New insecticide technology is needed in the Australian cotton production system to reduce reliance on old chemical groups and to maintain profitability.

Farming systems are continually attracting interest amongst the growing community, since input costs are continually increasing and returns behave in a cyclic nature.

Two years ago, the first draft of the Best Management Practices Manual for minimising the impact of Pesticides (&quote;Manual&quote;) had just been released.

We compared the responses of dryland and irrigated cotton to damage caused by two spotted spider mites in a field experiment at Narrabri. Mites colonies developed at similar rates in irrigated and dryland crops.

Experiments were done using simulated damage to investigate responses of early season cotton to defoliation, tipping out and fruit removal in a range of combinations and intensities.