ABOUT 80 percent of this season’s cotton crop has been picked, with industry body Cotton Australia pegging total production at over 5 million bales for 2024-25.

Above-average yields and solid quality have been reported across much of New South Wales and Queensland’s cotton-growing regions.

This comes despite some delays and yield losses on Qld’s Darling Downs and in northern New South Wales valleys following heavy rain in March.

If achieved, a crop exceeding 5Mb would mark another bumper year for the industry, in the vicinity of some of the largest on record, and in line with last season’s output of around 5.1Mb.

There is potential for the forecast total to creep higher, with some industry groups, such as the Australian Cotton Shippers Association, predicting the crop could reach close to 5.5Mb.

This is supported by a larger area this season, with growers planting 390,000ha of irrigated cotton and 131,000ha of dryland equivalent, up from 370,000ha and 111,000ha respectively in 2023-24.

Cotton Australia general manager Michael Murray said this increase in area was seen in Qld thanks to full water availability, and offset some reductions in NSW plantings.

He said the area planted had potential for higher production, but rainfall-related yield losses in some regions had tempered the outcome.

“Yields have certainly been good, but…would have been better without that rain event; that certainly has caused yield loss in some areas,” Mr Murray said.

“Despite that, yields are still very good for most growers.”

Early start in south

Mr Murray said southern NSW up to the Macquarie Valley had an exceptionally early start, with picking under way as early as March.

“They’ve had an early start to picking, particularly in the Murrumbidgee and Murray valleys.

“There was the odd picker starting there in March and ordinarily you don’t start to see pickers there until at least the middle of April.”

He said this area experienced a “Goldilocks” season with a dry and sunny March and April resulting in “excellent yields and excellent quality”.

Summit Ag agronomist Heath McWhirter is based in the southern valleys, and said picker availability had been an issue early in the season due to delays further north, leaving some crops still to be harvested.

“The crop had been ready for a couple of weeks, but the lack of picking capacity is why we are still picking,” Mr McWhirter said.

“Normally the pickers come from the north south, but because it has been wet, those guys have been held up and we haven’t had the contractors come down.

“A lot of it has been done with local pickers.”

He said growers have reported very strong yields across most areas, which are “on track for the best valley averages that we’ve seen”.

Delays seen in SQld, NNSW

From the Macquarie Valley through to southern Qld, an estimated 70- 80pc of the cotton crop has been picked.

Mr Murray said work was delayed by the March rain but “since Easter picking [was] well and truly back into full swing”.

“From the Namoi through to the Darling Downs, certainly that rain has caused some issues with quality in terms of colour but…just how bad that will be across the whole crop we really won’t know until classing has finished.”

At Dalby, Nutrien Ag agronomist Ross Pomroy said picking in his area was about 60- 65pc complete, while the Inner Downs was nearing 70pc, and areas further west were close to finished.

He said there were some concerns from the March rain, primarily to irrigated crops, with some “slight yield impacts” and isolated cases of boll rot.

Overall, Mr Pomroy said growers had reported very strong yields across both irrigated and dryland crops, “well above what I’d call our averages”.

“In our wetter years and our cooler seasons, our dryland does perform substantially better than the irrigation crops but still some very good yields,” Mr Pomroy said.

“I’ve heard yields up to 16 bales per hectare in the Darling Downs for irrigated cotton.”

Larger late CQ crop

In Central Qld, the early cotton crop has already been picked, and ginning is under way.

Mr Murray said most of the crop in the Central Highlands region would be extended to maximise yields.

“Into the Central Highlands, around Emerald…the early crop is certainly off, but the majority is a later crop.

“They still haven’t started picking that yet; there may be a little bit under way, but not much.”

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