NSW cotton farmer on a roll after recovering from November flood

Eight months on from November’s flood, John Hamparsum has finished harvesting an above-average cotton crop and is embarking on planting on the Liverpool Plains.

Despite floods early in the season and rising fuel costs, Liverpool Plains cotton farmer John Hamparsum has just finished a successful harvest near Gunnedah, in NSW's north west. Picture: Peter Lorimer

When floodwater submerged cotton farmer John Hamparsum’s crop he thought his season was over, until he saw the little green leaves start to re-emerge.

Now eight months on from the November flood, he’s finished harvesting an above-average cotton crop and is embarking on planting wheat on the sweeping fields of the Liverpool Plains he has farmed all his life.

“I had written it off, and I didn’t think we would get much cotton at all,” he said. “Anyway week by week, another leaf turned up on the crop and it slowly recovered, but it took about three or four weeks to start growing again.

“It’s a bit of a miracle really, but it recovered rather well considering where it came from.”

Mr Hamparsum, 55, from Breeza, near Gunnedah in NSW’s northwest, said his past few years on the land had been more colourful than most, with a trade war with China and conflict in Ukraine increasing volatility in the market.

He said prices for fertiliser urea had increased from $400 a tonne last year to $1600 this season, while diesel had also skyrocketed to more than $2 a litre.

With diesel prices sky rocketing, farm hand Jackson Rankmore checks the fuel levels at the end of the cotton harvest on the Liverpool Plains. Picture: Peter Lorimer

“We had fertiliser prices which have basically quadrupled after China banned the export of urea,” he said. “There’s also a lot of issues with fertiliser which comes from Ukraine and Russia.

“Our herbicides have also tripled in price. It has been an interesting season. We’ve had a lot of impact on our bottom line with the increases in our input costs.”

However, high market prices for cotton and canola have given his bottom line a boost, with canola rising from about $650-$700 a tonne last year to about $1000 and cotton up from about $550-$600 a bale last year to about $940.

“There are always challenges and we have just come out of a three-year drought, which was unprecedented by any standard and one of the most incredibly difficult times I’ve ever had in farming,” he said.

“Now we’ve got good things cropping wise, but we have the challenges of these high costs.”

Cotton Australia chief executive Adam Kay said it had been a good season across the board for cotton growers and yields had been consistently above average despite the heavy rain. “The prices have been above average but high input costs are impacting the margins for growers,” he said.