Cotton Seed Distributors - Web on Wednesday

Pat McGuiness, CGS Hillston Branch Manager and cotton consultant and Ian Fraser from Goolgowi discuss cotton production on 75cm (30 inch) row spacings.
 
First time cotton growers, Ian and Irene Fraser, planted 115ha of Bollgard II/RR cotton on their farm near Goolgowi in southern NSW.

Under the guidance of Pat McGuiness from CGS Hillston they are very happy with the crop's progress and plan to almost triple their area next season.

Pat McGuiness is the Manager at Cotton Grower Services at Hillston. Pat was, is the agronomist for a crop here at ‘Tabbita’, 30 inch cotton grown by new growers for the first time. Pat what sort of problems have you had with the crop this season and how is it going?

There haven’t really been any major agronomic problems with the crop. Having being new ground the biggest thing we were up against was to see what sort of weeds were going to come up in the crop and there are quite a few weeds we wouldn’t normally have in cotton and probably some weeds we had only ever seen in winter in Moree or further North. There is the odd spot out there now where if there is a bare patch you might find some scotch thistle or cobblers peg, weeds we don’t really see. Being old rice country there is barnyard grass in there but other than that the weeds will probably be the biggest thing which will be overcome with a couple of cotton crops. Bugs really haven’t been a problem at all this year we have been able to manage the sucking pests in the crop ok and heliothis and the Bollgard II, well they haven’t been a problem either, the Bollgard II has done a really good job. Any grubs that we have seen come through out of eating pollen in a flower or the like has grown to the size of a small or a medium but has been gone shortly after its had enough of a dose of the Bt out of the Bollgard® II.

The crop here at Fraser’s at ‘Tabbita’ is grown on 30inch. What are your comments on cotton on 30’ production systems?

In the South we have seen a lot of UNR cotton and well that’s come under many names and configurations over the last 8 years. Once upon a time 30inch was called narrow row cotton but now we are calling 15inch narrow row cotton. So what’s happened here is that the farmer has already been set up to use 30inch or the metric being 75cm and he has actually done it on a 1.5 metre bed. The reason being is that other crops grown in rotation like soybeans or corn grow better and you get a better yield advantage out of growing them out of a closer row configuration. There hasn’t really been any problems’ growing the cotton this year. One of the other things you notice in a cooler area the crop won’t close the rows so by bringing the rows closer together we have been able to utilize all the maximum space of the paddock and at the same time at 25 extra plants which can be managed in a row crop fashion and hopefully there will be something around a 10% yield increase because of those 25% more plants in the paddock.

So you have planted Bollgard® II varieties Roundup Ready®. What are those varieties?

Three varieties, a big trial being the first year and the first time in this specific area, we are rather close to Griffith here, closest cotton has ever been to Griffith. We have got three fields all of about 40 hectares and we have had a different variety in each field, Sicala 40BR, Sicala V-3BR and Sicala 60BR. All Bollgard® II Roundup Ready® varieties. We can see at this point that the Sicala 40BR has really come in early and we have full size bolls right to the top and barely any flowers left in the crop. We are at the third last week of February, in the other two the Sicala 60BR and the Sicala V-3BR we still have odd flowers in the top two positions of the plant so even though the plants are only or the paddocks are only planted four or five days apart but I think that we have already gone out to a good ten days difference in picking between the Sicala 40BR and the Sicala V-3BR and the Sicala 60BR.

Looking at boll numbers and that sort of thing, have you got any boll counts, fruit counts?

Just on initial observation, I haven’t sat down and done any rigorous counts, I think we are about 130 – 140 bolls at this point in time. We are at the point now where the bolls right at the top, they are the ones where we don’t know which way the season will go whether we will get them or not so I would say I would be happy if we would end up with over 140 bolls to the metre. That’s in a linear metre and then obviously we can go and add on the factor for the closer rows of up to 1.25% more bolls for the field so hopefully that will contribute to the final yield.

We have just been at a field day looking at summer crop options for this area and several new growers or potential new growers are looking at getting into cotton. What would you advise those growers to look out for before making the commitment?

Firstly I would like to say that they should start looking around now for advice on growing the crop from all sorts of avenues from marketing to the agronomics to water use and even to machinery to make sure they have got the right machines or someone who can do the contracting for them if they haven’t got those machines. Other than that, keep in contact with people in the industry like myself and come to the field days which we have in Hillston and other meetings through the winter and don’t put all your eggs in the one basket merely on the price as of now because the price can kick at the last minute before planting and you can miss the boat in getting your paddocks ready so be ready to jump and put your crop in if the price changes between now and the next planting season.

Ian and Irene Fraser have a farm ‘Bundarra’ near ‘Tabbita’ Goolgowri area new Griffith. Ian is a first time cotton grower this year. Ian you have grown the cotton this year and you have grown the cotton this year on 30inch rows, why did you choose 30inch?

Basically because it is just a little bit further south, that much further south and we just thought it was sort of a combination between 40inch spacings and UNR and just trying to gain an extra two weeks for the crop to come in.

You were previously growing some rice?

Yes, all rice, yes.

And obviously the 30inch system fits in with your other crops and your cropping system and your machinery?

That’s right with the corn and soybeans.

What major problems, or have you had any major problems or issues this season being it your first season growing cotton?

None at all, no it’s a lot easier than we expected actually, yes things went extremely smoothly.

You did your homework prior to deciding to plant cotton obviously going to a couple of the CSD Information Tour meetings and field days. Would you advise new growers to get as much information together?

Yes, I couldn’t stress that strongly enough. At least 12 months prior to growing cotton I would advise to get to know the language, be able to get the ground ready and basically have the confidence to do it. Yes.

As a new grower in the industry, how have you found it as far as information exchange and just the availability of information and being able to talk to people. How have you found that?

I have found that its one of the most informative industries I have ever come across. No-one is backwards in coming forwards and giving me information and yes we have found it absolutely terrific.

You chose to grow Bollgard® II, Bollgard® II and also Roundup Ready®, do you think that has fitted into your cropping program quite well?

That was the main reason, if we hadn’t had the Bollgard® II and the Roundup Ready® we may not have attempted it. It helped us in the industry where we haven’t got pressure of the insects as well as grass, grass weeds, and it just made life that much easier, it has made it really easy actually.

I imagine you are going to be putting more cotton in next year. What would you do differently?

Not a lot different. No I wouldn’t probably change a lot.

Do you think there is potential to sort of fine tune your irrigation, nutrition programs or anything like that to sort of push production even a little bit further?

We would like to incorporate satellite imaging just to some of the areas where there aren’t where they have been heavy cut just to try and improve these areas. Better subbing and try and boost the nutrition on those areas.

And finally to finish off, what would be the key points you would advise any new growers to look at prior to getting into growing cotton?

Just get as much information as you can, give yourself plenty of time. It is the sort of thing that you don’t rush into. Just give yourself plenty of time and get as much information as you can, there is a fair bit of money involved up front getting it all set up but yes just get ready early that’s the biggest key to it I think.

And obviously, find a good consultant early and talk to them and make sure they are lined up?

That’s right, we couldn’t have done without Pat McGuiness from CGS at Hillston, he has been terrific, just guided us because basically we didn’t know where we were going to start with and he has taught us so much it has been terrific.

Further Information: Craig McDonald