After an optimistic planting, dry weather conditions are slowly wilting Darling Downs cotton crops.
It was a positive start to the summer planting with early spring rainfall across the region, according to agronomists.
But, Cotton Australia's Darling Downs regional manager Mary O’Brien said the situation is becoming “pretty desperate” for local crops.
“The irrigated cotton is going ok, but there hasn’t been any adequate rainfall to fill water storages for many Darling Downs farmers,” Ms O’Brien said.
A total of 67,786 green hectares of cotton have been planted across the Darling Downs, which 36,792 hectares are irrigated and 30,994 hectares are dryland planted.
“That’s an increase of 22,450 hectares of extra cotton planted this year compared to 2016,” Ms O’Brien said.
“The large planting was mainly dryland cotton that had an extra 17,373 hectares planted this summer compared to last year.”
The bigger dryland cotton planting is now feeling stressed by hot, dry weather conditions after only patchy rainfall and a summer heat wave.
“We had a very promising start to the season with some local farmers receiving good rainfall in late winter and early spring,” Ms O’Brien said.
“But, unfortunately it has now become all about getting under the storms this year, particularly for our large dryland cotton plant.
“Many of those dryland cotton crops are really struggling at the moment.
Ms O’Brien said much of the dryland cotton needs at least three inches of rain to bring crops back to an average level.
“It’s pretty desperate at the moment,” she said.
“Many Darling Downs farmers have had very limited rain since the New Year.
“Our initial predictions were to get six bales per hectare from the Darling Downs dryland crop, but at this point, if cotton growers get four bales things will be going ok.”
With a string of hot days over 40 degrees during this month, the outlook isn’t currently improving for the Darling Downs cotton crops.
According to Weather Zone, only one day during February has a high chance of rainfall in the Dalby district with limited storms expected for the rest of the month.
“Over southern and eastern Australia the cold front events with potential to bring widespread rain are now expected about February 20 to February 24, February 24 to February 28, and March 9 to March 13,” the Weather Zone website reported.
“Rain events originating in the tropics and moving south are possible about February 16 to February 20, March 8 to March 12, and March 15 to March 19.”
Ms O’Brien said it looks like a very tough finish for cotton crops across the Darling Downs.
“There is a possibly of some fiber quality issues,” she said.
“Short fiber and issues like that often appear in cotton when a dry spell has stressed the crop.”
