With a wet start to the season, pests could prove to be a major challenge for cotton growers this summer, resulting in a potential – and ultimately damaging – over reliance on insecticides.

As a result, CottonInfo and CRDC are partnering with leading industry experts on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), including Dr Lewis Wilson of CSIRO, to deliver a series of workshops on IPM across five cotton growing valleys – encouraging growers to consider their potential pest management strategies.

The workshops have a clear message for growers: you can achieve high yielding cotton using IPM.

“An over reliance on insecticides to help manage pests can have very serious consequences,” says CRDC R&D Manager, Susan Maas.

“It can result in problems such as resistance, the disruption of natural pest enemies, secondary pest outbreaks, and damage to the environment.

“But these issues can be avoided through the more sustainable pest control measures encouraged via IPM – and importantly, you can still achieve high yielding cotton,” Susan said.

Boggabri cotton grower Andrew Watson has shown that with optimal growth rates, a healthy population of beneficial predators and a plant monitoring approach, it is possible to grow a Bt cotton crop with significantly reduced reliance on insecticides.

After many years working towards improving natural habitat on farm, by last year, Andrew had documented a significant change in pest pressure in his cropping system.

“As the tree belts and shrub vegetation grows and thickens throughout the farm, we have found we are no longer reaching insect pest thresholds that would in the past have indicated a need to spray,” Andrew said.

“This is different to seven or eight years ago when we tolerated over threshold populations, to avoid destroying beneficial insects, giving the beneficials extra time to control the pests.

“It’s very important to highlight that while insect pest numbers have been reduced in our fields, most nearby cotton farms are still reaching threshold populations requiring chemical sprays,” he said.

Andrew is one of five cotton growers from different valleys who will be hosting the CottonInfo and CRDC IPM workshop series.

The workshops will be taking place at Warren, Griffith, Dalby, Boggabilla and Boggabri. They will feature cotton researchers talking about the latest in early season pest management, specific local pest control issues and cotton physiology. Local growers and consultants will speak about their experiences in managing pests while achieving high yields. The workshops will also feature a field walk and beatsheet demonstration.

Warren: Monday 21 Nov

‘Auscott’, Warren

9am-12pm (lunch to follow)

Call Amanda Thomas – 0417 226 411

Darlington Point: Monday 21 Nov

‘Huddersfield’, Darlington Point

3pm-6pm (dinner to follow)

Call Kieran O’Keeffe – 0427 207 406

Cecil Plains: Wednesday 30 Nov

‘Wamara’, Cecil Plains

7am-10:30am (including breakfast)

Call Annabel Twine – 0447 176 007

Boggabilla: Wednesday 30 Nov

‘Morella’, Boggabilla

3:30pm-6:30pm (NSW time. Dinner to follow)

Call Sally Dickinson – 0407 992 495

Boggabri: Thursday 1 Dec

‘Kilmarnock’, Boggabri

9am-12pm (lunch to follow)

Call Geoff Hunter – 0458 142 777

 

Source: Cotton Info, CRDC