CottonInfo, the Australian cotton industry’s joint extension program, has announced that a new Regional Development Officer, Annabel Twine, will be joining the team.
Annabel will provide the latest research outcomes and findings direct to cotton growers, consultants and the wider cotton industry in the Darling Downs.
by CottonInfo climate, energy and carbon technical specialist Jon Welsh.
Evaluating and interpreting layers of climate information, weather acronyms and colour charts at key decision making times can be a daunting prospect. Some growers have their favourite weather sites on which they base their decisions, while others prefer to watch for a flock of black cockatoos on the wing or a cactus flowering to see if rain is coming. Others only believe forecast rain when the gutters are running water. Those that have been burnt by a forecast in the planning stage have an inherent distrust in weather predictive systems.
Alternative and renewable energy sources, including solar for powering cotton production, were hot topics at this week’s (24 and 25 February) CottonInfo Big Days Out at St George, QLD and Gunnedah, NSW.
The days attracted 60 and 80 participants respectively and visitors were keen to hear from experienced growers, energy researchers, auditors, consultants and system providers.
Ian and Anne Brimblecombe hosted the first day at their St George farm, “Burgorah”, while day two was on Scott Morgan’s property “Kensal Green”, Gunnedah.
An energy expenditure that had been climbing by around 10 per cent per year coupled with concerns about climate change have prompted St George cotton irrigators Ian and Anne Brimblecombe, “Burgorah”, to install solar panels which generate 100kW of electricity.
Their 400 250-watt solar panels will soon be joined by a supplementary bank of panels which will enable a 70kW fixed-speed pump to be powered by solar alone on sunny days.
Gunnedah farmer Scott Morgan (pictured) has slashed the amount of money he spends on electricity used to irrigate cotton on his property, “Kensal Green”, by investing in solar and by reducing the amount of energy he uses to pump water for his crops.
Amanda Thomas, CottonInfo regional development officer for the Macquarie Valley writes:
Almost 20 years ago, the Macquarie Cotton Growers Association, in conjunction with the Narromine and Warren Shire Councils and the NSW DPI Fisheries began the annual release of fingerlings into the Macquarie River, to help build the population of native fish.
The Department of Environment has been busy over the last year making new greenhouse gas emissions reduction methods available for use under the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF). A number of these are designed to benefit the farming sector, including a ‘fertiliser efficiency in irrigated cotton’ method released in December 2014.
When water is limited growers may need to change from their normal irrigation practice to optimise yield, quality and water use efficiency. As with fully irrigated production, the aim is to limit or minimise the amount of stress on the crop. Cotton’s response to water stress depends on the stage of growth that stress occurs, the degree of stress and the length of time the stress is present.
Many crops, particularly in the northern regions, are fast approaching cutout. Cutout occurs when the plant has 4-5 nodes above white flower (NAWF) and generally occurs late January to mid February. This is the time of the last effective flower which can be used to plan irrigations after cutout. End of season water requirements can be determined by estimating the number of days until defoliation and predicting the amount of water likely to be used over this period.
Last effective flower and cut out dates
How will the plant respond in cloudy weather? This blog from CottonInfo technical specialists Susan Maas and Sally Ceeney (with input from researchers Stephen Yeates, Michael Bange & Ian Rochestor) investigates...
