CAMERON Geddes and Tracey Geddes, CT Farming, Emerald, have expressed complete and pleasant surprise after taking honours at the Central Highlands Cotton Growers and Irrigators Association 2019 awards.
They captured the Cotton Quality Award, judged using the characteristics of strength, length, colour and micronaire - a gong Ms Geddes thought was beyond their reach.
"That was out of the blue," Ms Geddes said, not masking her surprise.
"If you ask whether I thought we had a chance I'd quickly say absolutely not. That was the one I thought was truly unexpected and a shock to win."
Then CT Farming made it a prized double by winning the Cotton Yield Award with an incredible farm average of 13.72 bales/hectare, finishing ahead of Ross and Leanne Burnett, Barkool, with 12.62b/ha. Third place was awarded to Cotton JV, Lynora Downs, with 12.17b/ha.
It was a second consecutive win in the award for CT Farming after a 2018 victory.
"It's a wonderful achievement and I'm very happy," Ms Geddes said.
"We did have a good season as far as weather goes but a lot of it came down to planning and being prepared for every circumstance.
"We plant Bolgard 3 and there are various ways to grow it and we have done an extensive amount of research to identify the best ways.
"Growing it in our area is very different to how it might be grown elsewhere. We have been fortunate to do the research to get that knowledge and understanding.
"We won last year and it's not very often that you win two years in a row so I definitely did not think we could win and I am overwhelmed by this actually."
Mr Geddes said the surprise results presented a memorable conclusion to his involvement in the Emerald operation.
"We closed the business at the end of the last financial year and I will be going my own way but this is a great way to recognise the good work that was done with a lot of private stuff in the background," Mr Geddes said.
Sam and Lizzie Bradford, Arcturus, were runners-up in the Cotton Quality Award but won the gong for Rain Grown Cotton with a rain grown average yield of 1.67 bales/hectare.
Bob Anderson was awarded the Cotton Australia/CHCG&IA Grower Service to Industry Award, acknowledging his past roles as chairman and secretary of the Irrigators Association before its amalgamation into the CHCG&IA.
The Emerald Queensland Cotton Gin, which has served the industry since 1979 and processed its 2,000,000th bale in late August, was awarded the Iain Mackay Memorial Non-Grower Service to Industry.
Alan Welburn
Lover of sport, particularly horse racing and all things Olympic. Have spent my entire working life in journalism, mostly with News Corp on its major metro mastheads. Done plenty of things but the best by far is having a teenage son who calls me dad.
Lover of sport, particularly horse racing and all things Olympic. Have spent my entire working life in journalism, mostly with News Corp on its major metro mastheads. Done plenty of things but the best by far is having a teenage son who calls me dad.
