Dryland cotton to make a comeback in CQ

More than 90 dryland producers and cotton industry personnel attended a series of dryland cotton information meetings in central Queensland last week – reaffirming a resurgence in the once-popular crop.

Speaking at the meetings, Cotton Seed Distributors agronomist John Marshall told growers the interest in dryland cotton had waned since the late 1990s due to poor seasons and lower cotton prices.

“The last big dryland cotton years in central Queensland was 1998 and this current year is shaping up very similar to then – a reasonably wet fallow in conjunction with cotton prices up, around $500 per bale,” he said.

According to John Marshall, at current prices and average yields, cotton should return a gross margin per hectare about double that of sorghum.

“A double skip cotton crop yielding around 2.4 bales per hectare will cost just under $800 per hectare to grow and at about $480 per bale, should return around $400 per hectare. A 2.5 tonne per hectare sorghum crop would cost about $350 per hectare to grow and at $185 per tonne on-farm, will return about $130 per hectare,” he said.

“The higher growing costs of cotton do scare some people away – they’re mainly due to more expensive weed and insect management, picking and crop removal. Most of these extra costs come right at the end of the season – when you know if you’ve got a crop or not – and in some cases, after you’ve been paid for your cotton,” he said.

Fellow CSD agronomist David Kelly told growers a lot of the risk and hard work associated with dryland cotton had been removed through improvements in technologies, varieties and understanding of the crop.

“It’s interesting that one of the things that drove CQ growers away from dryland cotton after the mid 1990s was the cost and crop damage associated with hard-to-control insects – if we had today’s technologies then, it would have been a much different story,” he said.

“The use of varieties with Bollgard II, which offers season-long control of heliothis catepillars means crops are only being sprayed for bugs once or twice now rather than 10 or more times – it means you can better budget how much you will be spending on insect control plus know you’re not going to lose yield when you can’t spray on time.”

“Growers using varieties with Roundup Ready Flex technology can spray Roundup Ready herbicide over the crop for most of the season – it has reduced the use of residual herbicides significantly, makes weed control simpler and is a great way to clean up fields that have been in a grass cereal rotation like sorghum and wheat for a long time.”

“The varieties now available containing both these technologies are yielding around 10 percent better than our best dryland varieties a decade ago with greatly improved fibre quality traits.”

“Many dryland growers on the Darling Downs and in northern NSW who use both sorghum and cotton in their rotation now consider both crops to be equally easy to grow,” he said.

Despite these improvements, David Kelly reiterated that there’s a number of ‘must do’s’ that growers need to remember if they’re going to achieve the results to deliver them a gross margin better that sorghum.

“First and foremost, people should use an experienced agronomist to keep a close eye on the crop and use a sounding board to bounce ideas off,”

“Having the crop with access to moisture at the critical flowering period in the middle of the season – particularly 80 to 140 days after planting is essential. This can be managed by having good stored fallow moisture, using standing cereal stubble and using wider row configurations,” David Kelly said.

John Marshall said the 2010-11 summer was shaping up as one of the largest cotton plantings on record with a predicted national crop of 300,000 to 400,000 hectares.

“The big implication of this for CQ growers is some of the infrastructure and supply sectors of the industry may be stretched. People intending to grow cotton should make enquiries early about who will pick their cotton, who is supplying herbicides and seed and so on.”

“Central Queensland growers are very fortunate that there is a strong local cotton network – while you may see cotton as a daunting task, there’s a lot of local resources at people’s fingertips they can access,” he said.

27 August 2010

Further Information:
John Marshall, CSD Extension and Development Agronomist 0746 626050
David Kelly, CSD Extension and Development Agronomist 0428 950021