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NRM top tips - January: the month of the European honey bee

For the month of January, the top NRM tip is: think beyond the crop, consider your surrounding natural areas. 

To improve the abundance and diversity of natural predators and pollinators (like the European honey bee), consider native vegetation as part of your cropping system. Research shows that native vegetation along field edges can increase pest control in the field, and if pressure is still high, pollination can reduce the yield loss.

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top tips
natural resource management
NRM
bee
bees
cotton

FAQs: limited water scenarios and decisions

Mike Bange, Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO and James Quinn, Marketing & Extension Lead, CSD are often asked questions regarding limited water decisions. Here are their answers to commonly asked questions:

Which configurations yield highest?

Fully irrigated solid planted cotton will out-yield wider row configurations on a per hectare basis NOT necessarily on a per ML basis. (Figure 1).  

Frequently asked questions: Managing silverleaf whitefly and mealybug in cotton

In this blog, Richard Sequeira provides information on silverleaf whitefly (SLW) and solenopsis mealybug for cotton growers in the 2017-18 season.

Whitefly

The TIMS committee has approved a 30-day window for the application of pyriproxifen (Admiral) to control whitefly (SLW) in all cotton growing districts/areas in Australia, beginning in the 2017-18 season:

Q: Why is a 30-day window necessary?

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silverleaf whitefly
SLW
mealybug

Survey to benchmark water use efficiency in cotton (6 October 2017)

Cotton growers are invited to participate in a water productivity benchmarking study, from the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Agriculture Division, over the 2017-18 season.

The 2017-18 survey, which is delivered with support from the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC), follows on from similar surveys in 2006-07, 2008-09 and 2012-13, which found that the cotton industry has achieved a 40 per cent increase in water productivity since the study conducted by Tennakoon and Milroy (2003) (0.79 bales per megalitre) 10 years earlier.

Early season crop management (prior to flowering) for CQ (11 September 2017)

by QDAF researcher, Dr Paul Grundy:

There are a number of things to consider for nitrogen, first irrigation and pest management that will have an important bearing on crop development and yield potential in the CQ environment. The way in which these factors interact depends on the weather both leading up to and after operations take place. Critically these interactions vary significantly depending on whether a crop is sown early (August to early Sept) or late (late November and December).

Cotton growers' corridor planting contributes to natural pest control (16 Aug 2017)

In 2001, in partnership with Greening Australia and the Australian Government's Envirofund, cotton growers Geoff and Ally O'Neill planted eight hectares of native trees and shrubs on their cotton property “Lllano” near Bald Hill. 

“We wanted to increase the biodiversity on our farm as well as provide a windbreak,” Geoff said. “Fifteen years later we definitely see more birds and lizards and feel the corridors are contributing to natural pest control.”

Before planting the corridors, Geoff fallowed the area for 18 months.

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