Cotton Seed Distributors article: David Kelly speaks to Lewis Wilson, CSIRO Entomology/ Cotton CRC about research being undertaken on some of the ‘emerging’ pests in Bollgard II® crops; late season thrips, jassids, and aphids.

A video version is available at www.csd.net.au/  

Dryland Variety Update 

John, how is the situation looking for dryland in Queensland this coming season?

The only way to describe the winter we have had particularly here in the Darling Downs which is the main dryland growing area in Queensland has been ‘shocking’.  Absolutely no winter crop whatsoever, very dry fallows from last years summer crops and last years winter crops. There is no cover on the ground so things have got to turn around pretty dramatically in the next couple of months to make up for the lack of moisture in profiles. 

The Central Queensland situations are a bit better.  It has been a much kinder winter up there so there is potential for a little bit of dryland to go in and I guess along the Border River areas the same thing applied.  There is quite a bit of wheat in there but there would be some fallow country that should be suitable.

With Bollgard II® now occupying a large percentage of the dryland area, are the growers getting value from the technology?

Bollgard II has performed very well for dryland growers and it has opened up a lot of options.  

First of all, the performance of the two genes in controlling heliothis has been excellent in dryland situations.  The next situation is the actual cost.  Control of heliothis has always been a high proportion of costs for dryland growers and the situation hasn’t changed with the technology fee.  I guess the differences are that now growers can budget to some extent.  They know what they are facing as far as insect control costs go and the other thing is the concession for skip row planting.  We are seeing more and more dryland growers move into skip row configurations and the reduction in technology fees associated with that has made the technology fee much more manageable.  

The final thing is with the Bollgard is the lifestyle change and that’s been very dramatic for dryland growers who traditionally spent a lot of time on ground rigs during the summer trying to control heliothis.  This has all changed and I guess things like neighbourhood relationships have also improved dramatically.

With Roundup Ready® also increasing in dryland, does the Roundup Ready technology make improvements for the dryland growers?

The dryland cotton farming system has always been very dependent on the presence of stubble both for erosion control and rainfall capture in-crop and this is the great thing about the Roundup Ready system; it enables growers to retain that stubble right through the crop.  They don’t have to destroy their stubble to incorporate pre-plant herbicides before planting. With the Roundup Ready Flex® product which will be evaluated this summer for the first time they have got a chance of obtaining excellent control from over-the-top applications for a long period in their crop.  Certainly with the existing Roundup Ready technology, the narrow window has been a limitation but I really think now the Roundup Ready Flex product is really going to fit in well to this system.  The most important thing however for dryland growers is going to be the resistance management aspect as far as Roundup Ready herbicide goes and I think growers are just going to have to accept the fact that particularly during the fallow, they are probably going to have to use some herbicides that are more expensive than they have traditionally used. 

With the new Roundup Ready Flex product, it would fit beautifully into skip row configurations wouldn’t it?

That’s right. To get that weed control right across those skip areas until sixteen nodes is going to make weed control more affective and much more quicker than a system based on shielded sprayers.

The spinners and ginners requirements of a base grade Staple Length of 36 32^nds Inch is producing a real challenge for dryland growers.  What is a way of achieving a system around this?

Well the move to 36 has certainly impacted probably more in the dryland industry than the irrigated and growers have adjusted their systems over the years and they have just got to keep adjusting.  

We have seen an increasing move to wider skip row configurations to achieve better base length, reduce penalties for short length and stabilize their production.  

The starting soil moisture is a very important consideration but unfortunately coming into a summer like we have got this year; there are not a lot of options there because most of them will be planting on country that is certainly less than a full profile.  

The other thing is the choice of planting time.  Coming into a summer like this there is probably benefits to delay planting (particularly with Bollgard II varieties) as late as possible in the six week planting window to hopefully be able to utilise the good in-crop rainfall we are going to achieve this summer.  

Finally it comes down to varietal choice.  There is tremendous difference in basic fibre characteristics between different varieties and growers need to totally familiarise themselves with the long term performance of different varieties to make the best choices there.

Robert Eveleigh, Extension & Development Agronomist, Wee Waa

What are the prospects like for the dryland plant in New South Wales?

