Community & Business
3 June, 2022
Let the picking begin
It's a case of better late than never for some of the region's more fortunate cotton growers, finally preparing to pick last week.
While a swathe of crops close to the Condamine River were lost to flooding this year, other local growers are preparing to finally pick and looking forward to a good, if late, season.
Cecil Plains grower Stuart Armitage said a cool summer had slowed the season down.
“The reason the cotton pick is so late on the Downs this year is the cool summer we had...it slowed the cotton down.
“We normally average 32.5 degrees in the summer but this year we averaged 29.5.
He said prior to the flooding rain at the end of February, it had also been a dry summer.
“We had good rain in November and most people pumped enough to fill their ring tanks, and then we probably had, if you look at the Pittsworth records, one of the tenth driest summers on record.
“So we really went through December, January and most of February without any rain.”
The Armitage family is preparing to pick this week, as are many others in the region, especially now that the saturated ground is drying out enough to get machinery in.
Mr Armitage has been growing cotton for almost 50 years and says while only producing a small percentage of the world’s cotton, it is an expanding sector in Queensland and Australia.
“It is one of the most dynamic agriculture industries because of the technology that is used and the technology is not just in here (gesturing towards the towering John Deere CP690 picker in the shed), it’s in the planters, in the varieties we grow, we’re cutting edge in the world with all of that.
“So what we’re seeing, is a lot of corporates growing but there are still a lot of family farms growing cotton. And that’s reflected around here.
“Our agronomist has more than 40 clients and I think all but one of them has succession planning with young people coming home to the farm. You’ll find that won’t be reflected in any other industry.”
His own son, Tyson, is an example, returning to the family farm some time ago.
“Young people want to take a different direction and they like technology and this is where Australian cotton, while it’s only a small producer, has a lot of potential because of our ability to grow a very clean and green product.”
