Cotton

Confidence in Australia’s farming sector has lifted, as the nation’s farmers hang their hopes on continuing strong commodity prices – particularly in livestock sectors – and better seasonal conditions in a number of regions, the latest Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey has found.

On a cotton farm near Emerald in central Queensland, something unusual is taking root. Among the cotton, mung beans and peanuts that typically fill the rotation, a small but mighty crop is showing its potential to change the face of Australian agriculture: sesame.

...New Agtrends figures show Queensland primary industries is forecast to achieve a record GVP worth $26.79 billion for 2024-2025, a rise of 18 per cent for the sector since 2023-2024. The significant increase has been delivered through strong performance across key commodities...

Planting is underway across most of Australia’s cotton growing regions with some crops already out of the ground in warmer climates while some growers in southern regions are awaiting warmer weather before starting their 2025/26 season. 

The Albanese and Cook Labor Governments have officially opened the Kimberley Cotton Gin in Kununurra, which is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs over the next decade in a new billion-dollar industry for the State's north ... The $60 million high-tech processing facility is owned by Kimberley Cotton Company...

We are now seeing cotton being grown at Nobby and in the Lockyer Valley so is cotton a crop for the future? These questions could be answered at the 2025 Cotton Collective event to be held in Toowoomba from 5 to 7 August.

Emergency services have been kept on alert, responding to cotton truck fires in the region. On Thursday local crews attended a fire on the Cobb Highway, adjacent to Hay Airport, where a truck carrying cotton modules caught alight.

Narrabri launches a cheeky new campaign calling for major retailers to close the regional retail gap ... Watch the saucy short video and read the ARR.News interview with Narrabri Shire Mayor, Darrell Tiemens and Narrabri Shire General Manager, Eloise Chaplain.

Australian Food and Fibre's Geoff Lucas and Heidi Stephens expect this year's ginning season to break all records. The Cobb Highway cotton gin, operated by Australian Food and Fibre (AFF) has entered its tenth year of processing.

In recent years there have been a few cotton crops planted on the eastern Darling Downs and even though some may have shown promise, growers apparently have never seen enough benefit to warrant a further planting of a crop in subsequent seasons. Such cotton crops have been planted at Nobby, Cambooya and Ryeford.

April 2 was ‘Liberation Day’ in the USA and Donald Trump has announced his promised reciprocal tariffs on trading partners. There is a baseline minimum tariff rate of 10 per cent for all countries except Canada and Mexico (who have been affected by previous tariff announcements).

Cotton picking is underway in Central Queensland with growers in the region recording average results despite the slow start to the season and late rain ... Emerald grower Aaron Keily was one of the first to pick this year on January 31, earlier than previous seasons.

The so-called “clean green” warriors of today are too busy waving banners against petroleum products to notice – or care – that the natural fibre industry has been driven to the brink. The irony, of course, is as glaring as a newly-shorn sheep.

The 2024 ginning season came to an end last week at the Australian Food and Fibre (AFF) gin south of Hay. The ginning season ran for five months and processed 45,000 round modules into 199,000 finished bales, making 2024 one of the Hay gin’s biggest runs ... “Prices are down a little, but yields are well up.”

Planting is underway across much of Australia’s cotton growing regions with some crops already out of the ground in warmer climates, some growers holding back for warmer weather while some in tropical areas won’t be planting until rain begins to fall. Cotton Australia General Manager Michael Murray said the signs for this season are positive with Australia’s 1500 cotton growers, 90 per cent of them family farmers...

An expected increase in global cotton supply in the 2024/25 season is weighing on prices for Australian producers, as export markets look to absorb large volumes from the US and Brazil, Rabobank says in a recently-released report. The agribusiness banking specialist says expectations are that world cotton stocks will rise in the coming season – largely driven by a recovery in production in the US and a potential record crop in Brazil.

The Cotton industry’s top awards for the year have been announced ... with the top two awards going to Queenslanders. The 2024 Bayer Cotton Grower of the year is Scott Balsillie, farm manager for Eastern Australia Agriculture in Dirranbandi while the AgriRisk High Achiever award recipients are Steve and Bridget McVeigh from Dalby on the Darling Downs.

A unique photo competition for rural and remote cotton growers has yielded some of the most impressive images ever captured in rural and regional Australia, along with the heart felt stories behind them. Cotton growers, their families and other industry figures, were invited to submit images that captured an element of their life on the land as part of this year’s Click 24 Photography Competition...

The 2024 cotton harvest in the Murrumbidgee Valley is proving to be a bountiful one, bouncing back from the challenges of the previous season. Early concerns surrounding cold snaps, erratic rainfall and storm damage have given way to optimism, with many growers reporting above-average yields.

The results of a new comprehensive independent assessment of the environmental performance of Australia’s cotton industry have been released revealing significant gains, and areas for improvement.

Rising prices for a range of rural commodities including cattle, cotton and dairy have seen the NAB Rural Commodities Index* increase for the fourth month in a row. NAB’s March Rural Commodities Wrap ... reports the Index increased 2.2 per cent month-on-month in February and is back up around levels last seen in April 2023.

Australia’s 1500 cotton growers, 90 per cent of them family farmers, are either starting to pick their 2024 crop or are planning to start in the coming weeks as they contemplate another above average season. This season, close to 480,000 green hectares of cotton has been planted predominantly in New South Wales and Queensland, with the Northern Territory and Western Australia also growing cotton crops.