Sarah Parkes Speaks at the 2024 CSD Mastering Cotton Forum

At the 2024 CSD Mastering Cotton Forum, Sarah Parkes, agronomist at Customised Farm Management, offered practical insights on achieving successful cotton establishment through careful use of QR code data on seed bags. She highlighted how this information, especially cool germination data, plays a significant role in their seeding strategy. With each bag's QR code offering unique seed details, she emphasised how critical it is to analyse and organise seed stock effectively to maximise results during planting:

"We recorded all of our seed delivered and their respective AUSLOT information. In the south we focus mainly on cool germ... cold germination is an indication of seed vigour and should set our timing."

By strategically placing seed with higher cold germination at the front of the shed, it allows the strongest, most vigorous seeds to be planted first during more challenging conditions. This approach allows us to reduce risk and achieve the best possible outcomes even in difficult weather:

"During our most trying conditions at the start of the planting window, we would have our most vigorous strongest seed in the ground and go from there as planting progresses."

Sarah also notes the challenging 2022-23 planting season in the Riverina, highlighting the importance of preparation for uncontrollable factors like weather and soil temperature changes.

In addition to her insights on QR code usage, Sarah shared exciting early results from a recent variety trial aimed at producing high-quality long staple cotton—a potential game-changer for market demand. As consumer interest shifts toward sustainability and yarn quality, CFM has been working to meet these expectations by exploring longer staple varieties, typically associated with softer, finer cotton.

"Finer stronger cotton can be spun into a finer yarn count... Finer yarn counts usually spun from pima cotton, but with no pima cotton varieties commercially available in Australia, our aim is to grow the high quality upland cotton we do grow to the longest staple length possible."

This trial compared an older, long staple variety against current XtendFlex varieties, revealing both trade-offs and potential gains. While the long staple variety yielded about 16% less, it showed significant quality improvements, boasting a 6% increase in length and a 7% boost in fibre strength.

"The longer the length, the softer the feel, making long staple cotton ideal for more high quality products."

With further spinning trials underway, Sarah looks forward to exploring how these quality gains can meet specific market demands and potentially attract a premium.

You can listen to the full episode below.