#ThankaFarmer for High Quality Cotton

Australia grows some of the most efficient and highest quality cotton in the world, and it’s a story Mick Humphries believes the whole country should be proud to share.

“As a natural fibre, cotton is a far more sustainable alternative to synthetics, and has a number of by-products, with its seeds used for cooking oil and stock feed.”

“It’s an industry that is continuously evolving, and there are some exciting developments currently in the works that have the potential for really meaningful impact.”

Certainly for Mick, who runs an irrigated cotton property in Moree, NSW, his enthusiasm translates into action – this young advocate is the current Chair of the Gwydir Cotton Growers Association, working closely with Cotton Australia.

The Gwydir Cotton Growers Association is an organisation that strives for a strong and vibrant local community and cotton industry, and as such Mick’s role is two-fold – to support the industry, and the Moree community.

He’s been instrumental in delivering the Association’s long-standing rural medical scholarship, plus the sponsorship of community organisations such as the junior soccer, cricket, and netball clubs.

The local industry also hosts an annual cotton charity dinner, with funds raised returned to the region’s bush schools.

“Another initiative we’re really proud of is the unique opportunity we have to take local teachers and visitors on-farm to watch some cotton picking, and then into the gin to see the whole process of fibre production first-hand”

“These tours are hugely popular, providing a glimpse of what the industry is about whilst helping educate visitors – and importantly, teachers.”

Mick said it was the collaborative nature of the industry that first prompted him to contribute.

“The cotton industry was built on vision and innovation, with the community at heart, and that culture is still strong- it’s great to give back to the community that supports our livelihoods.”

He outlined a number of industry developments breaking new ground, such as the ‘Circular Cotton Project’, a trial based on a cotton property in Goondiwindi, Queensland, whereby 3,000 end-of-life cotton garments were shredded and returned to the soil to improve soil health.

“Cotton is biodegradable, recyclable and an important natural textile, and I think it’s going to continue to show its versatility through innovation over the years to come – it’s a very exciting time for the industry.” 

At the forefront of change

Mick, together with his cousin Dave Lemmon and their families, run a 1,800 hectare operation including ‘Caroale’, Moree and ‘Chesney’, further west in the Mallawa district.

His family was one of the first to grow cotton in the region 42 years ago, and he marvels at the progression he’s seen within this industry over his lifetime.

“As a kid, I remember the labour intensity of cotton production. We would spend our summers physically chipping weeds out of paddocks, it was once a very labour intensive industry but it’s a different story today.”

He explained that today’s cotton crops benefit from greater resilience thanks to improved plant genetics – increasing productivity, water-use efficiency and reducing the need for chemical applications. 

“We definitely seem to do it a lot easier than we used to, and that’s driven by the will of the industry to constantly improve.”

Bt Cotton is a pest resistant plant cotton variety, developed using gene technology and introduced in Australia in the 1990s. It signified a landmark shift within the industry, significantly reducing the use of pesticides on the crop.

Today, the industry is increasingly relying on ‘beneficial bugs’ to reduce the need for pesticides, using the delicate balance of nature – and the natural insect food chain – to mitigate pest damage.

“Pending on seasonal conditions, some cotton growers are eliminating pesticide use altogether during a season, instead regularly monitoring bug ratios within a crop, and letting mother nature do all the work.”  

Mick is adopting a number of measures on their properties to increase efficiencies, namely the use of variable rate technology and yield mapping using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI).

This technology allows Mick a high-resolution, multispectral aerial map of his farm, with analytic tools helping interpret data and translate issues in the imagery into solutions.

“It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle – we put all the pieces together, the EM soil maps, elevation and drainage maps and NDVI images to make our operation more efficient.”

“Technology now enables us to identify irrigation issues in the field before they’re visible to the naked eye – and solve them swiftly,” Mick explained.

“Our irrigation strategy is also optimised – we have so much data now on our soil health and plant health, we’ve reduced our use of water enormously, with our irrigations now highly targeted and strategic so that every drop counts.”

“Remote sensing, improved cotton metrics, real time monitoring – these are all modern industry triumphs implemented across fields to ensure cotton programs can be adjusted for the conditions, increasing efficiency and production.”

However despite all the industry’s advancements, Mick laughs that some things never change.

“We still have to get out there and wade through muddy channels to physically throw syphons when our crop needs a drink – that part hasn’t changed since I was a kid!”

Water certainly wasn’t an issue this season, with Mick describing this year’s 800 hectare cotton season ‘a slog’ – with rain at all the wrong times.

“We had a wet winter, so we weren’t able to get on and do our ground work the way we wanted, then cloudy, showery days which are not great for cotton growth.

“Rain at picking time wreaked havoc with our quality, and made it very hard to get into the paddock to get it off.”

“It feels like we’ve been two months behind for the past 12 months, but we finally got it off recently, with yields down a little, averaging just under 13 bales.”

Despite the long and challenging season, Mick said that thanks to strong commodity prices, it was definitely worth the wait.

The cotton grower who almost wasn’t

Finishing school at the beginning of the 2000’s Millennium Drought, farming was certainly not where Mick envisioned his future.

“Things were pretty grim in agriculture, so I went off and did an electrical trade, and completed an engineering degree whilst working as an electrician.”

In 2010, his father Chris announced he was ready to retire – with the farm to be sold if Mick didn’t want to come home.

“As they say, the rest is history, and coming home to the farm was undoubtedly the best decision I’ve made.”

And his off-farm skills certainly haven’t been wasted, with Mick now perfectly placed to facilitate a number of his own on-farm initiatives to further drive efficiency.

A number of years ago he converted the farm’s diesel water bores to electricity, and is currently investigating the operation’s energy usage for a potential solar conversion.

“I guess when I was younger I didn’t really think I’d need an engineering degree in the paddock, but I’m forever grateful for my education, it’s allowed me to come full circle and been really useful for implementing practical and effective changes across the business.”

Celebrating an industry

Whilst the vast opportunity the sector affords is compelling, Mick believed it was the people who really make the cotton industry.

“From researchers to agronomists to farm hands, we have the best people!”

It’s fantastic working in an industry where there are so many young people coming through, all looking for new ways to solve old issues and inspiring you to do better on farm.”

Next week, Mick will be one of 3,000 delegates to attend the 2022 Australian Cotton Conference, and is looking forward to the opportunity to network and knowledge share.

“There are so many interesting topics and learning opportunities, and I’m also excited to catch up with growers from other valleys, it’s been a few years since we all got together, but we’re a really united industry, which is proudly exemplified at the Cotton Conference.

To learn more about the Australian Cotton Conference see https://australiancottonconference.com.au/