Nosey neighbours are usually frowned upon but in the Macquarie Valley looking over the fence is giving cotton farmers a better understanding of pest management, thanks to research conducted by Charles Sturt University. Funded by the Cotton Catchment Communities Co-operative Research Centre (CRC), the project investigates ecologically-based pest management for Macquarie region cotton production. CSU Associate Professor of Applied Ecology, Geoff Gurr and PhD student David Perovic are working with growers in Trangie and the wider Macquarie Valley area to better understand how pest problems in cotton crops are influenced by neighbouring farms. “We’re conducting surveys on various types of non-crop vegetation such as native bushland and monitoring the movement of beneficial insects from there to the crops at different times of year,” Professor Gurr explained.