Emerald's Tinkelara property kicks off cotton harvest after central Queensland endured 'wet' growing season

Growers on the Central Highlands in Emerald, who planted early in August, are taking advantage of sunny conditions to pick the crop.

Some irrigators in the Dawson and Callide Valleys near Theodore are also picking at the moment.

The Barnes family at Tinkelara, Emerald, were one of the first operations in the region to pick their crops first, with one of their 50 hectare blocks averaging 12-13 bales/ha.

The team at Tinkelara planted 65 hectares of the Bollgard III 748 and 746 varieties in early August.

Grower Matt Barnes said they were grateful to pull off the cotton in ideal weather conditions after enduring a 'wet' growing season.

"We planted a lot more cotton at first, but because we got rain affected, we had to get rid of another 60 hectares," he said.

"It's been wet growing season here in central Queensland and the cotton got a little bit too wet at one stage and got a little bit of boll rot.

"Because the plant was pretty small at the time, it wasn't affected as much as probably some of the other crops in the district and that's probably the reason why we decided to pick it now, than grow it on."

Mr Barnes said it was a high risk to pick in Emerald due to the rain they've had in recent years.

"Having the crop picked now will allow us to turn the crop around and it fits well within our rotations better," he said.

"We'd grow cotton-on if we needed to and if the season doesn't allow for a more conventional pick.

"That's the beauty of planting early, you do have the options to do whatever you want and I think more growers will end up doing it to be honest.

"Being a cotton grower in Emerald, you've got to be flexible."

Mr Barnes also runs CQ Compost on his property outside of Emerald, where they also grow cotton and chickpeas and seed sorghum.

"It's taken a lot of time to work it out, but we've integrated the compost into our system and it makes us less reliant on synthetic fertilisers and in the long term, the soil quality does improve," he said.

Tinkelara will finalise their cotton pick this week and the team plan to turn the country back to triricale and tillage radish for soil conditioning.

The Barnes brought in Sam Dawson of SMD Contracting to pick their cotton.

The 2022-23 cotton season in central Queensland saw a rise in growers growing-on their cotton past the traditional 230 day growing period, after some crops suffered fruit loss due to big rain in January.

A spokesperson for Bayer said grown-on cotton was a practice employed by growers who were managing the crop for higher yield by extending the period of time the crop was in the ground.

"In 2022, a change was made to the Bollgard three Resistance Management Plan to permit growers of the technology to manage their crops for longer than 230 days, with additional resistance risk management practices in place," a Bayer spokesperson said.

"With any increase to the time that Bollgard three cotton is attractive to Helicoverpa spp., there is an increase to the risk of development of resistance to the technology."

Bayer said it was committed to the stewardship of their technologies and will continue to monitor for development resistance through their Insect Resistance Management laboratory in Toowoomba.

"The RMP is a critical document that outlines practices that growers must put in place to manage the risk of resistance development," the spokesperson said.

"If growers aim to grow their crop for a period longer than 230 days, they must plant double the refuge area as a proactive resistance management technique.

"Dr Kristen Knight's program will monitor the efficacy of this strategy and all other components of the RMP through our annual testing program that dates back to 2003."

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Sam Dawson is based in Emerald and has had his contract cotton picking business for 10 years.

The role takes him up to Far North Queensland and down to southern New South Wales during peak cotton harvest season.

Mr Dawson and his team of 12 will be operating five cotton harvesters (pickers) this upcoming season.

In a good growing year, each picker would harvest 1200-1500 hectares of cotton.

With a big harvest predicted, Mr Dawson said they're ready to hit the ground rolling.

"Last year was probably one of the bigger harvests we've had and two or three years leading up before that was all in drought," he said.

"In Emerald, I don't think there's been a full plant like this for a few years now and these growers have been doing it fairly tough.

"In the last five or six years, the cotton harvest I would say has been a month late and normally we would start around that first week of February.

Mr Dawson will be contract picking now until the end of June.

"Last year was a big year for my team and we started April and ended in September," he said.

Looking ahead, Mr Dawson is hoping for ideal weather conditions to get the pickers rolling in the fields.

"It all depends on what mother nature does, but I think by the end of June, we'll have a fair hold on it down south," he said.