Third generation cotton grower Oliver Armstrong has had a dream run since returning to the family farm near St George in 2021, but expects to face some new challenges in the coming season.
"Last year was an excellent season," he said.
"The weather was just perfect for us and it was probably a record year for us as cotton growers.
"Considering it's been three consecutive crops, the yields have been phenomenal."
Mr Armstrong crops 1200 hectares at Doondi and Warrina, north and east of St George, with his parents Darren and Karen.
Under the banner Manna Farming, the Armstrongs grow cotton, the occasional crop of mungbeans and winter crops of wheat or chickpeas when water is available.
They also buy and sell Angus steers, which graze on permanent pasture, for the trade.
Irrigation water for Warrina is drawn from the Beardmore Dam, and three cells filled with water harvested from the Balonne River service Doondi.
Allocations for medium priority water from Beardmore Dam dropped to 6 per cent in July, before recovering slightly to 14pc last month - the lowest they've been since 2019.
By last week the dam was holding just 6.18pc of capacity.
It's a far cry from Mr Armstrong's first three years back on the farm after working in Brisbane and "out west" once he'd finished school.
Last year they planted all 1200 hectares to cotton, which yielded an average of about 14.8 bales per hectare.
"If we have the opportunity to put everything in we will," he said.
"But if we have a year of half crop we'll try and rotate to the other paddocks for the next year to have some fallow blocks for the next season."
Mr Armstrong said the combination of reduced allocations and an active El Nino - which is likely to bring below average rainfall and above average temperatures over summer - was behind their decision to cut the area of cotton they'll grow to about 200 hectares.
They also pushed back planting of this year's cotton plant until mid-November, hoping this would allow them to catch a river run later in the season and provide access to enough water to finish the crop.
Preparation began earlier this month with a pre-watering to germinate weeds such as fleabane and feathertop Rhodes grass and volunteer cotton, and the paddocks and head ditches were sprayed out with haloxyfop at 1L/ha on Monday, November 13.
This year's cotton is 150 hectares of Sicot 748B3F - noted for its heat tolerance and fibre quality - and 50 hectares of Sicot 606B3F, which is more suited to late planting. Both are Bollgard 3 varieties stacked with Roundup Ready Flex herbicide tolerance.
"The 748 has always been a favourite of Dad's," Mr Armstrong said.
"He just loves it, and the 606 was chosen to spread the risk around a bit."
The cotton seed was planted this week at 160,000 seeds per hectare with an RDO eight-row planter on 1 metre (40 inch) row spacings, except for a section at Doondi where Horsch demonstrated a Maestro 12-row planter on Tuesday November 14.
A 60:40 blend of urea, starter phosphorus and muriate of potash at 330kg/ha was applied pre-planting.
The Armstrongs will use a Gessner Predator eight-row cultivator to incorporate the fertiliser into the soil before the next irrigation.
Depending on the weather, the cotton will be watered as required by either siphon or bankless furrow irrigation.
"About 60 megalitres per 100 hectares is our rule of thumb," he said.
"But it depends on how dry it is and how much water you're going to use."
The Armstrongs began converting their irrigation system from manual siphons to bankless channels six years ago after unsuccessfully trialling pipes through the bank.
They bought a 14.3m Bagshaw laser bucket and aim to convert a few paddocks each year. So far they've redesigned 600 hectares.
The benefits have been significant: the water moves on and off at twice the rate of siphons, reducing the volume of water lost to leaching, and the process of switching between bays is much faster.
As a result, they're saving up to 1.5 megalitres a hectare while achieving a more even crop and the same or better yields.
Mr Armstrong is especially excited about the potential for automation.
"We're hoping to head towards all bankless," he said.
"The shifts are a lot quicker now - it's a one person job - and one day you'll be able to open and shut gates from your phone. There's some people doing it here already, but we're getting there."
Mr Armstrong said the crop would probably be top dressed twice, followed by a pass with the cultivator to pick out any weeds and incorporate the fertiliser, before the rows close over in early January.
Agronomist John Mulholland will keep a close eye on the growing crop, recommending pest control strategies when needed. Silverleaf whitefly has been a problem in the past.
Once it's ready, the crop will receive three or four defoliant sprays about a week apart, with picking likely to start in August.
A 6m John Deere CP770 cotton picker will be used to harvest the cotton over about a fortnight, weather permitting, and the round modules will be sent to the Queensland Cotton Beardmore gin at St George.
Soils on the Armstrong's properties are mostly vertosols, dark cracking clays, with some areas of lighter alluvial soil closer to the Balonne River.
Average annual rainfall is about 517mm, which tends to fall mostly in the summer months.
