Confidence in northern cotton industry high, despite challenging seasons

Lucrative cotton prices and water availability has enticed 15 farming operations across the region to diversify into cotton this season.

The invasion of fall armyworm (FAW) on maize crops on the Atherton Tablelands in 2020, also forced a lot of cropping enterprises to consider moving to other crops.

Nutrien's senior agronomist Maurilio Rezende, Tolga, said some really good yields have been recorded across the north, but majority of the crop was impacted by seasonal conditions.

"Growers here had a pretty good start to the season, but it got really dry in the mid season around February and March, which impacted a lot of the dryland crops," Mr Rezende said.

"The irrigated crops were not impacted as much because of water availability, but then we got some really late rains in around June and July, which affected the irrigated crops as well unfortunately."

Mr Rezende said cotton yields varied across the board, with yields ranging from about four to six bales per hectare on the dryland, where as the irrigated crops are averaging six up to 10 bales/ha.

"A lot of the growers are waiting to see what the results will be from this season's pick to make a decision for next year's crop," he said.

"I believe most of them will want to plant again, considering it was an unusual weather year and that cotton prices remain very strong."

Strong picker demand down south has also forced a lot of northern cotton growers to delay their pick by one month to wait for an available contract picker to arrive.