Treatment x variety ns

ns indicates a non-significant difference P<0.05 and P<0.01 indicates a significant difference (95% and 99% probability respectively)

TABLE 3: Average boll weight from Sicot 71 and Sicot 71B from three trials in the 2010 and 2011 seasons

Sicot 71 Sicot 71BBoll weight (g/lint per boll) 2.59 2.36 F pr <0.001

Welcome to this edition of Ger-minating Ideas. In it, we look at the season just past and the

performance of CSD varieties across the growing regions.

This last season saw many weather ex-tremes that led to a great variation in yields and quality between regions and within regions. The continuous flooding events that occurred throughout Queensland and NSW between December and Febru-ary impacted yield and also caused many

crops to be very late with some growers still to harvest crops in late July.

In general the western regions of Balo-nne, Walgett and Bourke saw above aver-age yield and quality with a relatively warm dry finish to the season which was condu-cive for making yield. The Macquarie also had a reasonable finish after major flood-ing in December. Rainfall post New Year was below average while temperatures were good for boll development.

Last season saw the introduction of

a number of new varieties namely Si-cot 74BRF, Sicala 340BRF and Siokra 24BRF. Due to the limited seed available of Sicot 74BRF and Siokra 24BRF, these varieties were placed in a ballot so that all regions had the opportunity to have a look at them.

CSD carried out a comprehensive trial program that stretched from the Burdekin in the north to Menindee in southern NSW that incorporated both variety trialling and segmented picking to analyse the per-formance of the new varieties up against the mainstay variety Sicot 71BRF.

Over two seasons CSD’s Extension and Development team has analysed the performance of Sicot 74BRF, which has shown a substantial yield increase of around three per cent over Sicot 71BRF in the variety trials.

Sicot 74BRF has a higher turnout than Sicot 71 BRF of 2.6 per cent, slightly longer length, better strength but slightly higher micronaire (Table 1).

The fit for this variety is widespread but the northern valleys show a larger yield difference in favour of Sicot 74BRF of four per cent. In saying this, we have seen strong trial results from Sicot 74BRF in every valley apart from the Murrumbidgee this season.

If we look at the segmented picking data from the two varieties, we start to get an understanding of where the extra yield is with Sicot 74BRF versus Sicot 71BRF and why the variety has a better fit in the north.

NORTHERN vALLEYSIn the northern valleys, Sicot 74BRF

shows a two per cent improvement in boll numbers, an 11 per cent improvement in boll lint weight and a three per cent higher turnout over Sicot 71BRF, all equating to an overall yield improvement of 15 per cent (Table 2).

In the southern valleys the yield advan-tage of Sicot 74BRF is much smaller. Boll lint weight for Sicot 74BRF is eight per

48 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

GerminatingideasBy CSD Extension and Development 

Team

TABLE 1: Comparative performance of Sicot 71BRF–Sicot 74BRF in 52 CSD trials over two seasons across all regions.

Sicot 74BRF Sicot 71BRF DifferenceYield (bales/ha) 10.84 10.53 + 2.86%Yield (bales/ac) 4.39 4.26Turnout 41.2% 38.6% + 2.6%Length decimal 1.22 1.21 + 0.01Length imperial 39 39Strength 31.5 30.9 + 0.6 g/texMicronaire 4.3 4.2 –0.1

TABLE 2: Segmented picking data for Sicot 74BRF and Sicot 71BRF from all growing regions (17 Trials)

NORTHERN vALLEYS Sicot 74BRF Sicot 71BRF DifferenceBolls/m 127 124 +2%Boll weight 2.32g 2.08g +11%Turnout 46.2% 43.1% +3%Yield 115% 100% +15%

SOUTHERN vALLEYS Sicot 74BRF Sicot 71BRF DifferenceBolls/m 159 169 –6%Boll weight 2.22g 2.05g +8%Turnout 46.3% 44.2% +2%Yield 101% 100% +1%

TABLE 3: Sicot 74BRF versus Sicot 71BRF in the 2011 CSD Trials for Hillston and the Murrumbidgee Sicot 74BRF

Yield (bales/haSicala 71BRF

Yield (bales/ha Difference

%Hillston (2) 11.76 11.39 3.2%Murrumbidgee (2) 8.51 8.92 4.6%

cent higher while turnout is two per cent higher, but there are on average less bolls per metre than for Sicot 71BRF – resulting in the two varieties being much closer in yield than in the north.