This year in New South Wales at least the conditions are quite good for summer crops.  In fact we have got reasonable sub soil moisture in most of the country from the good rain that we had last summer and I would expect that the planting conditions are probably as good as what they normally are. We are just going to need some planting rain events sometime through October and November to allow summer crops to be planted.

What will be the key varietal recommendations for dryland plantings for this season?

Firstly with regard to Bollgard II, we have got a wide choice of varieties that are available now. In this production area we have got V-16B which has been around for a number of years now and is a good performer in dryland.  It has got a good fibre package but along with that we have also got Sicot 80B and 289B which are also good performers, particularly for the western production areas.  

In the eastern production areas certainly V-16B is probably one of the better choices.  Siokra 24B is a new release this season and it’s also very much suited to the mainstream dryland production areas of New South Wales.

And stack varieties?

Well with stacks there are quite a few varieties to choose from there.  Principally, Siokra V-16BR has been around for a couple of years now and it has proved to be the one to beat in terms of yield and fibre quality and we recommend Siokra V-16BR in all the mainstream dryland production areas of New South Wales.  

The other variety that is useful particularly in the Western and harsher areas, particularly in super single configuration is Sicot 289BR.  It has got a relatively good fibre package and certainly very good yield package under good conditions. It is quite a tough performer and a good performer in that super single system.  

In the more eastern areas Sicala 60BR has performed well in trials and a number of growers used last year and it has performed quite well so we would certainly recommend Sicala 60BR in the more Eastern parts of the dryland production areas such as the Liverpool Plains.

And recommendations for Roundup Ready?

We have got a couple of varieties there now that are quite suitable for dryland production and also suitable for those growers that want a refuge crop in Roundup Ready to match their stack Bollgard II. 

Those two varieties are Siokra V-16RR which is quite a good performer and has in its own right yielded quite well.  The other variety that was released last year and has performed well is Sicot 80RR and we would certainly recommend it as a good choice for refuge or for planting.  

The other thing that I should have mentioned in terms of stack with Bollgard II is Roundup Ready Flex. Its’ being released for the first time this coming season and there are still supplies of a variety called Sicot 80BRF which is certainly quite suitable for dryland producers for this coming season.  If anyone is interested in growing that variety, contact someone from CSD to find out whether the availability of that variety is still there and you can certainly have a look at trying some for this coming season. 

The other varieties obviously are the conventionals and there hasn’t been a major change there apart from the introduction of Sicot 81.  Sicot 81 is a new dryland specialist variety that was released last season and is certainly recommended for the mainstream dryland production areas and of course we have V-16 and Siokra 24 which probably has replaced V-16 in many areas, being a high yielding variety in dryland.

How do growers decide on their split between dryland cotton and other summer crops?

It’s never an easy decision to work out what crop you are going to grow in the summer.  Each of the crops has its own advantages but what is really comes down to in the end is the relative profitability of each of the crops and that is something that you need to weigh out and work out with your agronomist; which crop has the best economic returns and the best return in terms of the rotation.  

To assist growers for the coming season, CSD is running a series of Information Meetings for dryland growers in the mainstream production areas. 

Growers may be interested in attending these meetings to get a little bit more information particularly on how the summer crops perform in terms of rotational benefits and terms of financial returns.  

The first meeting will be held at Bellata on Monday, September 11^th, it will start at 10am at the Bellata Golf Club.  Our meeting in Moree will be later that afternoon at 4pm at Moree Spa Village Inn, Warialda Street, Moree. 

On Wednesday, 13^th September, 10am we are going to have a meeting at the Goondiwindi Training and Technology Centre and then finishing off at Dalby on Wednesday afternoon September 13^th, 4pm at the Dalby Junior Soccer Clubhouse in Bligh Street.  

Anyone that is interested in attending any of those meetings; come along we will certainly be covering all the choices growers can make with regard to summer crop options.  We will also be looking at advances in breeding and looking at changes that are going to occur over the next year particularly in relation to new dryland varieties; high performing in terms of yield and quality.  

We will also be looking at Bollgard II and Roundup Ready Flex management in dryland cotton and the challenges associated with making base grade.  We will also be talking about many other topics that dryland growers will find interesting so certainly worthwhile to come along to those meetings in a couple of weeks time.  

If growers want to check up on those dates for the meetings that information is located on CSD’s website www.csd.net.au and follow the links you will get to that information.