Brookvale Farming and Transport farm manager Josh Bielefeld has wrapped up cotton picking and is pretty pleased with how the season has treated the farm's 550-hectare cotton crop.
Mr Bielefeld took over in early March as farm manager for Bryn and Kylie Fanning's farming operations, just before defoliation took place at the end of that month.
The planted crop was 40 per cent irrigated and the balance dryland produced cotton, with 746B3F and 748B3F planted.
Mr Bielefeld said the solid irrigated crop with two waters returned 10 to 12 bales/ha, while some of the skip row crop with one water produced eight bales/ha and the dryland portion returned about four bales/ha.
Once picking got underway he said the farm was happy to host Toowoomba Regional councillors to learn more about cotton growing in the region.
"The farm is situated just east of Jondaryan on Oakey Creek, which draws its flow from Toowoomba's rain events and surrounding catchments," he said.
"Our irrigation water is sourced from on overland flow, underground bore allocation and Oakey Creek allocation."
It was through an initiative arranged by Cotton Australia Darling Downs regional manager Rob Crothers that Cr Nancy Sommerfield, Cr Melissa Taylor and Cr Rebecca Vonhoff visited to learn more about the cotton growing industry.
"We appreciated that these councillors took the time the time to learn about farmers on the Darling Downs and our industry," Mr Bielefeld said.
"Our offer is open to other people in high decision making positions to visit us to see and learn as well."
Cr Nancy Sommerfield said she tries to visit many diverse businesses across the Toowoomba region.
"Having been a wool producer at Hayfield Poll Merino stud, Cunnamulla, in a past life, I was most excited to visit a cotton farm in our region and I thoroughly enjoyed it," Cr Sommerfield said.
"Natural products such as wool and cotton are clean, environmentally friendly products, which should be praised by comparison to their counterparts such as polyester, which is petroleum based and never completely breaks down."