This year’s 140,000-hectare crop is expected to yield about 1.4 million bales, well up from last year’s measly 600,000 bale crop.

Although still early days, Namoi Cotton grower services general manager, David Lindsay, Wee Waa, said with picking about 20 per cent done in Central Queensland, and more like 15pc underway in northern NSW regions, the crop was looking good.

Yields were running at 8.7 to 10 bales a hectare, and apart from some marginal grades caused by recent rain in Central Queensland, quality in the Macintyre, Gwydir and Namoi Valleys was so far high.

Prices which have lingering below $400 a bale for most of last year don’t create huge excitement, but the real dampener has been drought, with low water allocations putting a lid on plantings for the past few years.

Although not as hard-hit by water shortages as the rice industry, cotton is a long way from the heady days when industry players planned for a crop of 450,000ha to 500,000ha.

For more see this week's The Land.