The reason for the difference in boll numbers for Sicot 74BRF crops growing in northern and southern valleys is related to where the yield is placed on the plant.

In the northern valleys the yield from early set fruit, marked by a blue line (Fig-ure 1) between fruiting branches one and eight represents 4.9 bales per hectare in Sicot 71BRF while in the Sicot 74BRF it is slightly behind, at 4.6 bales per hectare. In yields from late set fruit from fruiting branch nine upwards (red marked area) Si-cot 74BRF has 4.0 bales per hectare while Sicot 71 BRF is a bale to the hectare less at 2.9 bales per hectare.

It is from this region of the plant that the extra yield comes from in Sicot 74BRF. By developing nodes nine to 13+, more bolls per metre are created that are typically heavier than Sicot 71BRF’s. There is also more yield to be gained through the de-velopment of bolls on vegetative branches.

SOUTHERN vALLEYSIn the southern valleys the same pattern

arises with early fruit and late fruit for Sicot 71BRF and Sicot 74BRF, but the main is-sue for Sicot 74BRF in the south is that fewer bolls are being set early on, com-pared to Sicot 71BRF. If there was time to develop nodes nine to 13+, a yield ad-vantage would come from Sicot 74BRF, but the issue in the south is whether there is enough growing season to develop this top fruit as well as the late vegetative fruit.

We see a good example of this in this year’s two CSD trials at Hillston (Table 3) where, although cooler than previous sea-sons, Sicot 74BRF was able to develop both the top and vegetative fruit sufficiently to out yield Sicot 71BRF. When we move further south to the Murrumbidgee, with a reduced season length, the Sicot 74BRF can’t finish off those top fruiting branches.

Furthermore, late maturing fruit de-veloping in cooler months tends to have lower micronaire which can produce a quality issue in southern NSW.

A good example of this is with Sicot 74BRF in the Hillston trial this season. Al-though the yields were good in the trial, micronaire values from later developing bolls at second position or wider as well as vegetative and top fruit were bordering on the penalty range, dropping the overall micronaire (Figure 2).

Sicala 340 BRF has been trialled against Sicot 71BRF in 37 trials over two seasons

now with varying degrees of success. Typi-cally it is around five to six per cent behind in yield (Table 4).

Where Sicala 340BRF has its major advantage is in fibre quality, with an aver-age two grade advantage in fibre length,

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 49

TABLE 4: Sicala 340BRF versus Sicot 71BRF in 37 irrigated CSD trials over two seasons Sicot 71BRF Sicala 340BRF DifferenceYield (bales/ha) 10.48 9.89 – 5.6%Yield (bales/ac) 4.24 4.00 Turnout 38.5% 38.5% 0Length decimal 1.21 1.26 +0.05Length imperial 39 41 1Strength 31.1 32.8 –1.67Micronaire 4.2 4.1 –0.1

FIGURE 1: where the yield develops for Sicot 74BRF and Sicot 71BRF in northern and southern growing regions

NORTHERN vALLEYS

SOUTHERN vALLEYS

nearly 2.0 g/tex higher strength and 0.1 lower micronaire when compared with Si-cot 71BRF.

While yielding lower some growers have taken the opportunity to market this vari-ety slightly different to other upland varie-ties and have received premiums for this. Another niche for the variety in irrigated situations comes from the fact that it is the highest F.rank variety commercially avail-able, with a value of 130 (10).

In dryland trials over the past two sea-sons, Sicala 340BRF has been very com-petitive against Sicot 71BRF in yield, and has outshone it in fibre quality (Table 5).

The benefit of this variety in dryland production systems is the extra fibre length that protects it from length penalties, with-out incurring much yield penalty.

Siokra 24BRF was the third new vari-ety that was distributed last season. This variety had a tough first season in terms of performance mainly due to the weather extremes that existed and being a strong indeterminate variety, management had to be precise to get the best yields. This season Sicot 71BRF has out yielded Siokra 24BRF by five to six per cent from 15 irrigated CSD trials, but the variety has continued to show strong perform-ances in central Queensland where it has out yielded both Sicot 71BRF and Sicot 74BRF over the last two years (Table 6).

From a dryland perspective, Siokra 24BRF, like many other dryland varieties this season suffered through the extremes of weather in January and February. Overall the variety has been down six to seven per cent on yield compared to Sicot 71BRF from 15 CSD dryland trials over two years (Table 7).

