Rob Eveleigh and John Marshall, CSD Extension and Development team, discuss the 2005 Dryland planting options for the coming season.

John, I just thought we would get a bit of an update. It’s coming around to dryland cotton planting time or it will be quite shortly. Have you got any comments about what the prospects are in Queensland for dryland cotton at this particular stage?

 The situation in Queensland - obviously the soil moisture profile situations are not particularly good as you know - we had probably the driest summer we have had for a long time, so not much accumulation of moisture there and the June rainfall has been patchy. Some areas did alright from it getting 125 – 150mls but other areas were pretty light on. So overall soil moisture wise, it’s not good. Price wise it’s once again nothing to get excited about, but then it’s always difficult trying to make a decision based on price at this time of the year. So it is probably important for people where dryland cotton is part of their normal rotation, that they certainly go ahead with a proportion but take management steps to alleviate the problems that can occur, particularly from the dry profile side of things.

Do you have any comments regarding varieties for the coming season - firstly in conventional?

Well if you look across the full range now for dryland there is a pretty good coverage across all the technologies. Starting with conventional, certainly for Queensland, you would be looking at Sicot 80 and Siokra 24 for the earlier planting then possibly moving on to Siokra V-16 and Siokra V-18 for slightly later. In the Roundup Readys there is a really good Roundup Ready® variety for dryland now. The Sicot 80RR has very good fibre length. There is a big range in the straight Bollgards for dryland. If we look at the performance in the last couple of years of Sicot 289B and Sicot80B, they have been neck and neck and done very well. There is a new variety with only a limited amount of seed available, Sicala 350B, which has got extremely good fibre quality characteristics for dryland but is back a bit in yield. Also, Siokra V-16B which has been grown for a couple of years and finally a variety Sicot 12B which is ideal for a later planting situation in dryland. In the stack or Bollgard/ Roundup Ready, Sicot 289BR would be the recommendation for an earlier planting and Sicot 60BR for a slightly later situation.

You hinted a little bit about fibre quality there and certainly some merchants are looking at changing the base length for this coming season, which I guess is of particular interest to dryland growers. Have you got any tips or ways growers might be able to make that 36 base grade in most seasons?

Well it certainly is going to be a challenge for Queensland dryland growers, in particular this coming year, if you look at the scenario now that 36 is the base grade. With a dry starting situation, growers have to look at those varieties that have consistently shown the better length in dryland over time. They have got to look at their options as far as row spacing goes, and certainly all the information that we have been seeing is that with Bollgard in particular, there is no reason not to move out to the wider row spacings. The potential is there to still come in with good yields and all the trial data and practical experience has shown the dramatically improved fibre quality coming from the wider spacing - the single skips, double skips or the wider single row spacings. So I guess that’s the two key things - the variety choice, and the row spacing. The other thing is to spread your planting time a bit. Obviously that is difficult for a dryland grower but coming into a season like this, it widens your prospects. Plant a proportion early and then use some of the quicker maturing varieties whether they be Bollgard or Roundup Ready later in the season.

Rob, in the New South Wales situation what are the prospects for dryland for this season coming up?

Well, John I guess there is a contrast to Queensland, the prospects as far as starting soil moisture being very good in New South Wales. We had a reasonably wet early part of the summer, in fact quite heavy rain during the November/December period. That filled a lot of profiles coming out of winter cereals, those fallows that normally dryland cotton is planted into and then we have had further top up rain, in fact one of the wettest winters for many decades and that’s topped up those profiles almost completely. We have continued to have follow up rain so basically in most situations the fallows are completely full. So much so that in some parts of the New South Wales, particularly west of Moree, a lot of growers did not get winter crop planted and a lot of that area has been earmarked for dryland cotton. So we are going to see quite a large resurgence of dryland cotton planted particularly on the western edge of the normal production areas and a reasonable amount go in under good conditions in the rest of the valleys.

Any comments on variety selection for the coming season?

Well, I think we are at a stage now where we have got varieties for almost every situation. We certainly recommend for people that are growing conventional cotton Siokra 24, it now being a mainstream variety for that particular niche and Sicot 80 has performed well along with V-16 so we have got a good mix of conventional varieties. In Roundup Ready’s we have got some specific dryland varieties. There is Siokra V-16RR which has been developed for the dryland industry and along with that, the launch of Sicot 80RR so we have got those particular options covered well for growers. In the Bollgard’s also we have got a good choice available. We have the V-16B which has performed well in New South Wales along with Sicot 80B and we also have the new one that John mentioned, the Sicala 350B. It is really a high quality line and quite suited to dryland production and should minimise any discounts. In stack products we have Sicot 289BR which has performed quite well and along with Sicala 60BR for the eastern areas, those areas on the Liverpool Plains and the eastern side of the highway where it should perform quite well, particularly with a later plant.

Now, CSD has got some dryland grower meetings coming up later this month. Can you just outline those a bit more?

Yes, John. The meetings will be held through most of the main production areas and the first meeting will be at Gunnedah on August 30th at the Gunnedah Services Club. It starts at 4pm. We have got a meeting at Moree, the next day Wednesday, at the Moree Golf Club at 10am. Later that afternoon at Goondiwindi, Wednesday the 31st we have a meeting at the Rugby League Club starting at 4pm and finally our meeting at Dalby is on the 1st September and will be held in Cotton House, starting at 10am. The meetings will really look at all aspects of dryland cotton production. We will be certainly having an update on breeding, also be looking at managing Bollgard II in dryland because there are some factors that are different there. We will also highlight some of the factors that John talked about earlier in achieving base grade quality in dryland which is particularly important now that the bar has been lifted somewhat.. Also marketing considerations, and I guess considering the low price that cotton is at the moment, we might look at ways growers can maybe capitalise, or not capitalise on that.. We will also go through our normal variety recommendations and trial results.

Dryland Info Tour:

Tuesday August 30 - Gunnedah - Services Club - 4pm 
Wednesday August 31 - Moree - Golf Club - 10am 
Wednesday August 31- Goondiwindi - Rugby League Club - 4pm 
Thursday September 1 - Dalby - CSD Cotton house - 10am

All meetings will be followed by a light meal and refreshments and the opportunity to discuss details with the CSIRO Plant Breeding Team and CSD Extension & Development Agronomists

Topics:
• What’s happening in breeding for dryland cotton?
• Managing Bollgard II® in dryland?
• Achieving base grade quality in dryland
• Marketing considerations for 2005/06 season
• What cotton varieties for dryland this season?

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