Cotton picking 2025: Tale of two seasons, north versus south

Cotton picking has seen a divide between northern growers and those in the south, with penalties for rain affected bales.

Cotton picking in 2025 has split the industry, with northern growers hit hard by rain and copping quality penalties, while southern farmers enjoy one of their best seasons.

Cotton Australia’s general manager Michael Murray said the industry was expecting total production of 5.5 million bales and there was a small amount of picking to go.

The estimate has been revised higher than last year’s 5.1 million bale result.

“We have a few growers left, there are areas in Central Queensland that are just getting underway, and then the far north of Queensland hasn’t started picking yet,” Mr Murray said.

Prices were ranging from $560 to $580 a bale after some early season prices as high as $600 a bale.

Northern NSW grower Sam Carberry of Narrabri said most growers had finished picking.

However, it was stop-start and the downgrades caused concerns for farmers.

“We had 10 inches of rain at harvest and it has resulted in damage. It also put us a long way back in the timeline for getting onto fields and it spaced out defoliation,” he said.

Cotton picking at Coleambally in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Picture: Supplied

The difficult aspect for northern growers was the fact the season was shaping up to be a good one. Despite the tough year, yields ranged from 11 to 15 bales a hectare in the area.

“Quality has been impacted for us, and we are hearing of penalties ranging from $25 to $150 a bale after classing,” he said.

The penalties were due to changes to the colour of the cotton after the rain.

In the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area at Murrami, Sam Ryan said he had finished picking earlier this month.

Mr Ryan said the run of warm daytime temperatures and lack of rain provided almost ideal conditions for cotton picking.

“In terms of yield, we hear anything from 12 to 13 bales a hectare all the way up to 17 bales a hectare,” he said.

Quality was also reported as good.

“Anyone who has had a gin run so far is happy with quality, and we aren’t hearing reports of quality downgrades.”

Mr Ryan grew 120 hectares of cotton this year and said his family had been growing the crop for up to 15 years.

He said what made things suitable for cotton was the fact there were warm spells of 40 degrees in the growing season and temperatures from 30 degrees during picking.