Mungindi mixed farmer Tim Houston supervises picking in June 2024 of the dryland crop of Sicot 748B3F that yielded 5.2 bales per hectare. Photos supplied

A decade after their first dryland cotton crop failed, Mungindi mixed farmer Tim Houston thinks he's starting to get the hang of it - with a little help from the odd well-timed thunderstorm.

"We tried dryland cotton once back in 2016 and it was a really hot, dry summer, and it failed," he said.

"In the past couple of years with these wet summers, we've been looking over the fence a bit and seeing people getting good results from their dryland cotton.

"We planted dryland cotton last year and then again this year, and we've had some good results, so we're starting to see the potential of dryland cotton."

Mr Houston farms 15,000 hectares with his parents, Rob and Sally, on farms 40 kilometres east of Mungindi, NSW, and at Inglestone on Queensland's Western Downs.

They grow dryland winter crops of wheat and chickpeas, and summer crops of dryland cotton and sorghum.

Trading as Sandholes Farming, they also run a herd of 600 Brangus breeders and a flock of 1000 Australian White ewes which graze on native and improved pastures.

Steers are grown to feed lot weights of 400-500kg on forage oats, and the Houstons have begun supplementary feeding lambs with grain to accelerate growth to produce prime lambs of 30kg dressed weight. Most lambs are sold directly to Thomas Foods International, Tamworth.

Average annual rainfall is slightly more than 500mm but highly variable, with as little as 130mm recorded in 2019 followed by 900mm two years later.

Without access to irrigation, soil moisture levels are the sole determinant of whether the Houstons plant a summer crop, especially when it comes to cotton.

"If we don't have a full profile, we don't grow cotton," he said.

"Where I live, we have quite deep, black floodplain soil, so we do have the ability to grow some good dryland cotton with a full moisture profile."

In 2023-24, they planted 1350 hectares of Sicot 748B3F on 2m row spacings into a full profile of soil moisture. That crop yielded 5.2 bales to the hectare.

Contract pickers BMC Partnership, Moree, harvest the Houstons dryland crop of Sicot 748B3F in June 2024.

After the cotton was picked, urea was spread at 150kg/ha on paddocks intended for winter crops.

Preparation for this year's cotton crop began with soil testing ahead of sowing the 2023 winter wheat crops.

Paddocks earmarked for cotton were left fallow for 12 to 15 months after harvest, before seed was planted directly into the wheat stubble.

"The stubble cover is really key," Mr Houston said.

"I've heard some farmers that have been doing it a lot longer than me saying that just having stubble there will add nearly a bale to the hectare on your crop.

"Especially as the crop's coming out of the ground, you get a lot of sand blasting and wind knocking that plant around, and stubble protects the young cotton plant."

Soil tests indicated no urea was needed, so 900ha of cotton was planted from December 13 at a seeding rate of 5.5kg/ha, aiming for 6.5 plants per linear metre, on 1.5m row spacings using an 18m Boss precision planter.

Because of the later than usual start, they switched to the shorter season variety Sicot 714B3F.

"We didn't have enough moisture to plant before then, and we had nearly written the crop off, saying we're not going to get it in this year, so we'll just wait for next year," he said.

"And then we jagged a storm and went out and planted it in about three days, and got it up."

Pressure from weeds, disease and pests during the season was low, and the crop was sprayed once for mirids.

White fly pressure became high later in the season, however it was deemed too late to be of concern.

A timely storm

The cotton experienced some moisture stress, but was saved by minor flooding in Whalan Creek after an isolated thunderstorm dumped 100mm overnight on an upstream neighbour's farm in mid-February, followed by a second much larger flood in early April.

"You know it's coming, but sometimes it takes 10 to 14 days to get here, and then it'll probably take a similar time for it to go up and go back down again," Mr Houston said.

"They're not fast floods. They just trickle on through. Down in the lowest areas, we did have some cotton that was nearly fully underwater, however, none of the bolls were open. I was pretty amazed at how well it handled it and it was fine."

Flooding from Whalan Creek in February eased moisture stress in the Houstons dryland crop of Sicot 714B3F.

Desiccants were applied in May and a contractor began stripping the cotton on June 13.

There were no rain delays, although machinery repeatedly became bogged during harvest and left a mess of tracks across the paddock that required renovation.

Cotton modules will be sent to Mungindi Ginning for processing.

"I don't have the exact yield yet, because it's still yet to be ginned, but we're looking at about 4.2 bales to the hectare, which is still a really good result for us, considering we're aiming for a three bale crop," he said.

Ideally, Mr Houston said he'd like to have 20 per cent of the cropping area going into cotton, 20pc coming out of cotton, and 60pc going into winter crop, but it was important to keep the rotation flexible.

The way the seasons have panned out - and with attractive chickpea prices - they have only managed 10pc cotton each year. About 1200ha has been set aside for next season's cotton crop.

"We are always aware that the tap can definitely just turn off, and you know when you've got it, you've got to take it," he said.

An aerial photo shows flooding from Whalan Creek after an isolated thunderstorm dumped 100mm overnight on an upstream neighbours farm in February.

A Nuffield opportunity

Mr Houston is putting the final touches to a report on his 2023 Nuffield Scholarship travels.

Initially, he planned to research how farmers in other countries managed the concept of sustainable land intensification to achieve social, environmental and economic benefits, but changed the topic to the costs and benefits of native vegetation on an arable cropping farm.

"I didn't have a light bulb moment over there where I said, 'Geez, we need to change this on our farm, we need to come home and be doing this'. But there was 1000 little things that I picked up along the way," he said.

"The Nuffield experience was absolutely great. And honestly, I think any farmer that wants to do it should throw their hat in the ring."

This article appeared in Australian Cotton & Grains Outlook