A northern cattle producer has further diversified his beef operation from growing sorghum silage into that of a first year cotton grower.
Curtis Archer based in the Mount Garnet region operates a commercial breeding and fattening enterprise across his 51,000 hectare family property.
Based at Glen Eagle Station, the producer runs a mix of predominantly Droughtmaster and red Brahman breeders crossed with Angus, Belmont Red and Brangus bulls, averaging a total head of 6000 cattle.
The Archer family further own cattle country based in the Winton region, spanning across three different properties, and also operate Glen Ruth Station in the Mount Garnet area.
Mr Archer recently expanded into cotton growing under his commercial umbrella.
"This is only our third season farming, we've been growing sorghum the last couple of years for silage," he said
"This last season has been our first year in cotton."
Mr Archer said the reasoning to grow the crop came down to diversification.
"We know that the cattle prices won't always be as strong as they are now and there is a big push for the north to start utilising water," he said.
"We've found a lot of value in improving our country enough to handle a crop of its nature."
Grown and trialled at the Glen Eagle property, the cotton crop was first planted in December 2021. The producer planted 300ha of dryland cotton and 17ha of irrigated cotton.
As is a common thread for growers across the state, Mr Archer said their crop faced challenges with weather impacts and contract harvesting delays.
"It has probably ended up being one of the better cattle years we've had," he said.
"We thought it was going to be a real struggle in March, so we did de-stock a fair few, but April and May were quite wet.
"The wet weather wouldn't have helped with the crop. We had a further 90-odd mills in July that probably knocked a bit off the plant as well."
The first year growing experience had proved tough with a dry March and ongoing delays from harvest contractors in southern counterparts.
"This first year has been quite difficult with a dry March and the harvester was late from the southern crops getting so much rain and getting delayed down south as well," Mr Archer said.
"We dropped nearly half a bale on the ground waiting for the harvester, but these things happen."
Due to the delays, Mr Archer said their picking did not commence until September.
"We didn't end up harvesting until September, which put us nearly in the last gin run in Emerald," he said.
"In a normal year, you wouldn't harvest until the end of June or July. We understood that we never intended to be booked in from the contract picker until then.
"He was held up a bit, so it was just a bit unfortunate."
As a result of their locality, the cotton was sent to Emerald gin to be processed and yields returned.
Mr Archer said they did record a loss due to external impacts.
"Banking on roughly a two bale costing, so that's what it costs to produce, but we only averaged 1.4 bales per hectare as our dryland figure," he said.
"We made a bit of a loss. We returned 7.2 bales per hectare on the irrigation side."
The producer opted to not grow a sorghum crop this year alongside the cotton trial, but said the cotton seed would be utilised within their beef operation as a silage ration for their cattle.
Despite the challenges, Mr Archer said they would return to cotton growing next season with adjustments to their dryland and irrigated hectare areas.
"At this stage, we are going to do 100 hectares of dryland and 70 hectares of irrigated cotton," he said.
"This year, weather wasn't key, and we think if we start to do more irrigation that will take the risk right out of it going forward. We've got an existing water licence here on the property.
"Coming from a beef cattle operation, it's been a bit of a learning curve for us to get into high value agriculture.
"We have been taking small steps and we can definitely see a future."
Zoe Thomas
Northern based journalist at North Queensland Register and Queensland Country Life.
Northern based journalist at North Queensland Register and Queensland Country Life.
