After a slow start to the season, cotton crops in the Macquarie Valley were loving last week’s hot spell of three days above 40 degrees Celsius.

Warren cotton grower Ben Egan said temperatures of 43 degrees were generally more common in early to mid-January.

“It seems a bit early in the season,” he said. “Usually we’ll get consecutive days above 40 degrees in early January, but given the cold start the heat is welcome.”

A sixth-generation farmer, Mr Egan operates a mixed farm of 8093 hectares with his wife Eleanor and parents Michael and Sue at Kiameron, north of Warren.

About 3000ha is used for dryland winter crops of wheat, canola and chickpeas, and irrigated cotton is produced on about 1500ha with 712ha planted this season.

The Egans also run a herd of about 400 Angus and Hereford Cross breeders, and a herd of Angus cows which are joined to Brangus bulls to produce an Ultra Black progeny.

For the past two years, Mr Egan has grown monola, with mixed results.

Last year’s extreme wet – they recorded 879 millimetres of rain compared to the annual average of 450mm – brought damage from flooding, hail and feral pigs, and yields varied from zero to 3.5t/ha.

“It wasn’t the best year to gauge the variety’s performance, given the extreme seasonal conditions,” Mr Egan said.

By contrast the monola thrived in this year’s drier conditions – receiving about 70mm of in-crop rainfall – and produced average yields of 1.5t/ha.

Ferrying seed through floodwaters in 2022. Picture: Supplied

The wet spring in 2022 also affected cotton plantings, with flooding occurring from August to December.

“We were still trying to pull up hills in October and plant into it,” he said.

“We only had a few short windows of opportunity to get the crop in between rain events, as well as combatting floodwater which splits the farm into three isolated areas.

“Moving seed, fuel and staff by boat, buggy and tractor around the farm was very challenging.

“After the logistical nightmare that was 2022, this year was a smoother sailing season, which was very welcome.”

A Marshall spreader was used to apply MAP with 2pc zinc at 250kg/ha before hilling up.

Urea application was split across two passes, with the first 300kg/ha applied up front ahead of planting and watering up.

Unable to plant Sicot 606B3F last year because of flooded fields, Mr Egan held the seed over and planted 176ha of it along with 177ha of Sicot 746B3F and 321ha of Sicot 748B3F, as well as a 38ha Roundup Ready refuge.

Cotton seed was sown at 17 seeds per metre on 1m row spacings using a John Deere 7300 Maxemerge 8m planter, except for a section where Three Rivers Machinery demonstrated a Case IH 2110 Early Riser planter.

Mr Egan said the 746B3F and 748B3F were their staple varieties.

“Depending on the season, either variety can outperform the other by up to a bale per hectare,” he said.

“If it’s a soft finish, 746 can really perform at the back end of the season, similarly with 606. However, 748 can handle a tougher season and endure more heat stress.”

This year’s crop was planted during suitable windows between late September and late October, but volatile minimum temperatures, in conjunction with poor cool-germination test results meant getting a solid plant stand established was tricky.

“Usually I’ll wait until a have a rising plane of minimum temperatures to start planting, but once we get into October we just have to run with it,” he said.

“We kept getting a run of three or four hot days followed by a cold snap of minimum temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius. So depending on when we finished irrigating a paddock, the seed either sat in the cold for a few days and struggled to germinate or bounced out of the ground if it had the heat and warmer soil temperatures.”

Despite the less than ideal start, which contributed to a lighter plant stand, Mr Egan said they decided not to do any replanting after using the CSD Replant Calculator.

Irrigating cotton at Kiameron in 2022. Picture: Supplied

They’ve been lucky with the timing of rain, recording 80mm over 10 days from November 22 and another 30mm on December 7, just after they finished putting out their second application of urea at 300kg/ha and were about to start irrigating.

There are three on farm water storages across the two farms. It takes 14 days for water from the Burrendong Dam to be delivered under a General Security Water Access Licence, so having water on farm is crucial to ensure timely irrigation.

Crops are irrigated using a siphon and flood furrow irrigation system.

The earliest planted paddocks are now up to 30cm in height and 10-12 nodes. Their first in-crop irrigation started on Tuesday (Dec 12).

Mr Egan said insect pressure had been low so far, apart from high mirid numbers early on in some paddocks and a small amount of wireworm damage.

The plan is to give the crops seven in-crop irrigations, depending on the season and in-crop rainfall.

All going well, contractors will start picking in April using a John Deere CP690. The round modules will be sent to Australian Food & Fibre at Warren for ginning.

Mr Egan said they budgeted for average yields of about 12 bales per hectare, but the result would depend on what happens between now and then.

“Looking at the day degrees accumulated so far, we are not far behind 2020 numbers,” he said. “This is promising as that year was a high yielding crop, so fingers crossed for a good year.”

Unlike some regions, where reduced water allocations have led to a smaller area of cotton planted, Mr Egan said it looked like being a very solid year for the Macquarie Valley.

According to Bayer CropScience, more than 37,900ha of cotton has been planted in the Macquarie this year, about 12,000ha more than last year.

“There’s plenty of cotton in the valley being grown which is not uncommon following a very wet year and a full dam,” Mr Egan said.

“Burrendong Dam was at 95pc at the start of the season with a full water allocation, so there’s plenty of production in the area. It’s good for the farms and good for the community. It’s good to see.”

This article appeared in Australian Cotton & Grains Outlook