There will be very small quantities of a number of new varieties available from CSD in conventional, Bollgard II Roundup Ready Flex and Bollgard Liberty Link in 2011–12.

Sicot 75BRF is a new full season Boll-gard II Roundup Ready variety that is simi-lar in yield to Sicot 71BRF, based on data from 36 CSIRO research trials over three seasons. It has longer fibre length than Sicot 71BRF, similar strength and slightly higher micronaire.

One of the major benefits of this vari-ety is its high F.rank of 142 (3). Although only a very small quantity of this variety is out in growers fields this season, data from these sites will assist in assessing its future in the fight against Fusarium. It will receive a comprehensive evaluation across all growing regions in CSD trials in both dryland and irrigated situations.

CSX 2250 BL is a new full season Boll-gard II Liberty Link variety that is five per

cent higher in yield then Sicot 70BL. It has slightly longer length, the same strength and is 0.3 higher in micronaire than Sicot 70BL. This variety has only been evalu-ated in one Fusarium trial this season and from this a F.rank of 128 (1) was recorded.

CSX9238 is a new conventional vari-ety that has a four per cent yield increase over Sicot 71. It has better length, strength and lower micronaire and is suited to the full season areas. It has a good F.rank of 112(5) and will be available in small quanti-ties this season (Table 8).

For further information in relation to any of the new or current commercial varieties please contact your local CSD Extension and Development Agronomist or visit the web site www.csd.net.au

50 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

FIGURE 2: Micronaire values from segmented picking data for Sicot 74BRF in the 2011 variety trial at Hillston

TABLE 5: Sicot 340BRF versus Sicot 71BRF performance in 18 CSD dryland trials over two seasons

Sicot 71BRF Sicala 340BRF DifferenceYield (bales/ha) 3.98 3.84 -3.5%Yield (bales/ac) 1.61 1.55Turnout 38.6% 38.7% +0.1Length decimal 1.19 1.23 +0.04Length imperial 38 39 +1Strength 32.6 34.7 +2.1Micronaire 4.4 4.4

TABLE 6: Siokra 24BRF versus Sicot 71BRF in 15 CSD irrigated trials over two years

Sicot 71BRF Siokra 24BRF DifferenceYield (bales/ha) 10.02 9.44 –5.8%Yield (bales/ac) 4.06 3.82Turnout 38.7% 37.0% –1.7Length decimal 1.20 1.23 +0.03Length imperial 38 39 –1Strength 31.0 30.8 –0.2Micronaire 4.2 4.1 –0.1

TABLE 7: Siokra 24BRF versus Sicot 71BRF performance in 15 dryland trials over two years

Sicot 71BRF Siokra 24BRF DifferenceYield (bales/ha) 3.33 3.11 –6.6%Yield (bales/ac) 1.35 1.26Turnout 38.6% 37.1% –1.5Length decimal 1.18 1.18Length imperial 38 38Strength 32.7 32.2 –0.5Micronaire 4.5 4.5

TABLE 8: CSx9238 versus Sicot 71 in 12 CSIRO trials over three seasons.

Rel yield % LEN STR MIC F.rankCSX9238 104 1.22 33.0 4.0 112 (5)Sicot 71 100 1.18 32.0 4.2 104 (22)

Valmont Irrigation, the Leader in Precision Irrigation, has expanded their Valley GPS product line. Val-

ley GPS Guidance for corners and linear irrigation equipment is now compatible with both John Deere Starfire and Trimble GPS products.

“We have been very pleased by the pop-ularity of Valley GPS Guidance for corners and linear irrigation equipment” said Scott Mauseth, Valmont Irrigation Advanced Technology Product Manager. “Being compatible with both John Deere GPS and Trimble GPS base stations means even more growers can take advantage of the Valley GPS Guidance for their ir-rigation equipment. Compatibility with the GPS systems growers already use on their tractors and combines significantly lowers the costs associated with implementing GPS Guidance for their irrigation equip-ment.”

Kurt Dunker, who farms corn and soy-beans, started using Trimble RTK Guid-ance on his farm four years ago. Though he has been a longtime user of Valley irri-gation machines, until this year he was not able to use his existing Trimble RTK GPS

base station with Valley GPS Guidance on his irrigation equipment.

“We have had really good luck with Trimble, and once you start with a GPS company, you don’t want to switch,” Kurt said. “We’re eager to use the Valley RTK GPS Guidance with Trimble this year on a new machine with a corner arm, and we’re considering future installation on ex-isting irrigation equipment.”

