Bringing you the latest comments from our team, via our CottonInfo blog.

A recent CRDC project with Griffith University investigated how human and natural activities impact on riparian ecosystems, and their provision of ecosystem services (like natural pest control). The project had a particular focus on determining which management strategies best promote and maintain riparian ecosystem function and services.

The key outcomes were recently published in the handbook: Managing riparian ecosystems for ecosystem services and biodiversity – a handbook for the cotton industry.

The handbook outlines the importance of…

In line with CRDC’s goal to improve sustainability, research is underway to better understand and minimise the impact of irrigation infrastructure on fish populations in rivers.

Specialists from QLD DAF, with support from CRDC, will evaluate how various fish species interact with different types of irrigation infrastructure. This information will enable measures to be developed to avoid fish being entrained - or caught up - in irrigation systems.

Evaluating the relative impact of different irrigation infrastructure types will identify which are lower impact…

PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. is our framework to build on this and make us a global leader in sustainable production.

Sustainability for the Australian cotton industry means running profitable and efficient businesses while creating environmental, economic and social value. It also means being accountable to stakeholders for the industry’s actions and impacts.

The Australian cotton industry has been actively working to do this for over 30 years. In many ways, ‘sustainability’ is just good business practice.

It’s important this existing work is coordinated and…

With showers and storms across the cotton growing valleys recently, it's important to monitor fields and fallows for summer weeds.

Trial results from Colin McMaster from NSW DPI provide some sobering facts around the benefits of summer weed control.

Colin found that summer weeds can remove valuable soil moisture down to 1.2m and deeper. And for every millimetre of moisture lost, mineral nitrogen is also depleted (for example, saving 75mm of moisture in the profile can provide 50kg of nitrogen/ha to the following winter crop).

It doesn't…

Sustainability helps us manage what matters on our farms, and what matters to the people who buy our cotton products.

‘Sustainability’ is something that means different things to different people.

So let’s be clear up front why the Australian cotton industry is taking sustainability so seriously.

One of the reasons is that customers and other stakeholders are increasingly asking for evidence of sustainability performance. It makes sense to respond to that demand by showing the industry has a good story in many areas, and is working hard to improve in others.

CottonInfo and AgEcon have developed a suite of gross margins (GM) to provide an indication of the costs and revenues for growing 'best practice' cotton in a given season.

Actual costs vary from farm to farm, valley to valley and season to season depending on a range of agronomic and seasonal factors. Variations in any of the underlying variables, whether revenue or costs, will flow through to increase or…

At the heart of IPM is the conservation of natural enemies. A key tactic in conserving natural enemies is making well-informed and rational pest management decisions supported by good sampling, valid control thresholds and knowledge of beneficial pests present in your crop. Well-informed and rational IPM decisions provide the best opportunity to reduce the overall need to spray, and hence help conserve beneficial species such as predatory insects, spiders, bats and birds.

Natural enemies suppress populations of a wide range of insect pests, helping reduce the potential…

A new partnership between iconic Australian brands Country Road and Landcare Australia is set to improve biodiversity on cotton farms, with support from CRDC, Cotton Australia and CottonInfo. 

Funded by a corporate contribution and funds raised via the sale of its famous Verified Australian Cotton Heritage Sweats, Country Road will contribute a minimum $600,000 to the partnership over three years, with funds raised going to Landcare Australia to support biodiversity restoration projects.

The partnership draws on CRDC-supported work that mapped biodiversity…

This article applies what we have learnt about cotton growth and development in the CQ environment and look at what to expect once the decision is made to grow the crop on.

(Whether or not a field should be retained vs abandoned will not be covered here, as crop insurance and a range of other factors will affect that decision-making process when significant damage has been sustained.)

Hail damage will vary from minor leaf and terminal shoot damage through to extensive canopy destruction, including stem and fruit loss. The highest impact of this damage is likely to…

1. Be prepared for increased pest activity, particularly aphids.

Pest activity has been relatively subdued in recent seasons due to reduced cotton acreage and a very dry surrounding landscape. Although the cotton area for 2020-21 is well down on previous seasons, increased rainfall will see major changes in the surrounding landscape that will in turn influence pest populations that will affect crops now and in future seasons.

With increasing rainfall, aphids are a pest to be on the lookout for. Whilst aphids have been infrequent pests for several seasons, their rapid…