CSIRO efforts through variety trials reap high cotton yields

13 Jul '05

5 min read

“That's an outstanding performance, particularly since the actual average yield over all those trials, at all those locations, has been over 4 bales per acre,” he said, also noting that in 8 out of every 10 trials it made 36 length or better, exceeding base grade (35 length on at least 95 per cent of occasions), the only trials in which it did not make base grade for length were in the Riverina, where nearly all varieties were in the same category due to low temperatures and water stress factors.

“In terms of micronaire, it's never exceeded 4.9 in micronaire in any of the trials which is pretty good, because there have been some sites with reasonably high micronaire. Its been in the sweet spot for micronaire on about 50 per cent of occasions, in that 3.8 – 4.5 range, which relates quite well to other Bollgard II® varieties.”

Rob Eveleigh said growers could access all trial results and track performance data in their own regions on the CSD website, by following the links to Variety Trial Results and Trials On Line. A hard copy of the trail results in booklet form is also available from CSD by phoning 02 6795 0000.

James Quinn, CSD's newly appointed Moree agronomist covering the Gwydir region, said the result of a recent CSD grower survey confirmed the popularity of Sicot 71BR.

“In the 69 commercial crops covered in the survey, it had an average yield of about about 11.11 bales/ha or pretty much 4.5 bales/acre, out-performing other varieties by about 20 per cent in some cases.

More Textiles News - Australia...