Kurt explained that the compatibility with Trimble GPS base stations will make conversions from buried wire to Valley GPS Guidance easier, as it doesn’t require the same labor and maintenance as bur-ied wire. Kurt said another advantage of GPS Guidance is that he can install a cor-ner machine on rented ground without the commitment of a buried wire.

Scott added that the Valley GPS Guid-ance options provide growers opportu-nities to put more acreage into irrigated production.

“What we’re seeing lately is the desire to get every acre into irrigated production. In some fields, using the conventional buried wire is just not possible due to sub-surface rock, drain tile, underground pipelines and

so on,” Scott said. “Valley GPS Guidance solves all of these issues.”

Scott added that supplying GPS Guid-ance products to the market is no trivial task. “GPS is still a rapidly evolving tech-nology. Our dedicated Valmont Irrigation engineers and industry leading GPS part-ners allow us to confidently provide GPS Guidance solutions to the market and will let us continue to provide GPS solutions to growers well into the future.

For more information about GPS of-ferings with Valmont Irrigation, producers can contact their local Valley dealers.

The Valley brand is recognized world-wide as the leader in sales, service, quality and innovation, and has been recognized as such since Valmont founded the mecha-nized irrigation industry in 1954.

With historical sales of more than 175,000 center pivots and linears, Val-mont-built equipment annually irrigates approximately 17 million acres (6.9 mil-lion hectares) around the world. The Ne-braska-based company remains dedicated to providing innovative solutions now and well into the future.

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 51

news & new products

Irrigation GPS compatibility expanded

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Central QueenslandIn Central Queensland, cotton picking is still on going

and could be until early September. It is not too often you have picking and planting in the same month. Given the standard planting window opens on September 15, this has certainly brought on some strong discussion about when to start.

Yileds have not improved with time. Waterlogging, low light conditions and of course lots of rainfall took its toll on yields and quality. Non-flooded irrigated cotton yields are expected to average around 6.6 bales per hectare (2.7 bales per acre), although ginning is still continuing.

This cotton also has had lots of quality down grades resulting in high discounts somewhere around $50 per bale (with some individual farms averaging more than $80 per bale discounts). Some of the later cotton quality has been quite good and bucked the trend.

Dryland yields and quality were generally very good and many growers are looking forward to another opportunity next season.

There has been a large variation in yields from flooded cotton that was able to be grown out. As an example cotton reduced to sticks with no fruit or leaves in mid January has yielded more than five bales per hectare. Of course this wasn’t the case in all instances and for some, recovery has been disappointingly limited.

The response of crops to flooding has been monitored in a CRDC funded project conducted by Jamie Iker, with support from Stephen Yeates, Paul Grundy and Greg Kauter. Once yields and quality have been finalised this work will be communicated more widely.

Preparation is well underway for the coming season with planting areas expected to go close to last season, although this will depend on timely rainfall for dryland growers and also whether growers who are still picking in September are able to turn their country around.

Susan Maas August 3, 2011

St George Dirranbandi

The Dirranbandi, St George and Thallon areas have now settled into a rhythmic pace of working fields and applying fertiliser with the cotton gins in the area slowly churning through the large number of round bales that are in the gin yards and fields. Considering the last full season was back in 2001 it’s a nice problem to have.

The winter months have been extremely dry with very little rainfall having been received in the past couple of months – or for that matter very little since the New Year began. Due to the floods on the Downs everyone is pretty much at full capacity which will once again ensure a full plant across the three areas.

If no rain is received in the next month, growers will expect to use a reasonable amount of water to pre-irrigate and water-up with. Considering how dry the country is, expectations would be for close to 1.2 to 1.5 megalitres per hectare. Trash remains an issue for most growers as a lack of rainfall has meant less biological action within the soil. Planting and germination issues could be challenging this season.

Cotton Bunchy Top certainly remains an issue for all areas and the majority of growers have been vigilant in ensuring the destruction of volunteer and ratoon plants in and around fields. But as with most diseases ‘preven-tion is better than cure.’

Overall even though it has been quite dry it has al-lowed for better ground prep than last winter though the Big N debacle has certainly made fertilising more difficult. At this stage I would expect quite a few growers will begin planting around late September as has been the case in the past.

Another season is just around the corner!Dallas king 

August 9, 2011

52 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

District Reportsare proudly supported by

Border RiversWhile the last of the picking was completed in early

July, ginning the local crop continues and will do so for a while yet.

