ANDREW Watson, "Kilmarnock", Boggabri is one of the many cotton farmers interested in the effects of honeydew and the process of getting rid of it.
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Mr Watson (pictured with son Kane), along with other local farmers hosted a bus tour in 2012 where researchers came to the area and spoke with cotton growers about the issues facing them.
The farmers identified honeydew as something they wanted more research conducted on and Mr Watson had the CSIRO conduct a two year trial on his 2600-hectare cotton property.
The CSIRO used a lateral move irrigation system to determine how much rainfall it took to completely remove honeydew from cotton bolls in one of Mr Watson's fields.
From the trials, the CSIRO determined that rainfall was beneficial in washing away honeydew, which was something Mr Watson and other farmers had anecdotally thought over the years.
"All of the research agrees with what we think," he said.
"A good shower of rain will get rid of the issue."
Mr Watson was happy to allow the CSIRO to use his property for its research on honeydew and said he really appreciated the researchers' response.
"It's really nice seeing the researchers responding to growers concerns and questions," he said.
"I was quite happy to participate in trials because I see the benefits in scientific outcomes."
Mr Watson is currently 20 per cent into picking and received five inches of rain before he started that washed all of the honeydew off his crops.
The rain was helpful in that it got rid of any honeydew, however it did cause some of Mr Watson's cotton to be downgraded.
"The season's looking okay," he said.
