Bongeen district cotton growers Kerry and Julie Connolly, Perola, along with their son Joshua, are astounded as to how well their cotton crop has finished this year.
With cotton picking now underway, the family is looking at yields of 10.4/bales to the hectare for their conventional BRF 75 cotton, with some of their lowest yields returning 7.4 bales/ha.
They are delighted with the results, as their overall average yield over the past 40 years has been 5.7/bales to the hectare.
They planted 390 hectares, including 130ha of supplementary irrigated cotton including BRF 74 and BRf 75 varieties, into marginal top soil moisture country, while the sub-soil moisture was 80 percent of the full profile.
For the irrigated crop they harvest water from overland flow and store in a ring tank.
"From planting until January we received enough in-crop rain to keep the crop ticking along nicely," Mr Connolly said.
"Also, we were very lucky we missed the hail storms that hit over Christmas.
"Then it got dry and we got worried we would not have enough moisture to get the crop through and finished."
The Connollys have pre-sold 40 per cent of their crop at $560/bale which includes the cost of ginning at Dunavants in Dalby.
And as for the balance of the crop, Mr Connolly puts it this way:
"I am really watching the market, but it is very stagnant.
“The rising Aussie dollar sitting at 76c is killing the price of cotton," he said.
"As well there is a world stockpile of cotton, and China is dictating the market."
The Connollys also hedges their farm income growing summer sorghum and mungbeans, while wheat is grown as a winter crop.
They invested in a John Deere 7760 baler picker which is now doing its fourth picking and baling season, and Mr Connolly can’t speak highly enough of it capabilities.
"It really is a one man operation, instead of employing four workers to do the job," Mr Connolly said.
