Tips on managing Australia’s elite cotton varieties

Timely irrigation and diligent monitoring – that the advice to Australian cotton growers on how extract the most yield from the popular and high yielding Sicot 71 cotton varieties.

Speaking on CSD’s Web on Wednesday broadcast, CSIRO plant breeder Dr Greg Constable said research and grower experience has both shown best results are delivered when an optimum plant size is achieved in the period before flowering.

“That may mean being more timely with irrigations while you’ve got that early vegetative phase, just to make sure you’ve got the bush that is the size that will carry the over four bale yield that everyone is needing to get these days,” he said.

“I like the idea of regular monitoring of plant growth for the whole season, even early on to make sure the plants have got the number of leaves on them for the amount of day degrees that they’ve had,” he said.

“If there are some inputs you can modify to keep on target with the plant size then apply those,” he said.

“It’s really taking into account what might be the reasons for the particular plant size you’ve got – so if you’re in a back–to-back situation there might be some compaction, or there might have been some cool weather – just to make sure you get the inputs right, maybe its only water, just to get the plant up to the desirable plant size by flowering,” he said.

Australian growers have been growing Sicot 71 varieties for eight seasons, during which time they’ve comprised a majority of the Australian crop, which according to Dr Constable is due primarily to one trait – yield.

“Sicot 71, in terms of our breeding program, has been really hard to beat and it’s a good benchmark to have,” he said.

The Sicot 71 family is relatively compact for its maturity so it will tend sometimes to be shorter than desired and that is one of the management things people need to deal with,” he said.

“It also ticks the boxes for fibre quality and disease resistance to be at least average for those particular parameters, so you’ve got the very high yield with good quality and disease resistance,” he said.

“It’s a very adaptable variety as well, being able to be grown from Emerald down to Hillston but I guess the single characteristic that stands it apart is yield,” he said.

The latest instalment in the Sicot 71 family is Sicot 71BRF – the most popular variety planted this season.

The variety replaces the equally popular Sicot 71BR, and according to Dr Constable, other than improvements in yield and fibre quality, growers will hardly notice the change.

“The Sicot 71BRF is better for fibre length and it is better for micronaire. The growth habit is very similar – we’re hard pressed to see any difference if they’re side by side under the same circumstances they’re within a centimetre or two in terms of plant height,” he said.

“In terms of yield I think Sicot 71BRF is fractionally ahead of Sicot 71BR. We’ve put a lot of breeding effort into all of those particular parameters – particularly to address maximising yield and also to improve those fibre properties to what are desired by spinners,” he said.

7 January 2010

Further Information:

Dr Greg Constable 0267 991500

Above: Dr Greg Constable