Australia - Developed by Syngenta and Cotton Seed Distributors, alongside commercial partners Goanna Ag, FastStart cotton program develops artificial intelligence for grower confidence

Cotton growers will this season be able to harness the power of AI (artificial intelligence), helping to determine the optimum time for planting.

Developed by Syngenta and Cotton Seed Distributors, alongside commercial partners Goanna Ag, the tool is the latest fee-free product born out of the FastStart™ program offered alongside the tried and trusted Traffic Light system.

The FastStart™ Field Forecast utilises the same weather and soil temperature data points as the Traffic Light system, with the benefit of machine learning to overcome the nuances of factors such as cloud cover and solar radiation, resulting in a seven-day soil temperature outlook with 0.5 degrees accuracy. 

Growers will be able to view this forecast, or simply use the Traffic Light system that now benefits from these new smarts. To avoid cold shock, seedling diseases and growth setbacks, soil temperature should be 14 degrees Celsius and on a rising plane, measured daily at 8am at a depth of 10 centimetres.

Launched at the 2024 Cotton Conference, Goanna Ag Chief Development Officer John Pattinson said the algorithm behind the FastStart™ Field Forecast is what produces the simple to use seven-day outlook.

″Using known data, we have trained the algorithm to make these interpretations,″ he said.

″When we run the model, it predicts, reflects and iterates, over and over again, building on its own accuracy. It’s complex in the way it works but the outputs are quick and simple.″

The FastStart™ Field Forecast has been developed for use across the breadth of Australia’s cotton growing regions, with heightened importance in colder reaches including southern parts of NSW.

″The tool learns nuances and variations between central Queensland, the Liverpool Plains, the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, and everywhere in between. The forecast it produces is specific to the grower’s location,″ Mr Pattinson said.

The launch was also covered by Australian Community Media (ACM), publishers of The Land and Queensland Country Life.

Namoi Valley cotton grower John Hamparsum told ACM the logistics of planting cotton were a constant juggling act, complicated by wet weather and trafficability of paddocks, in amongst other jobs that needed doing around the farm at Breeza.

″The new seed varieties from CSD are more flexible but growers still need to pick a suitable planting window,″ he said.

″Using a predictive tool is much better than doing it by calendar. Root pruning takes a long time to grow out.″