The Webcast featured Adam Kay; Namoi consultant Laurie Kaelin; Dr Greg Constable, Program Leader for 'Cotton Improvement and Production' with CSIRO; and CSD extension and Development agronomists Robert Eveleigh, James Quinn and David Kelly.
Water management and nutrition were key issues discussed in the Webcast, with Greg Constable highlighting the importance of irrigation timing, particularly the first couple of irrigations.
He stated that the objective at this time of the season is to produce as many nodes and fruit as quick as you can, and you don't want anything limiting this.
James Quinn said some of the techniques used in previous seasons to achieve this objective were to avoid waterlogging, and water-run small amounts of nitrogen in most irrigations to keep crops ticking along, resulting ultimately in high yields and sound fibre quality.
David Kelly presented a summary of research work conducted by the CSD team including 119 large-scale replicated trials across the industry over a number of seasons. He also outlined results of extensive grower surveys and detailed 'segmented picking' work designed to better analyse yield and quality components of these specific varieties.
From this data they have seen that the Sicot 71 family will often accumulate fruit a lot quicker than other varieties, and by the end of the season, produce more lint per boll, and that's where the excellent yield potential is coming from. He statedthat to maximise this, they need to often push these crops to maximise the boll numbers and boll size, and ensure that they don't cut-out prematurely.
Australia's leading seed producer CSD's main is to provide to every cotton grower the highest net return potential from the cotton varieties CSD produces.
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