Cotton crop nearly double June estimate

The improved season has led to a huge demand for seed from Cotton Seed Distributors (CSD), with current seed orders now nearly double the June planting estimates. 

Planting seed supply has tightened, with limited stocks of Bollgard III variety Sicot 746B3F. Sicot 748B3F and Sicot 714B3F are still available and CSD also holds reserve stocks of Bollgard II varieties Sicot 74BRF and Sicot 71BRF.

Bollgard III cotton will make up about 95 per cent of the crop in its first year of commercial production.

The Wee Waa-based CSD plant is still producing seed against back orders, meaning that any new order will become available from mid to late October at the earliest.

Cotton Australia chief executive officer Adam Kay said the national predicted planted area was increasing with every rainfall event. 

Copeton Dam, which supplies water for the Gwydir Valley, was at 48 per cent of capacity on Tuesday, Namoi Valley water storages Keepit Dam and Split Rock Dam sat at 75.3pc and 25.1pc respectively, and Burrendong Dam, which supplies water to Macquarie Valley irrigators in the state's Central West, had 129.4pc. Queensland’s Glenlyon Dam supplies the Macintyre and Border Rivers valleys and currently has 54.5pc of capacity.

There will also be an increase in dryland cotton, with many growers reporting full moisture profiles in time for planting next month. 

Cotton Australia expects a much larger crop than last season, up from 265,000 hectares and 2.6 million bales in 2015-16, to more than 400,000 hectares and more than four million bales in the 2016-17 season.

“Recent and forecast rainfall in many valleys has added to water storages and improved soil moisture profiles, boosting hopes for a high-yielding and higher production crop,” Mr Kay said. “Rainfall will also see additional areas planted to rain-grown cotton in some of the northern NSW valleys.”