Welcome to this edition of the Macquarie Valley Newsletter: November 2025.
It has been an interesting start to the season with wild fluctuations in temperatures, and a busy period with planting watering and now the harvest all following on from each other and possibly clashing on some farms.
The important thing is that soil temperatures warmed up well despite the big ambient variations. Day Degrees (1532) from the 1st of October 2025 to the 22nd of October 2025 north of Warren are up 26% on the long-term average. Cold shock days are also up. Most cotton has now been planted and is growing well with planting having started in late September.
Seedling emergence and crop establishment has been good. Many fields were watered up, even those that were planted into moisture where it dried back too quickly. I have begun doing stand counts and these are being recorded in our trials program.
Early insect pressure
Thrips damage has been bad in some fields that are close to wheat crops. Thrips can damage both cotyledons and true leaves. They are considered a primary pest of cotton seedlings during establishment, and a certain level of damage can be tolerated without concern about yield loss or crop delay. This is more relevant in longer season areas where more day degrees are available for the crops to compensate.
The choice of seed and in furrow treatments can have a big influence on their impact. Yield reduction caused by thrips in warmer areas is around 1 year in 10. In cooler areas yield reductions can occur 1 in 2 years, (Source- CottonInfo). Thrips can also be predators, particularly off mites during the season.
Help online - CSD Tools
There is a large range of online agronomy tools that can be used to help with decision making. They are available to CSD Members on the CSD website.
Some of these are -
The FastStart™ Weather Network
Day Degree Calculator
CottonTracka
STEFF – Simulated Time to estimated First Flower
If you need assistance accessing these or wanting to know more about their benefits, please contact me.
Early season is a good time to review your crop nutrition program. How much Nitrogen do you have up front? What was the previous crop or rotation history. Have soil tests been done? Will petiole N tests be done?
How much more N will your crops need? Have you set yield targets and can adjust fertilizer inputs accordingly?
The crops demand for N increases substantially as it develops.
Source – Nutripak
Crop fertilisers use phases.
Emergence to first flower – Initial uptake period with minimal fertiliser uptake in the first 30 days.
First squares to first flowers – crop uptake accelerates to 3-4kg/day
Peak Flowering- Nitrogen uptake reaches its maximum around this stage.
First Open boll – uptake begins to slow
60% Open bolls – uptakes substantially reduce.
Upcoming events
Thryvon Field walk – ‘Muntham’ Nevertire Thursday 27th November am. More information to come. It will be an opportunity to look at Thryvon cotton beside non Thryvon in the field.
Cotton Bug Checker Workshops – November/December. Register your interest in attending with Rochelle Field. 0417 860 673 or rochelle.field@cottoninfo.net.au
There is a Bollgard 3 XtendFlex® field walk with breakfast supplied at ‘Jedburgh’ Warren planned for Tuesday 20th January. We will look at the BG3XF varieties planted in the trial there. Stay tuned for further details.
With the harvest period now upon us I would like to wish everyone a very safe and productive harvest.
Cheers,
Craig
Follow us
Cotton Seed Distributors, 'Shenstone', 2952 Culgoora Road, Wee Waa, New South Wales 2388, Australia, 02 6795 0000
