COTTON industry officials are confident the national crop will push through the five million bale mark for the 2022-23 season in spite of reduced planting in southern valleys due to the wet and cold conditions.
"It's picked up significantly from where we thought we were heading a month ago," said Cotton Australia chief executive Adam Kay.
"The weather has fined up and people in Queensland and northern NSW have been able to get out and plant," Mr Kay said.
"Good irrigation allocations mean solid irrigated plantings, while subsoil moisture mean people are also confident with dryland cotton planting," he said.
"We're picking up more hectares in Central Queensland where there have been some of the best planting rains in several years and irrigation allocations are up to 100 per cent."
"Overall we're expecting around 550,000 hectares to be planted across the country."
"We haven't done five million bales too often so this is definitely an above average crop."
He said the flooding in the south meant it was unlikely there would be a serious push towards a record crop.
"Through the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and Murray valleys it has been too wet to plant and given the southern regions have a relatively narrow window for planting we would not expect to see those hectares go in this year."
In Central Queensland Danni Ingram, Central Highlands Cotton Growers' and Irrigators Association president, said there was a buzz to the industry at present.
"We've got 40pc in Fairbairn Dam, the largest storage in this area and that has seen our allocations up to 100pc," Ms Ingram said.
She said it was around five years since irrigators in the area have had that strong an allocation at this time of the season.
"It's been really good, we've been getting nice rainbands every ten days to a fortnight and that has meant it has stayed nice and wet without getting overly damp like happened down south," she said.
"Conditions have been very mild temperature wise, we often have temperatures over 40 at this time of year but it has only reached that twice, it has not been cold as such, just mild to warm, which has been great for the crops."
Ms Ingram said farmers in the area were favouring cotton as their summer crop option due to pricing in comparison to other crops and also due to the timing of the break.
"The opening rain has suited our planting window really well."
On the Queensland / NSW border Sam Heagney, Mungindi Water Users' and Cotton Growers' Association vice chair, said there had been a reasonable plant, given the issues with heavy rain and riverine flooding during the early part of the planting window.
"Our own irrigated crop is all in, people would mostly be drawing to a close, it was not perfect, it probably went in the later end of the optimum window but it definitely was not too late," Mr Heagney said.
"We're probably relatively happy with where we are given how wet it was towards the end of October," he said.
"There's been a fair bit of replanting in the area, particularly in flood plain areas after that 100mm in October, and with seed costs around $100 a hectare that isn't ideal, but we're just pleased it is in and not looking too bad at present, there was certainly a period we didn't think we'd get it in."
Mr Heagney said farmers in the area were currently planting dryland crops and would continue to do so right up until Christmas.
Ironically, he said there had been some cases where people had been forced to stop as it was too dry.
"On some of the heavier soil types it has dried up and crusted on top, creating clods, so we had country that a week ago was under water, but by the time it was trafficable it was rocky and cloddy."
He said there was a substantial dryland cotton crop in the area.
"For many they were not able to get a winter crop in and have focused on dryland cotton."
"It is something we are getting better at and people are more confident to have a go at it, even in our variable climate in the far western cropping region."
Gregor Heard
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
