GROWERS are reporting strong yields and good quality in most regions as cotton picking progresses in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales and gathers pace in southern valleys.

According to Australian Cotton Shippers Association April market report, the crop is on track to produce 4.3-4.5 million bales.

Production is about 1Mb lower than last season, driven in part by reduced water availability in the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and Murray valleys, which cut their plantings by an estimated 50 percent.

ACSA chair Arthur Spellson wrote in his report that “early classing ha[d] been excellent and at this stage we see no reason for that to change”.

“Current weather conditions are favourable, pointing to a return to Australia’s more typical high-grade crop following the weather-affected harvests of 2024 and 2025,” Mr Spellson wrote.

This confidence reflects the on-the-ground view from valleys stretching from Queensland to the Macquarie Valley in central New South Wales.

Results were less favourable in the southern valleys, where reduced irrigation water and a cold start led to earlier picking and lower-than-expected yields.

Exceptional year for southern Qld

At Dalby, Nutrien Ag agronomist Ross Pomroy said this was a perfect cotton season for growers, with mild temperatures, minimal cloudy days and good irrigation water supply.

“It has been an exceptional cotton year,” Mr Pomroy said.

“As a cotton agronomist and a cotton grower, we’ll take years like this every day, every year.

“We’ve had good blue skies; we’ve had good water supply coming from the river previously and we had full ring tanks to start with; and we haven’t had the extreme temperatures either.”

Mr Pomroy said his clients were powering along and were around 60-65 percent picked, compared with halfway through for the wider Downs.

According to the latest update from Cotton Australia, irrigated yields in the Downs could vary from 11-16b/ha, with dryland crops expected to average 4-4.5b/ha.

Mr Pomroy said the “golden triangle” region north-west of Dalby could see dryland yields higher than this.

“They’re going to kick some really good goals; they’re going to be six bales easily, probably even more.”

It was a similar picture in the Border Rivers region, where clear weather allowed for a fast and uncomplicated pick.

Macintyre Independent Agronomists principal Dave Kelly is based at Goondiwindi, and said picking was largely complete, with growers reporting “some of the best yields we’ve had”.

“Most of our irrigated [crop] is going to be in the 12 to 15 range, and there will be stuff above that and there’s a little bit below that,” Mr Kelly said.

“Generally, everyone’s pretty happy and, so far, the quality’s been good.”

Mr Kelly said picking began over Easter, and was 90pc completed in the two weeks following.

“The defoliation was fairly straightforward this year with no rain, and all the crops had sort of finished on their own, so leaf tends to drop off easily and the pickers are getting long days in with low moisture in the atmosphere and in the plants.

“They’ve had big days and so it’s all just come off in a rush.”

Positive in NSW’s northern half

In NSW, growers are reporting high yields, with picking in the Gwydir, Namoi and Macquarie valleys starting around Easter.

According to Cotton Australia, the higher yield reports are coming from the Gwydir Valley, with crops of up to 17b/ha.

This is followed by the Macquarie, where growers south of Warren are reporting yields closer to 15b/ha, compared with 13-14.5b/ha to the town’s north.

Moree-based AMPS agronomist Tony Lockrey said irrigated Gwydir crops came in at about 1b/ha above expectations, with positive results reported by growers.

“We are hearing the odd 17 bale paddocks, and 15s,” Mr Lockrey said.

“Of the better soil types and areas, that 14 plus…will be the go.”

Mr Lockrey said the dryland crop was also expected to come off half a bale better than initial expectations.

“It doesn’t mean they’re all great results, because there was going to be some really ugly ones that aren’t quite as ugly.’

He said was not the case with early-planted crops, which were heavily impacted by heat in late January.

“Any of the early-planted cotton has copped a bit of a flogging because it used its stored water to grow a plant [and] set a lot of fruit, and then that January-Australia Day week has burnt or cooked some of that fruit off, and then it’s not had the resources under it or the recovery rain to reset a big crop.

“Some of that early crop would be in the range of sort of 1.8-2.5 bales to the hectare, and that wasn’t necessarily profitable.”

Disappointing southern valleys

In southern NSW, growers are picking slightly earlier than normal during what many would describe as a season to forget.

Reduced water allocations saw planting in the southern valleys fall to about 30,000ha, roughly half the average area.

Summit Ag agronomist director Emma Ayliffe said picking has commenced, with some early crops ready two weeks ago and the Murrumbidgee region getting started last week.

“We’re probably 10 days in front of where we would be typically for this time of year,” Ms Ayliffe said.

“A hot summer and end to summer kind of matured everything very quickly at the back end for us.

“There are a few guys that ran out of water, so it was an agronomic decision to stop watering stuff and pull it up.”

Ms Ayliffe said it had been a tough start for growers with limited water to plant cotton, and a cold start affecting crop establishment.

She said for many “it was better to just spray the crop out and sell your water”.

She said of those with crops to pick will have “an average season”.

“It was a very cool start, which really set the crops back and we just have struggled to kind of recover from that.

“We had a hot summer, and we did get some good fruit set.

“The boll counts, on average, are not super exciting and based on what’s coming out of the picker, we don’t have a heap of weight in those bolls.

“There’s going to be some good results.

“There’s going to be some stuff that should have been ploughed in and not bothered with, and there’s going to be a lot of stuff that kind of floats in that average middle.”