Round bale revolution abounds

In the Macquarie Valley growing areas it is estimated at least 85 per cent of picking is now done by round bale machines, a revolution during the past three to four growing seasons that has cast module harvesting to a bygone era.

Auscott Limited's Warren-based operations manager Bill Tyrwhitt believes the industry had quickly shifted to round bale picking when the cost benefits were learned and this method would now account for at least 85pc of the pickings.

"This season we are picking all our cotton with four pickers," he said.

Auscott has grown 3900 hectares of cotton this season and started picking on April 10.

Mr Tyrwhitt suggested there could be some module picking toward the eastern region of the Macquarie River, but most would be achieved by round bale pickers.

US manufacturer John Deere has cornered the market, being the first to promote its round bale picker system in Australian cotton growing areas.

Chesterfield Australia sales representative area dealer for Warren and Bourke Andrew Gibson said the early demand for John Deere round bale pickers "blew out of the water" in no time.

"Originally we received very high inquiry and demand for our pickers and this increased as growers heard of the cost saving benefits," he said.

"Buyers in those early years not only gained the benefit of machinery and labour savings compared to module systems, we also had a high Australian dollar parity with the 'greenback', so there was better purchasing power as well."

Mr Gibson said the round bale system opened up the market for transport.

"There are several bale handlers on the market that were specially designed for round bale pick-up and moving, but transport has also opened up within the industry as well," he said.

Bale handlers have been designed and constructed to fit within Australian Standards, however, according to Mr Gibson, nearly anybody with a flat-top truck could virtually carry bales.

With the Australian dollar back at least 10 cents at present, Mr Gibson said older pickers had value.

"Lake Burrendong is pretty empty at present and growers are looking down the barrel of little or no water allocation next season, so we are not fielding as many inquiries at present as we have in the past," he said.

Nonetheless he suggests farmers are happy to put their picker in the shed knowing it will not be worth less in another couple of years.

"Existing pickers have become more valuable due to the exchange rate, so we are finding only a little bit of movement in second-hand market trading."

Mr Gibson said it was interesting that owners weren't trying to off-load pickers.

"It seems their attitudes are that they bought a machine at a good price and quite happy to keep it until the next season picks up."