For Chinchilla district dryland grower, Ian Valler, it has been one of the kindest growing seasons for the crop since he and his father Bert began growing it about 13 years ago.

The only downside was that the second half of the season turned somewhat dry, and that they didn't get any really hot days.

While he isn't sure what the exact yield is yet, he reckons it should be about 4.4 bales/hectare, from a double skip configuration.

With about 97 hectares of Sicala 60B planted at the start of the Bollgard window in October, he had finished the bulk of picking at the start of the month when Australian Cotton Outlook spoke to him.

All that remained was about 12ha of flood-water affected crop due to go under the picker any day now, weather permitting.

Once that's done, the modules will make their way to the Queensland Cotton gin at Dalby and Mr Valler will have a better handle on module weights and yields.

"It was a good season," he said. "It would have been nice to get a bit more rain to finish it at the end though.

"We had a few inches (50mm) but a bit more would have helped."

With the first part of the growing season delivering timely showers, Mr Valler noted that it actually became too wet for the crop at some stages.

The cool weather may also play a role in the end result, and it also gave rise to cotton stainers this season.

"We had some smaller bolls on top so I am bit worried for the length."

Nonetheless, after missing out on a crop last year, and with the long term average about 3.2b/ha at the farm, he was pleased to note it had been one of the family's best years.

But the joker in the pack has been the erratic cotton price, which has again come off the boil.

"I was about to sell one day there when it came good, and thought I would wait for the next day and get a few dollars more.

"Then they took the basis right off and it went back down again.

"I will hang on to it now - and hope that's the right thing to do."

SOURCE: Extract from the May issue of Australian Cotton Outlook.