From Cotton Communications

Premiminary results from harvesting experimental Bollgard®II crops in the Ord region of Western Australia indicate prospects for high yields and minimal Heliothis sprays.

Stephen Yeates from CSIRO Plant Industry in Darwin, who is northern research coordinator for the Cotton CRC, said recently picked cotton should yield about 8.3 bales to the hectare at Kununurra, with good but more variable yields also at Katherine.

Speaking on the CSD weekly Web on Wednesday video, Mr Yeates said “fantastic” was the only way to describe these results.

“Nothing has been sprayed for Lepidopterous or Heliothis this year. Obviously we have had some species to spray, mainly mirids and a little bit of aphid, but no problems with Heliothis thanks to the Bollgard®II,” he said.

In a trial comparing unsprayed conventional cotton and Bollgard®II crops, the former yielded a bale or less per hectare, while the Bollgard® crop exceeded 8 bales/ha, highlighting the benefits of Bollgard® in controlling insects.

He said fibre quality was currently being assessed, but early indications suggested that early planting and a lack of cool weather earlier in the season would be beneficial to fibre quality.

“Most of the crops went in by the middle of March, which was five weeks earlier than in previous years. That’s why we are picking now. We have avoided all harvest rain, and the warm early weather got the crop going before the cool nights came in.

“We are also down the track a long way with the new Sicot 35B, which has been selected for the north. It has a high degree of tolerance to cool nights, and good fibre length.”

He said several research projects were still underway in the north at Katherine, Kununurra, and on Shamrock Station just south of Broome.

New work in 2003 at Katherine involves potassium and its effect on the disease alternaria, which is important there, while at Kununurra research involves studies of virgin soils, which are inherently low in phosphorous. Experiments at Broome involve Bollgard® and Roundup Ready® technology and their environmental impact.

Commercial cotton production was abandoned on the Ord in the early 1970s due to uncontrollable insect problems and unsustainable pest management practices.

The Cotton CRC has been involved in research in northern Australia since 1999. Its aim there is to define if cotton and suitable rotation crops can be grown without adversely impacting on land, the environment and the ecology of the region, on competing land use systems, and on regional community and recreational activities.