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SECTION 9 SUSTAINABLE COTTON FARMING This section brought to you in association with
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Cotton Landcare Tech-Innovations 2021
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he Cotton Landcare Tech-Innovations 2021 project is being led by the Cotton Research Development Corporation (CRDC). It is a three-year collaborative project between CRDC, the University of New England (UNE) and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), with funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program’s Smart Farming Partnerships initiative. The $1.3 million project finishes in 2021 and will develop cutting edge technologies to help the Australian cotton industry better manage and report on on-farm biodiversity. The Cotton Landcare Tech-Innovations 2021 project is researching and developing two new technologies and improving best practice guidelines for managing biodiversity on farms.
Innovation for cotton landscape revegetation (drones and tractors) Dr Rhiannon Smith UNE The UNE component, led by Dr Rhiannon Smith in collaboration with ecosystem restoration experts, UK-based BioCarbon Engineering, Stringybark Ecological, Local Land Services and NSW Landcare, are investigating new and improved cost-effective direct seeding technologies for revegetation on cotton farms, using drones and tractors. Direct seeding technologies have been used successfully in Australia as a cost-effective alternative to planting tubestock. But trials of the technology using tractors have had mixed success on vertosol soils (heavy cracking clay) in
The project is investigating revegetation of cotton farms using drones. 124 — COTTON YEARBOOK 2019
semi-arid floodplain regions, where many cotton farms are situated. Vertosols crack when dry and can become quite hard, making the establishment of native plants difficult, whether planting fine native seed or tubestock. On floodplains, natural revegetation events generally occur following floods or periods of prolonged or recurring rainfall events when the soil is saturated, allowing the seed to germinate and get established. Unfortunately, it is not possible to get machinery on these soils when saturated. Emerging technologies like drones will enable UNE to replicate natural conditions, increasing the likelihood of the successful establishment of native vegetation. Over the next three years, UNE will work alongside BioCarbon Engineering trialling the drone technology they built and fine-tuning it for identified unique native species and soils. BioCarbon Engineering has developed a large drone that has a 15 kg payload and a modified air rifle to shoot seeds, encapsulated in a watersoluble ‘pod’, into the ground at 40 metres per second, while hovering two metres above the ground. The drones can also broadcast seed at a rate of 400 kg per day. The planting drones follow a pre-determined flight path produced by mapping drones and can be controlled by someone sitting in the airconditioned comfort of their ute. Usually a tree planting team would be required to achieve large-scale revegetation. The drones can plant a hectare of trees in under 20 minutes – approximately a quarter of the time needed for tubestock. The seeds that are ejected by the modified air rifle are no regular seeds either. The watersoluble seed capsules are pumped full of seeds, fertiliser, microbial amendments and anything else that is required to germinate and establish seeds. The seeds are protected in that capsule until there is enough moisture in the soil to break down the capsule and allow the seeds to germinate and establish. UNE is working to prove the concept of the planting methodology in semi-arid vertosol soils on cotton farms. One of the biggest challenges with direct seeding technologies is sourcing suitable quality seed, particularly during drought conditions when plants are not flowering, pollinators are absent, or seed quality is low due to parent
