Australian growers are expected to plant an extra 60,000 hectares of dryland cotton following falls of up to 90mm on the Darling Downs and 80mm in northern NSW since late last week.

An extra 30,000 hectares of dryland cotton is expected to be planted on the Darling Downs after the latest rain, bringing total plantings back to levels of 3-4 years ago at 50,000-60,000ha, after a conspicuous absence caused by drought.

Within hours of the rain, growers and seed distributors were signalling solid demand for both dryland and irrigated cotton varieties, said Craig McDonald, Cotton Seed Distributors agronomist at Dalby.

Growers are responding to recent movement in cotton prices.

Mr McDonald said falls of up to 90mm were over the southern Darling Downs, down to 60mm at Dalby and 25-30mm on the northern Downs.

Falls of up to 25mm at Emerald in Central Queensland delayed cotton planting but were not enough to prompt extra dryland plantings.

Planting window

With the dryland planting window open until November, an extra 10,000ha each could follow in the Gwydir, and Upper and Lower Namoi Valleys, according to Robert Eveleigh, CSD’s Wee Waa-based agronomist.

He said today that falls of up to 80mm were recorded in the “Golden Triangle”, north and east of Moree, in addition to patchier falls south of Moree in the Gwydir and Namoi valleys.

Elsewhere, the Liverpool Plains also enjoyed good falls, but only the Macintyre Valley is likely to benefit from the rain in the form of run-off into state storages.

The Lower Namoi Valley recorded falls of 15-20mm, Mr Eveleigh said, which followed falls of around 50mm several weeks ago.

Growers have not received any water allocation from storages servicing the valley. Keepit Dam, now at 20% of capacity, needs to reach 24-25% before an allocation is likely.

Cotton grower Phil Morgan of Battery Hill, Gunnedah said falls of 30mm were common in the Upper Namoi Valley and he had just committed to planting an extra field of irrigated cotton based on groundwater allocation.

“Growers are reluctant to commit to more dryland plantings in the Upper Namoi just yet, even though there is certainly enough planting moisture,” he said today.

Mr Morgan, who is chairman of the Upper Namoi Cotton Growers Association, said most growers who had committed to cotton already had full moisture profiles.

“Others are reluctant because they haven’t got that full profile in their fallows, even though prices are good.”

Mr McDonald said the rain was almost ideal in terms of crop establishment and key CSD varieties were in good supply. Immediate dispatch is available for most lines.

“There has been a lot of interest in the new Bollgard® II lines, with growers taking up the option of planting these varieties in their first commercial year.”

Mr Morgan said he will plant 25% of his area to Ingard® cotton and allocate the remainder to Bollgard, in line with the 40% cap on Bt cotton plantings.

“Most people will be growing Ingard, but there is some uncertainty about the Bollgard varieties, which are relatively untried.”

Mr Eveleigh said some growers have opted to plant their full 40% to Bollgard II.

“There has been a good uptake of CSX415BR, a 289 type cotton. We found there was strong demand for Roundup Ready stacks, so CSX415 was released early to fill that need.”

It also made up for the oversubscription of another popular Bollgard variety, Sicot 14B, which has a high tolerance of Fusarium wilt.