The successful SOILpak concept was developed in 1986, but the most recent version of the manual (‘SOILpak for Cotton Growers: Third edition’, 1998, and the accompanying Pocket Notes) is now eighteen years old. Valuable ideas for updating SOILpak were presented in the reviews by Shaw (2005) and EA Systems (2006) approximately ten years ago.

Other soil-related PAKS developed by the Australian cotton industry also remain important but some sections are out of date; they include NUTRIpak, WATERpak, MACHINEpak and NORpak.

Precision Agriculture techniques associated with soil management are very valuable – particularly yield mapping and elevation data – but there has been an over-dependence on EM surveys, and a lack of attention given to ‘yield gap’ mapping.

There are several problems with SOILpak that need to be addressed:

• Machinery wheel pattern descriptions are outdated; there is no mention of the new and heavy JD7760 pickers and high capacity wheat harvesters that have the potential to create much deeper compaction than previous harvesting equipment.

• SOILpak sampling depths are compatible with modern schemes such as GlobalSoilMap, but are not well integrated with NUTRIpak and WATERpak – consistency is required.

• SOILpak and associated decision support systems collectively are not “Big Data” ready; cotton soil data across the different valleys tend not to be in a format that can be clearly tabulated and mapped.

• The planned technical updating process for SOILpak as new research results became available did not occur.

• The case study section with cost-benefit analyses was never developed properly, despite the introduction of excellent new software technologies such as Wikis and easy video delivery via the Internet.

• The soil structure assessment section requires refinement/clarification through the use of modern communication and diagnostic t

The report contains an extensive list of (mainly technical) suggestions for upgrading SOILpak, which will inform the proposed revised approach of providing detailed technical information to growers and the industry, focused on 1) using the Australian Cotton Production Manual as the ‘centre piece’ source of information, supported by 2) more detailed fact sheets and 3) regular scientific reviews. The review of SOILpak provides a good case study in the streamlining opportunities this proposed revised approach provides: it highlighted that there are soil sampling guidelines in SOILpak, NUTRIpak and WATERpak, which were not completely consistent. A ‘fact sheet’ approach (that would also support myBMP) would allow for the production of a single source of truth regarding soil sampling, reducing duplication and eliminating inconsistency and the potential for confusion.