St George irrigated cotton growers tipped to pick record crop as dry outlook looms for next season

Cotton-picking has hit full speed in St George, Dirranbandi and Mungindi, following a 'text book perfect' finish to the season.

Warmer temperatures, a reduced pest presence, and early in-crop rain is seeing many growers predicting above average yields.

Mr Saunders said the season had been tremendous with mild conditions, low insect pressure, and follow-up rain after a wet start to planting.

"We've got a lot of acres of cotton in, we've got high yield production, prices are good, and quality is near excellent," he said.

The Saunders put in 960 hectares of irrigated cotton, planting the 606, 746 and 748 varieties, across their three farms in mid to late October, 2022.

"We planted into a full profile of moisture and we were all very fearful that we might never get it planted, because it was so wet leading up to it," Mr Saunders said.

"The (rain) tap just turned off after planting and I think we would be struggling to measure 50 mm of rain during the whole growing season.

"We had multiple irrigations and because of that, most people would be very low in water for the next season."

The Saunders' farms had 12 in-crop irrigations, compared to 10 in the 2021-2022 season.

Mr Saunders described their cotton season as "perfect", with two out of their three farms requiring no insecticide.

"It's great to be able to achieve that result and there was a few times during the season when it looked a bit dicey and you have to be prepared for the possibility of sacrificing yield," he said.

"We don't believe that's happened this year.

"Make no mistake, there are years where we've sprayed four times during a season, but it was just a lighter year in terms of insect pressure on our farm."

Mr Saunders said their defoliation was ideal, with good radiation and heat benefiting their yield potential.

"This seasons crop is yielding favourably and I think this could be a record for the St George district," she said.

"Depending on the turnout of cotton ginned, I think we could have a record breaking season on our hands."

The Saunders' began picking their crop in early April and their likely to wrap up the harvest in 10 days time.

"Last year, our cotton was averaging 14 bales per hectare, while this year could be around that 15.2bales/ha," Mr Saunders said.

"We still need to get our cotton ginned to confirm quality and yields, but I think there's going to be some paddocks average 17 bales/ha."

Mr Saunders was surprised by the amount of cotton in the St George district which has been picked in such a short time.

"We had so many round module pickers here and contractors turn up it's just unbelievable, which in turn, put pressure on on carting that cotton modules to the gin," he said.

Cotton Australia's general manager for St George, Dirranbandi and Mungindi, Sally Rigney, said there was a record number of pickers in the area.

"Majority of the early crop will be picked over the next two weeks and remaining later crops are a month away from picking," Ms Rigney said.

"This season, we have good hectares, good yields, good quality and good prices.

"The defoliation and picking window has been textbook perfect."

Ms Rigney said they were waiting on ginning figures to see weight and turnouts, but that early indications were pretty good.

"Gins are only just firing into action, so while the yield estimates are invalidated at the moment, growers are saying it is some of the best cotton they have ever grown."

A dry outlook for south west Queensland, mean growers are faced with low water availability heading into the 2024 cotton season.

Mr Saunders said they will be forced to reduce their total crop area if their catchment receives minimal rainfall.

"The size of next season's cotton crop will be dependent on water availability and whether that river runs," he said.

"Some rain in the catchment anytime would be good."