This season, planting started in the first week of August for growers in Central Queensland. The forecasted area for the region is 7,500 hectares, which will be planted in the first planting window. The majority of early planted cotton has been dry sown with an irrigation to follow, with the remaining cotton growers opting to irrigate first and plant into moisture.

Soil temperatures have been more favorable this season than previous years. The FastStartTM Cotton Soil Temperature Network in the Emerald region showed a drop in soil temperature during the last week of August, down to 14.7ᵒC at 8am in the morning. For this period, watering was pulled up until the temperatures started rising again. 

Soil temperatures in the Dawson Valley followed a similar pattern with temperatures falling to 12.9ᵒC in the last week of August. Dry planting started at the end of August followed by water as the soil temperatures started to rise again.

Early planted cotton has produced some good yields over the last couple of years, with growers able to pick these crops before any monsoon weather arrives, which historically has contributed to reduced yield potential. A major benefit gained by the early plant is the time growers have to prepare beds, especially in back to back cotton situations. The early plant has allowed time to maximise stubble break down, and better control of volunteers to maintain farm hygiene enabling the growers to maximise their yield potential with good plant establishment.

Planting across the Central Highlands has been less this year when compared to last, due to the low level of the Fairbairn Dam (current capacity 10%) with no irrigation allocation and only a small portion of carry over water available. For this reason, cotton growers have had to make tough decisions on how to achieve maximum value with a limited water supply. 

With limited water and not enough to finish a cotton crop, some cotton growers have opted to take advantage of the high valued temporary transfer for the season. Growers that have planted cotton have reduced planting areas to limit the amount of risk for the coming summer. Grown-on cotton is another option that cotton growers will use in their decision making this season – the grown-on style produced some good success stories last season with the change in weather coming at the right time and producing some very strong yields at the back end of the growing season.    

While there is no allocation at the moment, cotton growers have prepared fallow paddocks with fertiliser and hilled up eagerly awaiting any opportunity that comes their way. The bureau is predicting a La Nina season for the summer, and the hope from the entire industry is that we will see a change in the weather soon. This will bring some welcome moisture for a dryland cotton planting opportunity and some run off to boost irrigation water availability going forward into the season.