Scientific and CottonInfo Weed Technical lead

The project has 5 components: 1.       Undertake a risk assessment of weeds and weed management systems in cotton in Northern Australia, with base-line and ongoing surveys. 2.     The continuation of Eric Koetz as the CottonInfo Tech lead extension of research and technology to support adoption of best practice for integrated weed management in cotton systems. 3.     Review and test tactics for crop destruction and control of ratoon and volunteer cotton plants. 4.     Continue support of industry processes including TIMS and the herbicide tech panel with technical know-how. 5.     Further develop the weed control threshold model for on-farm application. and will work closely with the new CRDC project: “Regional demonstration of weed tactics across farming systems”. CottonInfo is the industry’s joint extension program, a partnership between industry bodies CRDC, Cotton Australia and CSD, designed to connect growers with research and help them achieve best practice. The CottonInfo tech leads provides the point of contact and in-depth analysis, information, and research for their specific field to the industry, for the benefit of all growers. The CottonInfo weed technical lead will continue to work with in each of the cotton growing regions to support demonstration sites, grower led trials and industry work. This investment will support an assessment and survey of weeds and herbicide resistance risks in cotton systems in Northern Australia and review and testing of tactics for crop destruction and control of ratoon plants. Killing cotton has been identified as a high priority issue especially for dryland and Northern cotton systems and remains an important issue in conventional cotton systems. The project also allows the continuing development of the cotton weed-control threshold model for on-farm, in-field application.