Emma Ayliffe is an Agronomist and owner of Summit Ag Agricultural Consulting based in the southern valley cotton growing region. Emma visited our school on Tuesday 5th June. Dilara K, a keen scientist in Team Archie wrote the following reflection following Emma's visit.
Today an agronomist named Emma
visited our school she introduced herself and spoke about how she was not only an
agronomist but also a farmer and owner of Summit Ag Agricultural Consulting
based in the southern valley cotton-growing region. Emma explained the process
of cotton farming and why it is so important. She also had an activity where we
in groups had to find what bugs had a good effect and what bugs had a bad effect
on the cotton some of these bug were spider mites, bollworm and stink bugs
caterpillar. Another thing that Emma talked about was all the super different
jobs that are actually considered a part of the Agriculture industry. There are
lots of people involved in planting and growing the cotton all the way to selling
clothing in shops: this includes the farmers, scientists, factory workers,
agronomist and so much more.
What I learnt when Emma visited
was that growing cotton took 120-180 frost-free days, and when the cotton was
fully-grown, they would use a tractor to pick it. What would be left is a round
bale of harvested cotton wrapped in yellow plastic sitting in the field. What
excited me was learning about all the science involved in growing cotton, as I
have a keen interest in science and medicine.
Scientist have made a big impact
on the cotton industry. They have revolutionised the industry and thanks to
advances in scientific research we can save more water, reduce chemical use,
improve soils and biodiversity, increase yields and improve profitability when
farming cotton. Scientist have created machines that can keep track of the soil
also they have made the cotton naturally adapted to dry conditions this is called
xerophytes. Something else that scientist have done is making the cotton plants immune to the chemicals that
the farmers use to kill the bad bugs this means that the chemicals don’t effect
the plant.
Did you know? There are 305 hectares
of cotton, comprising 14% of the total farm area in Australia. Furthermore of the 1200 cotton farms in
Australia, roughly 66% are in NSW and 33% Queensland. The top 20% of Australian
growers achieved yields of 12 bales/hectare in 2013. With thanks to BCI (Better
Cotton Initiative) nutrition, soil health, water management, pesticide use
efficiency, energy use, carbon and climate, biosecurity, disease and insect
management, natural resource management, stewardship and weed control are all a
daily focus of cotton growers.
We all really loved learning about the life-cycle of cotton as it turns into the clothes we wear. You can get an idea of how a pair of jeans is 'grown' by following this cool link.
We had so much fun with Emma and posted all about it on Archie's Instagram page!
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