The winter has been quite cool and dry, slowing the progress of winter crops and not been helpful for filling dryland fallows ahead of the 2011 plant. To put this into perspective, March–July rainfall for Goondiwindi has been about 200 mm – just slightly below the long-term average for this period. But the last individual event greater than 15 mm occurred in the middle of April – meaning much of this total came from smaller falls.

The dry weather has allowed a relatively uninter-rupted preparation of irrigation fields – most of which will be planted to back-to-back cotton in 2011, but some rainfall would be useful to break down some clods and consolidate beds. Early indications suggest irrigated areas for 2011–12 will be slightly higher than last sea-son and dryland areas the same or more.

Most of the irrigated area is in a better state of prepa-ration than 2010 despite more back-to-cotton and a later harvest. This is due to better water certainty and the dry winter. Without some rainfall before planting time, many seedbeds may be quite cloddy. The increase in irrigated area will come about from a few more fields within the irrigation farms around Goondiwindi and Mungindi plus several new growers around Texas and Bonshaw growing under pivots.

The dryland prospects will obviously depend on price and moisture over the next two to three months. While $500 per bale is historically a very good price, it is slightly less exciting than $700-plus per bale be-ing achieved by some growers in 2010–11. The dry conditions for most of 2011 means long fallows will need some effective rain to be ready for planting. There are many growers who grew a lot of dryland cotton in 2010–11 and will plant less in 2011–12 because they don’t have country available. There are some new grow-ers who will grow dryland cotton for the first time.

During July , around 180 people attended the annual Macintye Valley cotton awards dinner to celebrate the end of a great season for the district.

Nigel and Vanessa Corish, ‘Yambocully’, took the Land-mark Irrigated Crop of the year with an impressive yield of 13.4 bales per hectare and the Namoi Cotton Farm of the Year – which scores them an automatic nomination to the 2012 National Cotton Farm of the Year.

Angus and Sandy Wilson picked up the Total Ag Dry-land Crop of the Year with 3.7 bales per hectare.

Service to the industry was awarded to Mike Masters from Aircair Aviation and the Patricia Coulton Memo-rial Award for the industry quiet achiever was given to Barry Goodfellow who has been delivering Big N from Boggabilla for many years.

David kelly July 28, 2011

districtreports

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 53

KIMBERLEY FISHING ADVENTURE

October 5 to 12, 2011This sensational trip is not only a fishing enthusiast’s paradise but the chance to take in some of the truly

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Depart Derby, WA aboard the Kimberley Xplorer on the morning of Wednesday, October 5, 2011. We will then fish and explore our way up the West Kimberley Coast over the next 6 days ending up at the

Isdell Gorge which is part of the Walcott Inlet. On day eight in the Isdell Gorge we will be picked up by a Bell

Jetranger helicopter which will transfer us to Mt Hart Station with the possibility of some heli-fishing on the way. From Mt Hart we

catch a fixed wing flight back to Broome (Wednesday, October 12) in time for any evening flights to Perth.

The cost is $5850 The cost includes all meals and soft drinks on board plus helicopter

and fixed wing flights. It does not include any domestic flights or overnight accommodation.

If you are interested in this trip of a lifetime please call Lloyd or Mick at Greenmount Travel

on 07 4659 3555 for more information

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Darling DownsFinally the 2011 pick has been completed and, un-

believably, it has extended into August. At a time when most growers should have had their nitrogen down and ground prepared for the coming season, many are still slashing, root cutting and pupae busting. The permit provided by the APVMA to allow the Resistance Man-agement Plan pupae busting period to be extended Au-gust 31 for the Darling Downs was extremely welcome. It will give growers the time needed, not only to fully meet their obligations under the RMP, but also give them the opportunity to control regrowth and prepare their ground under much more desirable soil conditions.

Yields have been as bad or as good as expected, de-pending on how you want to look at it. On average most of the irrigated crop yielded between 5.0 and 8.0 bales per hectare (2.0–3.0 bales per acre) while dryland crops yielded between 1.2 to 3.6 bales per hectare (0.5 to 1.5 bales per acre). Compared to a ‘normal’ season it has been extremely disappointing, even when you take into consideration the devastating weather conditions the crop experienced through the main growing period.

