After drought and flood, cotton farmers bank on bumper harvest

He didn’t want to admit it at the time, but there was a period late last year when cotton and grain farmer Tristram Hertslet hoped the rain would stop.

‘Out here when you live in a flood plain, you prepare for it and you manage it,’ says cotton and grain farm manager Tristram Hertslet on the property at Worral Creek, near Mungindi on the NSW and Queensland border. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

He didn’t want to admit it at the time but there was a period late last year when cotton and grain farmer Tristram Hertslet hoped the rain would stop.

He’s sure the sentiment was shared by other farmers in his district, near Mungindi on the NSW and Queensland border, and throughout the rain-soaked eastern states.

“Coming off the big two-year drought, no one was game to say they were sick of the rain, but there were a lot of people thinking it,” Mr Hertslet said.

In his case, Mr Hertslet never had to say the words out loud. “We were lucky to get the six-week ­period where it did stop raining,” he said.

The break in the rain in Nov­ember gave Mr Hertslet and his team at Reardon Farms’ Worral Creek property a chance to harvest their winter grain crops and get to work preparing the ground for the summer cotton crop.

By mid-December, the grain was on its way to market and the 5000ha cotton crop was 30cm high in its laser-levelled paddocks.

Cropping farmers in the eastern states are banking on a bumper cotton season to counteract losses from flooding and incessant rain that plagued winter grain crops.

The industry has forecast five million bales of cotton will be produced in the country in 2023, despite crop damage and logistical issues caused by the weather.

For growers like Mr Hertslet, the rain that came after years of tough drought was bittersweet. In four months between planting the winter crop in May and when it came due to harvest, 300mm of rain fell on the crop. On average, the district gets about 500mm of rain a year, usually in summer.

Mr Hertslet lost about 2000ha of the 5000ha crop. “That’s pretty good for the size of the flood that came through,” he said.

“The quality of the wheat was down but the extra yield we picked up sort of offset that, as well as the good prices.”

For a time, it seemed the remaining wheat, barley and chickpeas would never be harvested because the paddocks were too soggy to drive a tractor through.

In some cases, farmers resorted to sending drivers out in boats or helicopters to get them to tractors in paddocks that were dry enough to work but cut off by floodwater.

When the rain did eventually stop, it meant growers had to harvest the winter crop and prepare the cotton crop in a shortened window before summer storms rolled in. “It meant everyone in Queensland, NSW and Victoria was harvesting at the same time,” Mr Hertslet said.

“That put pressure on truck capacity and harvesting contractors were at limited numbers. It’s odd when people in Victoria are harvesting at the same time we are.”

Farmers like Mr Hertslet know the floods that repeatedly inundated the low-lying fields adjacent to the Barwon and Boomi rivers are part of the deal with cropping on the fertile soil.

“You’ll always get smaller floods every three or four years but the ones we’ve had this year have been more prolonged and bigger,” he said. “Out here when you live in a flood plain, you prepare for it and you manage it.”

The flooding has also filled the dams on the farms and secured water through to the end of the season and into the next.

“Our thoughts go out to all those impacted by the floods; some will be facing a long recovery. However, many other regions are reporting better than expected outcomes and we are predicting a crop of about five million bales for 2023,” Cotton Australia chief executive Adam Kay said.

The size of the crop will partially make up for decreasing cotton prices. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resources Economics and Sciences forecast the 2023 cotton crop would have a gross value of $3.4bn.