Good morning everyone, 

With planting and watering up completed, and reasonable temperatures prevailing for the 2^nd and 3^rd weeks of October (Weeks 41 & 42), establishment has been acceptable. This last week has seen 1532 DD retreat and hence crop development has been sluggish (see graphs).

Insect pressure is minimal and some isolated instances of Alternaria have been observed.

Summarising, one could say we’ve had an average start, plant numbers are acceptable, 1532DD trendline is sitting at or above the 10 year mean and let’s hope after a few challenging days (Tuesday to Thursday) in the coming week, that 1532 DD accumulation can resume and keep things at or above the trendline.

Looking ahead, CSD’s variety trials have been successfully established at Hillston, Carrathool, Benerembah, Coleambally and Jerilderie. These sites all contain the established Xtendflex^® varieties, as well as two new long staple lines which show good potential. In addition, Bayer have two sites in the Riverina to evaluate the Thryvon^® trait. Thryvon will offer the industry varieties with Thrip tolerance…. this is a feature which will offer a significant benefit to the industry in Southern New South Wales.

Event coming up

Bayer are planning to hold an inspection at both the Darlington Point and Jerilderie sites this coming December 4^th and 5^th. Keep these dates aside and keep an eye out for inspection times and locations.

Tools available to support your decisions

Just on a couple of the CSD Website tools that are available, there was a good use of our FastStart Soil Temperature Network leading up to planting. This season, the service was expanded and now includes good coverage of the Hillston/Wallanthery areas with the addition of Ace of Hearts, Merrowie and Cowl Cowl properties to the network. These additional properties represent different soil types and production systems, Particularly Cowl Cowl where cotton is grown under a lateral irrigation system.

The second CSD tool to have a look at and use in your cotton production system is CottonTracka™.

CottonTracka acts at the intersection of data management, cotton crop agronomy and the crop growing environment, and is a powerful tool to provide additional insight to assist with crop management. Crop managers can use this application to gain real time, visual insights into crop growth and development. CottonTracka allows greater insight into your crop’s performance, provides valuable insights into first flower timing and season progress on yield predictions.

Cheers,

Michael

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