On the positive side, quality has been very good with most crops at least making base grade. Even more pleas-ing was that many crops, in particular the earlier crops, had premium colour, which was surprising considering the rain interruptions during this period. The quality did decline in some of the very late crops. Short staple length and low micronaire were both negatively impacted. This can be attributed to severe frosts the crops experienced at the end of the growing season as many crops still had immature bolls. Trash levels also increased significantly resulting in downgrades.

A recent major a highlight was the ‘Moving On’ grower meeting held in Cecil Plains. Organised by the Darling Downs Cotton Growers Inc, the evening was supported by the Department of Employment, Economic Devel-opment and Innovation (DEEDI), Philp Brodie Grains and NAB. Well over 120 growers and guests were en-tertained by Rupert MaCall (Bush poet), Maree Keating (Positive Futures), Dennis Hoiberg (Lessons Learnt) and Greg Noonan (NAB Financial Outlook Specialist).

Given the disastrous season experienced by the farm-ing community this year, the evening provided a wel-come break and the opportunity for the community to come together and enjoy a free social evening. Along with the great entertainment and informative presen-tations a wonderful meal was provided by the local Li-ons Club. All those involved in the event’s organisation must be congratulated as it was a wonderfully successful evening.

Duncan weir August 12, 2011

Gwydir ValleyAfter a long drawn out pick in the Gwydir Valley I

am happy to say that the last of the cotton should be harvested by now. There are a few refuge areas still out there but these do not make up significant area. Gin-ning on the other hand is set to continue for many more weeks as more modules arrive as soon as space is made available on the pad.

Average yields are down on previous seasons within the Gwydir, with seasonal conditions such as the cooler start being a major contributing factor in this decline. Quality has been mixed with leaf and a bit of spotting being seen in some samples as the season progressed.

Ground preparation and fertilising is in full swing. We have been lucky that the weather has enabled growers to have a good crack at turning country around in prepara-tion for the coming season. For many this will be the first season in quite a while where fields will go back to back into cotton.

Initial estimates of the size of the Gwydir crop for the coming season are between 60–70,000 hectares irri-gated with the dryland area to decrease from last sea-son’s high. A figure for this area is quite speculative and will depend on planting rainfall in the spring.

James Quinn August 4, 2011

Namoi ValleyThe 2011–12 season is about to begin but the 2010–

11 season isn’t over yet. Although picking has been completed, ginning will continue for at least another few months at some locations. We won’t know the fi-nal yields for a while yet but it has been a very average year for growers upstream of Wee Waa. Western grow-ers have generally had a good year despite the tough season. Dryland yields have been well below average although some good yields were obtained in the upper Namoi despite the very dry finish.

As for the coming season it has been a cold dry win-ter so far. Most of the valley has had enough rain to establish winter crops, but they are now in need of a good soaking to boost the yield potential. Some of the western areas did not get enough rain to plant winter crop despite good subsoil moisture. Some of this area will now be fallowed through to summer crop.

Preparation for planting one of our largest ever cot-ton crops is well underway. The dry weather has allowed ground preparation to progress without interruption. Dryland fallows generally have good subsoil moisture but will require 40 to 50 mm of rain in October to enable planting. Overall I expect about 68,000 hectares of ir-rigated cotton to be planted and up to 45,000 hectares of dryland cotton could sown in the Namoi valley.

Surface water supplies are quite good in the Namoi. Keepit is full but Split rock remains at just over 20 per

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54 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

cent capacity. This will enable most growers to plant and water their normal area. Farm storages on the Barwon are in good shape but growers would like to see fur-ther flows to top them up. Increases in the cotton area planted in the upper Namoi are significant. It will be the largest ever cotton crop in the upper Namoi.

As in the past few seasons, most of the crop will be planted using BRF technology. Sicot 74BRF will make up most of the area in the lower Namoi and a significant portion of the upper Namoi, along with Sicot 71BRF.

Cash prices for this year’s crop have declined signifi-cantly from the highs of last year but remain OK com-pared to the average of the previous five years. Many growers have sold forward some crop at very good prices and hope for a few more price spikes during the season. Our very high dollar is holding prices back.

Overall the coming season looks promising. If the ex-pected area of dryland is planted and has a good season the Namoi valley will produce a record crop.

Robert Eveleigh August 1, 2011

Macquarie ValleyWhen the rain shuts off, it really does shut off. This

winter has been extremely dry and the weather progno-sis looks mixed for the chance of rain in the short term. It has also been a cold winter with some extreme frosts and cold winds that have added to the dry conditions. Hopefully, by the time of reading this, some useful rain will have been received to keep winter crops growing.

