Talking
to Adam Kay, General Manager, Cotton Seed Distributors.
Adam I
thought we would talk a bit about variety performance in the
past season. We have had one of the hottest seasons on
record, could you sum up how this has affected the CSD
variety suite?
Yes thanks Rob. I think it
was an interesting test for the major family out there in
the industry, the Sicot 71 family. That’s the one that
people were really looking at hadn’t really been through a
hot season like we just had and I think at the end of the
day we can say that that variety came out with flying
colours. I know we had that variety in over 42 CRDC
registered trials and in 90% of the times it was either 1st or
2nd, the Sicot 71 family and that’s a pretty good
family. The 71 Bollgard Roundup that everyone knows, we
have got the 71 Bollgard alone now and this was the first
year that one was available and its done a great job. The
extra fibre length that that variety has meant that its
going to be a pretty important variety in the coming
season. There is also just the conventional 71 and the
Roundup Ready 71. So that’s the major family of cotton out
there in the industry and it’s done a great job even in one
of the hottest seasons, the hottest season on record.
Just a little bit
more specifically on fibre quality, the performance of 71 in
terms of fibre quality this past season?
Yes, with fibre quality I
think one of the big issues you get a hot year you get
higher mic and this variety like all the varieties has been
elevated a little bit but it hasn’t gone over the 5’s in
that many situations and I know when we have done surveys
across the industry and had a look at it we have been in
pretty good shape with the 71BR especially compared to some
of the competitor varieties. So, we are happy with it, we
would like it to be lower like all varieties in the hottest
year in record but it has done well. I think the one that
we have been most pleased with has been the 71
Bollgard. Again that new one with beautiful fibre length
and also better on the micronaire side of things and I know
we surveyed a lot of growers we had it in a lot of trials
and its done a really good job as far as micronaire.
And the other group
of varieties that is reasonably widely spread have been the
43 and the 80. Any comments on their performance as a
companion variety for 71?
Yes well I think that is
the key things. I know that the breeders don’t want to see
us plant wall to wall 71, they would like to see us get
these companion varieties in there, the 43 is just ideal in
the shorter season areas and so when we start thinking about
anywhere from the Namoi and South well then that 43 variety
is really worth having a look at. That’s the 43 Bollgard®
Roundup is the main one that we are talking about
there. Beautiful fibre package and very high yield. If we
did run into a season that was a little bit shorter or a
little bit cooler that’s going to be a variety that will put
people in good stead. When you go North and you are looking
for a variety to put with your 71 well then that’s where the
80 family really fits in and so the 80 Bollgard®, 80 Roundup
Ready®, conventional 80 all excellent varieties with good
fibre length, can handle limited water situations and I
think they are a very important suite for our industry.
Well getting on to
that water limited situation, most production areas this
year are looking at a season that is certainly going to be a
tough one in terms of water availability. Have you got any
advice to farmers with regard to what variety to use in this
situation of short water?
Well certainly where you
have got water and you are going to commit it to the crop
its hard to go past the 71 family. There is no doubt about
that. When you start wanting to stretch the water there is
implications to fibre length potentially and so you have got
to go the varieties in the suite with the longest fibre
length and if you start talking about Bollgard® Roundups for
example, that’s where you might put the 71 to the side on
the limited water situation and start looking at your 289,
your Sicala 60 Bollgard® Roudup, there the ones that are
going to hold you in good stead as far as fibre length in a
limited water situation. You have got in your Bollgard’s
alone, you have got 289 Bollgard®, 80 Bollgard® and even the
71 Bollgard®, its got very good fibre length. It is 4/100’s
of an inch longer than the 71 Bollgard Roundup and I think
it could be one that you could look at in a limited water
situation. So I think we have got pretty good coverage
there, pretty good coverage of varieties that will handle
the limited water situation and of course when you move into
the dryland we have got the sort of ‘king’ of dryland the
V-16’s, we have got plenty of the Bollgard® Roundup V-16
this year and then just as well as V-16 Bollgard® itself.
The other thing
this year is disease, certainly on the Darling
Downs, it’s been a very
tough year for fusarium. Also been a tough year for
verticillium in a lot of the areas, particularly the
Namoi Valley. Do you
have any comments on varieties that growers should choose
where they expect high disease pressure and I guess fusarium
first?
Well, we invest a lot of
money each year in running trials that have helped develop
the V Ranks for vertcillium rankings and the F Ranks for
fusarium wilt rankings. Dr Stephen Allen and Greg McNamara
up on the Downs run exhaustive experiments to develop those
numbers and there again run to a protocol, we register the
trials and really I just implore people to go to our website
and have a look at those rankings and if they are
concerned. That way they can pick the variety that suits
their situation with the highest F Rank or the highest V
Rank. So that data is there for all the varieties and I
would certainly push people into looking at that data.
Thanks very much Adam.
Talking
to Robert Eveleigh, CSD Extension and Development Agronomist
about seed treatments. Rob what are the seed treatments
that are going to be available for us in this 2006 plant?
Well firstly we should talk
about fungicides and certainly CSD has now moved totally to
Dynasty as the key and only fungicide we use. It has
performed very well for the past season and we see no reason
to change away from that premium fungicide. We also do have
an extended permit this year for a another product called
Bion that is not a fungicide by itself but a product that
has given some activity in terms of switching the plants
natural defences on and that has worked quite well against
fusarium and also gives some control against Black Root
Rot. So we see that as an exciting future development and
past this year if everything goes well we will make that new
treatment available on CSD varieties for next season.
Rob, could you
outline the different insecticide choices that growers will
have for the 2006 season?
Well there is no major
changes in insecticide choices. We are going to make
available just straight Dynasty treated seed without any
insecticide and that is obviously used by growers where they
intend to use their own insecticide treatment whether that
be Temik or Thimet or Marshall and obviously that choice is
for growers that generally have fairly high pressure from
thrips and other sucking pests. Those treatments in general
if full rate is used are probably the best in terms of
protection against those particular trips and sooil
insects. The next treatment that comes through is Semevin
Super. That’s been a treatment that’s around for a number
of seasons now and it is a good bread and butter treatment
that’s available at a fairly low cost relative to the other
seed treatments and it works quite well against thrips but
doesn’t have any sucking pest activity. The other
treatments that come to mind are obviously Gaucho® and
Cruiser®. There has been no major change on those and they
are an intermediate seed treatment for people that don’t
want to use their own granular products, those products
probably offer the best overall insect control to come
closest to matching granular products. The big difference
or major change this year has been a reduction in price for
Cruiser®. So Cruiser now is probably more cost affective
compared to Gaucho® in that situation. The other seed
treatment, Amparo® has grown quite significantly over the
past number of seasons and is now probably one of the
mainstream products available for control of thrips and
other sucking pests. It’s at a relatively low cost, it’s a
mixture of Gaucho® and Semevin® and is quite good value at
its present pricing.
So any other
changes on the seed treatment front for the coming season?
No there has been no major
changes other than those. We are going to have all of those
seed treatments available, that small change in fungicide,
we will have a permit for Bion but Dynasty will be made
available on all seed we sell this coming season.
And the new Roundup
Ready® Flex and Bollgard® Flex, seed colours on those?
Yes there will be a
difference in colours. Certainly we are going to
differentiate or strongly differentiate those new transgenic
products. We don’t want people mixing them up so we are
going to put a silver colour on the Bollgard® Flex varieties
for this coming season which will stand out and we are going
to put a bronze colour on the Roundup Ready® Flex alone. So
they will be distinct from the other colours we have used.
