Cotton Seed Distributors Establishes Replicated Cotton Variety Trial in Ord Irrigation Area

Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd (CSD) today announced the successful planting of its first replicated cotton variety trial since 1999 in the Ord Irrigation Area in northwest Western Australia.

CSD general manager Steve Ainsworth said the 4.5ha trial site of irrigated cotton has been established with the support of Monsanto, Pacific Seeds, Western Australia Department of Agriculture & Food, CSIRO Plant Industry, and the growers of the Ord irrigation area.

“The trial includes four key commercial varieties that contain both the Bollgard II® and Roundup Ready Flex® technology from Monsanto.”

”CSD is proud to work with the growing, research and service industries in the Ord to help people get a practical understanding of the commercial potential for cotton production in this region,” Mr Ainsworth said.

“For many years there has been a significant investment by the Cotton CRC in developing cotton production systems for the Ord, which culminated in the release of NORpak and the next step is to get a handle and some commercial experience in production and processing.”
”It is important to note that our variety trial would not have been possible without the policy support of the Western Australian government. It is pleasing to see the Barnett Government remove the restrictive moratorium on the cultivation of biotech cotton and apply a more common sense approach to this important technology.”

“Biotech cotton has delivered some tremendous benefits to the eastern production areas, essentially from large reductions in pesticide use and it is good to see W.A growers being able to evaluate the fit of the technology and cotton as a crop in their farming systems”
Bethwyn Todd, Managing Director, Monsanto Australia echoed Mr Ainsworth’s comments, saying, “Much work has been done over the years to lay the groundwork for cotton in the Ord, including significant investments to achieve the required regulatory approvals for growing biotech cotton in northern Australia. We are extremely pleased to be part of this cotton trial and to be able to support growers in the Ord as they explore the potential for cotton in this region”.

Mr Ainsworth said the four varieties being grown in the trial are Sicala 60BRF, Sicot 71BRF, Sicot 80BRF and Siokra V-18BRF – all products from the highly successful CSIRO Cotton Breeding program which is based at Narrabri, NSW and led by Dr Greg Constable.

Dr Constable said there is a long association and tradition between CSIRO’s cotton breeding program and Kununurra – commencing in the Ord in the1950s. The program relocated to Narrabri in the 1972 when the Ord cotton industry closed. CSIRO small scale variety trials recommenced in 1994 in collaboration with WA Department of Agriculture, and have continued each year since then.
“We have always maintained a close working relationship with growers in the Ord and it is encouraging to see growers are keen to pursue cotton as a potential commercial crop in the region,” he said.
Steve Ainsworth said CSD has a long tradition of conducting a rigorous and extensive variety trial program.

“Being owned and controlled by cotton growers means we go that extra step and take pride in providing a very high level of technical information to growers.”
”Our variety trials are conducted to an industry recognized protocol, are subject to independent audit and the results shared ‘warts and all’ because CSD believes it important that growers make objective assessments on variety performance as this factor plays such an important part in determining the returns from growing cotton,”
This highlights the importance of information generated by this trial to Ord growers’ Mr Ainsworth said.
Progress reports and final results from the 2009 Ord cotton variety trial will be available on line at www.csd.net.au.

Trademark Note


®Bollgard II, Roundup Ready Flex are registered trademarks of Monsanto Technologies LLC
Sicot, Sicala and Siokra cotton varieties are the result of a research program conducted by CSIRO Plant Industry with the support of the Cotton Research & Development Corporation until 2006.