Burrendong Dam is approaching 91 per cent of ca-pacity. This time last year it was at just 19 per cent. There will be some substantial water releases over the next few months from Burrendong Dam for the Mac-quarie Marshes. Windamere Dam near Mudgee is close to 46 per cent. The current general security water al-location is 27 per cent with full access to carryover from last season. High security licences will get 100 per cent.

Land preparation is in full swing for the coming cot-

ton crop with fertiliser now being applied as fields are being prepared. Weed control in fallows has been good with the dry weather.

The local gins are continuing to run to gin the mod-ules and round bales that have come up from the Lach-lan and Murrumbidgee regions.

The cotton area is predicted to be as high as 45,000 hectares and it will include some proposed dryland ar-eas. This will be the biggest area for several years and it will test the current infrastructure in the region. The biggest increase in area will be in the lower Macquarie downstream from Warren. Growers who have not planted cotton for a while and many new growers are going through the accreditation process to be ready to grow Bollgard II and Roundup Ready Flex cotton in the spring.

Most winter crops are looking for a decent soaking with rain. Weed control has been put on hold until some rain has been received and the frosts ease up.

The Macquarie Cotton Growers Association has been busy and have organised a farm OH&S workshop and a grant application writing session in August. The grower awards dinner will be in Dubbo at the Lazy River Estate of Friday, August 19, 2011.

Craig McDonald July 27, 2011

Southern NSWPicking has finally all but finished. Overall we were

very lucky in terms of rain with only minimal rain delays occurring. Yields will be generally down as previously discussed due to a combination of cold temperatures throughout the season, high rainfall including localised flooding, and cloud throughout January. But final results will not be known until perhaps December due to the large area of cotton and the fact that a large proportion has had to be transported to the Macquarie Valley for ginning.

There was a Cotton Marketing Day held on July 14

districtreports

AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER — 55

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provided by Cotton Australia for the growers of southern NSW. The session was delivered by Pete Johnson and Rob Imray and was well attended with 44 participants including current growers and prospective growers. The information was well presented and very well received.

Cotton Australia held their board meeting at Griffith on July 28 and took the opportunity to catch up with the growers involved in the construction of the new gin and also took time out for a site inspection and a dinner with local industry.

On July 29 the first Southern NSW Cotton Expo was held with over 220 people attending. The day was held at Westend Estate, Griffith. The trade show consisted of talks based on the cotton industry’s development and delivery teams targets of Nutrition, Disease, IPM and Weeds.

In addition there was a grower panel for existing and prospective growers to glean information from about growing the crop. A major part of the day was the trade show area held in a marquee. There were 25 exhibitors inside the venue and another four outside. An important part of the day was the display of a JD Bale Picker pro-vided by the Stott Family.

The picker was used as a practical demonstration of come-clean-go-clean with Susan Maas (D&D team, Em-erald) and Linda Smith (NSW DPI). I would also like to thank Kieran O’Keefe (DA for Coleambally) for his hard work in making the Expo such a success. I would also once again like to thank all of the sponsors for support-ing this event.

The Lachlan and Murrumbidgee CGA held their din-ner on the evening July 29 after the Expo. The dinner

was attended by 180 guests and was a fantastic night thanks to the work of the dinner committee consisting of Leeann Commins, Morgan Dwyer, Liz Watson, Pip Sulli-van and Stacey Storrier. The Storrier family received the crop competition award which was presented for earliest crop to mature and yield over 12 bales per hectare. The other award on the night for the Southern NSW Cotton Industry Service to Industry award in memory of Greg Toole went to James Hill.

Currently most growers are preparing for next sea-son, which is shaping up to be large both in terms of area and number of growers. The increase is obviously due to the water allocations yet also due to the relatively good prices for cotton compared to other summer crop options and the fact that there are less contracts available this season for some of the alternative summer crops.

James Hill August 2, 2011

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56 — THE AUSTRALIAN COTTONGROWER AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2011

ANSWER TO IAN’S MYSTERY TRACTOR QUIZ

The tractor is a Turner, manufactured in Wolverhampton in the UK in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It featured a 40 hp V4 cylinder diesel engine, originally designed by the legendary Freeman Sanders for powering fishing trawlers. This example has been restored by the author. (Photo: IMJ)

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The first Southern NSW Cotton Expo was held with over 220 people attending.