Consultants Bernie Caffery from the Darling Downs and Liesa Holden from the Macintyre/Gwydir, as well as Rob Eveleigh from the Namoi discuss production issues with this season's dryland crop, and implications for next season.

Bernie, you have had over 20 years experience with dryland cotton on the Downs. How would you rate the severity of the growing conditions most of the Northern Downs has experienced this season?

Well John, we have had dryer seasons but I can’t remember a dryer finish to what was a promising start. 

The crop got off to a pretty good start, good soil moisture and good early rainfall?

Yes, last summer was a good one, rainfall was up. We thought things had turned so we were set with good soil profile, good early growth, good boll set but then we have had no worthwhile rain in the last three months, so from the end of December till about now and unfortunately the crops started to crash in mid January.

Looking out there in the field, how would you rate the performance of the Bollgard® II crops compared with the conventional under these tough finishing conditions?

Its hard to pick any difference at this stage, the Bollgard® was obviously definitely ahead in its fruit set early but the conventional was quickly catching up before we ran out of moisture but its pretty hard to pick there now, picking has only just started so the Bollgards definitely looking OK.

What are you seeing our there in some of these droughted crops, as far as the crop finishing and other aspects?

Obviously as we have been saying, lost the top crop, some very small bolls there, plants stressed out. Definitely concerned about the fibre length and those top bolls and maybe the micronaire and we just hope that there is not too much of it to downgrade the whole sample so, as I said, nothing has been ginned yet and we don’t know. Certainly its reinforced the need in the dryland to have lower plant populations, wider row spacings, anything that was solid has really crashed early.

What sort of yield range are you expecting to see up there at the end of the season because obviously there is a few crops that have gone under worthwhile rain? 

Yes, the Southern Downs has faired better and I believe they are looking at up to 5 bales a hectare. The Northern Downs here where we had potential for a seven or over seven in fact now we might be only looking at over three bales a hectare and some will be in a range down to below two bales a hectare.

You mentioned the management aspects and that type of thing but I guess in a year like this even double skip crops on good starting moisture are going to feel the strain?

Yes, well that is right. Still it wasn’t enough to carry then through so I don’t think we can go anything wider but they, its certainly the way to go unless you have got a very deep soil to at least maybe double skip but certainly its reinforcing the need to have skip row versus solid.

Leisa, what sort of areas were planted to dryland in the Macintyre and Upper Gwydir this year?

Dave, it will be somewhere between the four and five thousand hectares in total and I would say a majority of that area would be planted as double skip or single skip.

And you had a range of planting dates, can you tell us a bit about them?

Early planting dates were basically in the first to second week of October on the early rain and our late plant was basically before, just before the cutoff, so November 10. Yes, so we have had anything that’s basically like the crop that’s behind me finished and defoliated to anything that’s still basically shedding some fruit at the moment.

Give us a bit of a rundown of what the fate was rainfall wise for all of these crops.

Early crops got a lot of rain basically when we were putting a lot of fruit on so crops like this one we had up to 15 inches of rain in November and December so we had a lot of crops that actually got waterlogged quite heavily and then nothing in January/February meant that they actually had a yield limitation from dry which was quite ironic and the late crops since they have been planted on that mid November rain have had a couple of inches of rain and been in the same boat, had no rain since November, end of December.

And what sort of split did you have between Bollgard® and conventional in the dryland?

Nearly all, I would say 90% Bollgard® and we have just got one paddock of conventional, so basically all Bollgard®.

What thoughts have you got on managing Bollgard® in dryland?

I think that with the year that it has been its been a relatively tough year from a moisture point of view so we haven’t had ideal conditions in regards to January rain which can basically set or break a dryland crop. The Bollgard®s from the early reports that we have got has performed relatively well. Its been a lot easier for growers to manage in a mixed cropping situation and if we come home and we can pick a bale out of Bollgard® in a relatively tough season, I think the risks associated with it are probably a lot less than they were in the past with the traditional cotton. So there are some growers that it fits into management and if we are going to hit a break even in a really tough year its probably a little bit more of an opportunity for some growers that don’t have a lot of adversity to risk it going to plant some cotton instead of some sorghum.

This year, what sort of insect control was required on the conventional?

We had a really heavy pressure season early, November/December and the early part of January and then it faded away. We have had up to 11 sprays on some conventional cotton. Which is at the end of the day going to be costly. The Bollgard®s held up really well, we had some high mirid pressure and GVB pressure late season so we have had up to four sprays on some Bollgard® cotton but generally, its been a lot easier the Bollgard® from an insect point of view.

Picking has just started and without the benefit of having ginning results, what’s your thoughts on yields so far?

We have got some Siokra V-16B that is being picked and some Sicot 80B. We have got a block that’s 50-50 Siokra V-16 and Sicot 80B and we have got a yield increase with our Sicot 80B in the preliminary results, we have got about 10% yield increase but anywhere from .8 of a bale to the acre up to 1.4 in some nice heavy country.

And what are growers thinking at the moment in terms of next year given the result they have had with the Bollgard® II in dryland this year?

I think that there will be some growers that won’t grow cotton again next year. But I think that there will be some growers with a price increase depending on what the market does and some good winter rainfall to fill some profiles. I think that we will see some more Bollgard® planted next year in dryland.

Rob can you tell me what stage is the dryland crop at?

Through New South Wales and particularly in the Gwydir and the Namoi and the Upper Namoi the crops are at various stages. They were planted over about a six week window so the earliest of those crops have been defoliated and are being picked and the later crops, particularly the ones down on the Liverpool Plains are probably still some weeks away from defoliation.

Can you tell us how the defoliation has progressed?

The crops have had a pretty hard time, particularly the crops, some of the crops I guess on the soil types that are a little bit less, don’t store as much water and also in areas that have not had as much rain, some of the leaf has been a bit difficult to get off those crops and in some of the crops there has also been some regrowth where we have had a few places where there have been storms and there is a bit of regrowth there and that’s made the defoliation a little bit untidy.

Where they are picking, what have the yields been like?

There is only a small amount being picked so far and there will be a lot more picked over the next week or ten days through Easter. Certainly the early yields have not been staggeringly good, they have been around that ¾ to a bale to a bale to the acre. I think as we move through into picking and after Easter, some of the yields will certainly be over a bale and be picking a little bit better than those earlier crops.

Any fibre quality results back yet?

We have certainly had some early indications of fibre quality and the main issues there tend to be with regard to length. Certainly seeing some early data coming through particularly on single skip crops where the length and they have had a hard time where the length is marginal. It is close to discounts. Other crops are not too bad. Certainly the colour and grade is excellent. Some of the best grades I think people are going to get or have seen for many years.

And what are the prospects then looking like for next season.?

In most of the Namoi and certainly a large part of the Gwydir there has been good rain or there was good rain in December and that occurred after wheat had been harvested. So those fallows are well on the way, they have got pretty good store and moisture in there now, they will need a top up over the winter and I guess with the MET Bureau predicting a wetter than average winter if we got anything like that most of those fallows would be in pretty good order for next season.

Further Information:  Robert Eveleigh, John Marshall,  Craig McDonald or David Kelly