Waterlogging made for a tough start to the cotton season for Emerald growers

Four weeks out from harvesting, Mr McCosker is, however, hopeful this season's yield will be similar to last season's of about 11 bales/hectare.

Trading as Michael McCosker Family Trust, Mr McCosker and his wife, Susan, have three properties, Marathon, Codenwarra and Lake Nash, near Emerald

Mr McCosker said it had been 'a tough ole season' as the weather had not been kind to them soon after they had planted 300 ha to cotton, at a rate of 50 ha/day.

"Every time we irrigated, we seemed to get rain early in the season which caused a bit of fruit loss - the cotton really didn't enjoy the climate this year," he said.

Planting in late August to early September, Mr McCosker said he chose the variety, Sicot 746 B3F, as it was the most popular variety and ideal for irrigated cropping.

He said it was the most common variety planted in central Queensland due to its flexibility for crop management.

"We have used this variety for a number of years and it's proven to be reliable," he said.

The McCoskers started the 2023/24 season with a 50 per cent water allocation which slowly increased to 100 per cent in February which was a similar situation to last season and which they hope will be repeated for the 2024/25 season.

As they did not finish harvesting the 2022/23 cotton crop until June/July last year, Mr McCosker said they had a pretty quick turn around to "get in and get out" before the next crop.

"This year, hopefully, we will have it off in April/May which will be much better and give us a bit more time to turn it around," he said.

Mr McCosker explained the reason it was late last year was because they were a bit short of water at the start so held off planting, plus they had a winter crop of wheat for their feedlot in before it.

He said they averaged about 11 bales/ha last year and, while he hated to have a guess at it, he was hoping for a similar yield this year.

"We haven't had much rain in the last three months so basically the cotton has opened up in the reasonably dry weather so I am hoping the quality will be there this year," he said.

As well as fruit loss due to early season rain, the McCoskers had the challenge of keeping nitrogen up to the crop.

"We'd put the nitrogen on and lose it because of the rain and extended wet periods," he said.

"Nitrogen is an important nutrient for the crop and normally we don't have a problem, but we usually put some on at the start and then follow it up with a side dress.

"This year, we've had to come back twice to put a bit extra on because the crop was struggling for nitrogen and going yellow so that was a challenge and I think it's going to affect us a little bit adversely because it was hard to keep the nutrients up to it through the year.

"But that was not only for me - it was right through the Emerald district that challenge this year."

As a result of the fruit loss and the fact the crop was denitrified due to waterlogging, the McCoskers decided to grow the crop on for a bit to compensate and luckily it has been a quiet year for insects.

After 35 years of growing cotton, Mr McCosker said the industry was completely different to when he first started.

He said there was always new ideas in genetics and new varieties coming through, and harvesting was now done with round balers.

"Back when I started, we used to run around with two row basket pickers and have 50 people running around in the fields trying to harvest. Now the contractor comes in and it's a one-man operation - it's so different now to what it was," he said.

"And, of course, with the transgenic cotton, we've got so many choices - there's the Bollgard varieties with the insect control, the Roundup Ready varieties with the weed control, and the added stack gene varieties for better weed control with the Liberty cottons that we've got now.

"Also...the chemistry is getting better for the other pests apart from heliosthis and myrids and the sucking insects, we're spoilt for choice really and yields in my time of growing cotton have doubled basically, if not tripled."

Mr McCosker said he remembered how a good crop 20 years ago was 6.5 bales/ha, but that an average crop now was 10 bales/ha and a good crop was 14 bales/ha.

"So things have certainly progressed in my time...we've even seen people growing 18 bales/ha in our area in the last few years," he said.

"I think when they've got the perfect soil and perfect everything going for them, and a good season, it produces that sort of result with the technology we've got nowadays."

Mr McCosker said he had a range of soils with the flood irrigation at Marathon on scrub soil that was very flat like the conventional type irrigation around Emerald.

But he said they also had sandy type soils where they could grow peanuts, potatoes and a lot of different crops including cotton.

"Back 30 years ago, you wouldn't have dreamt of growing cotton on it, but nowadays with the irrigation technology and what we've got now, we're able to grow good cotton on it so if anything it should out-yield the flood irrigation soil this season because it didn't have the waterlogging events as bad," he said.

The McCoskers forward sell a percentage of their crop with prices averaging between $630-$650/bale this season and going as high as $700/bale.

Recently, the McCoskers had their myBMP accreditation renewed for another five years, an accreditation they have had for the past 18 years since completing their first myBMP audit in 2006.

Mr McCosker said the myBMP system gave them access to the industry's best practice standards which were supported by the latest R & D together with resources and technical support.

"The self-assessment encourages growers to evaluate current procedures and practices and address any concerns to improve on-farm production performance," he said.