Cotton Australia (CA) is cautiously optimistic that this year’s spray drift season may not be as damaging as last season with fewer reports of drift events and high levels of engagement with tools including SataCrop and WAND towers.

Doug McCollum, policy officer R&D and Stewardship said he is aware of around 20 reports of spray drift events impacting cotton communities but wide-spread crop damage has not been evident at this stage.

CA’s education and awareness campaign, along with campaigns from the wider cotton and grains industries, are one possible reason for this improvement. Despite the positive outcomes overall, some regions have still reported significant damage from spray drift.

“It is important that the cotton industry remain vigilant because the goal is to reduce the incidence of damaging drift to zero.”

This season CA launched its new reporting app, based on the SnapSendSolve platform. The app aims to make it easier for growers and agronomists to report spray drift incidents, track where the main issues are, and provides an opportunity to report those cases through to the relevant state authorities for investigation.

“Growers should be comfortable knowing that their confidentiality will be maintained if they make a report. Individual data will not be disclosed to the authorities unless the grower specifically asks us to report it to state compliance authorities,” Mr McCollum said.”

Mr McCollum is urging growers to report all incidents so that the full extent of spray drift damage can be understood.

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