Western Downs family growers recognised on national level at Cotton Australia Awards

Two Western Downs family farms have been nominated as a finalist in the 2024 Cotton Australia awards. Find out more here.

Two Western Downs farming families have been nominated as a finalists in the 2024 Cotton Australia Awards.

Kurt and Luke Von Pein from Pallathorpe Enterprises in Macalister are finalists for the Australian Bayer Cotton Grower of the Year while Steve and Bridget McVeigh from Loch Eaton in Dalby are nominated for the AgriRisk High Achiever Award.

Kurt Von Pein said it felt great to be nominated for the award.

“We are very honoured, it's one of those things that reinforces that what we are trying to do it working and we are going in the right direction,” he said.

“I’m very happy, humbled and honoured, there’s a lot of fantastic farmers and to be considered among those is enough of a reward.”

Michael Murray of Cotton Australia, Kurt Von Pein, Pat Weir and Tony Perrett MP at the Von Pein farm

Mr Von Pein credited the business’s family dynamic for its ongoing success.

“I think in our particular business we have a good dynamic between my brother, father, and myself, we all have different roles in the business,” he said.

“I operate day-to-day operations on the farm, my brother who has an accounting and marketing background is business focused and my father is a wealth of experience, has a fine attention to detail and always has a lot of good input and advice.

“We are always trying to improve everything we do on the farm, improve our technology, our sustainability, our efficiency and at the end of the day better yields make money.”

Steve and Bridget McVeigh (centre) from Loch Eaton in Dalby are nominated for the AgriRisk High Achiever award.

Steve McVeigh who alongside his wife Bridget won Grower of the Year at last year’s Darling Downs Cotton Growers Awards said it was amazing to be nominated for a national award.

“It's a great achievement to be put in a category with such high achieving growers, to be recognised is a great achievement not just for myself but my staff,” he said.

“It's great to be recognised in the Australian cotton industry there's so many growers and to be up there with those people who’ve won it previously is great.”

Mr McVeigh said he loved working within the industry and seeing the changes over the generations.

“I love the people in the industry, it is a great industry to be involved in, it is great to lead a team who strive to be at a top level within the industry,” he said.

“Cotton has changed a lot, the farming industry has changed in its own right, over two generations we’ve seen it go from the horse and cart all the way through to driverless tractors.

“There's a lot of different things we are trying to implement, a lot of developments and technology.”

Cotton Australia’s chief executive Adam Kay said the high caliber of nominees made the judging process extremely difficult, with all growers showing knowledge and skills that would easily transfer so other growers could benefit.

“Each of the finalists have displayed a commitment to growing cotton and a readiness to trial new farming methods and adopt technology to continue to improve their crops and yields while focusing on soil health and other environmental outcomes,” he said.

“The farming methods adopted by each of the finalists clearly demonstrate the diversity between cotton growing regions and the differing methods used to achieve the best results.”

The award recipients will be announced during the Australian Cotton Conference which starts on August 6 on the Gold Coast.

The CRDC Chris Lehmann Young Cotton Achiever of the Year Award, the Cotton Seed Distributors Researcher of the Year Award, and the Incitec Pivot Fertiliser Services to Industry Award will also be announced at the conference dinner on the evening.

“The awards dinner on August 8 always sells out and this year our MC is popular comedian so I urge people to get in now and order their tickets or risk missing out. The event, which includes a three-course meal and drinks, is the cotton industry’s night of nights and is not to be missed,” Mr Kay said.

Originally published as Western Downs family growers recognised on national level at Cotton Australia Awards