CottonInfo is conducting trials across all its regions in an attempt to make cotton growers feel more comfortable in their insecticide application choices.
CottonInfo project manager Warwick Walters said the decision to do the trial was off the back of last season.
“We had high pest pressure in cotton following a wet winter and heavy pest pressure from mirids early in the season and that caused some questioning about the impact of mirids early season on retention rates,” he said.
“Based on that experience, we're just wanting to do something practical and demonstrable which show the ability of cotton to be able to recover from early pest pressure.
“Basically the objective of the trial is to demonstrate in the early season, the ability of cotton to be able to recover pest pressure, at or slightly above the industry recommendation threshold.”
CottonInfo regional extension officers will be setting up trials in their respective areas that involve replicated tents of either no mirids or high mirid pressure.
Mr Walters said because the tents impose an artificial climate over the plants, it was necessary to have tents with no mirids as a controlled test.
“We'll just be leaving them on for two weeks, with half of them having double the industry's recommended threshold for spraying,” he said.
“The threshold is four mirids per metre in the warmer climates, and two in the southern districts.
“So we'll be putting in eight mirids per metre in the warmer climates, and four in the lower climates just for a two week period, and then following those through and measuring the impact on the plant.”
Mr Walters said the aim of the trial was to give farmers the confidence to hold off on early season insecticide application.
“Which has the added benefit of allowing beneficial predators to remain in the crop as well which are important for balancing and controlling pests later in the season,” he said.
“It's just giving them the confidence to hold back a bit longer and also I suppose just demonstrating what to look for as far as mirid counts and mirid damage is concerned.
“We'll have a live example of that.”
