For more than 20 years the Warnocks have focused on cotton growing, putting in an average of 750 hectares of the fibre crop each year under irrigation.

But in the 2006-07 season they decided to renew experimentation with alternative rotation crops such as Durum wheat, bread wheat, soybeans, field peas and faba beans.

Brendon Warnock said the aim was to find which would best suit their farming system and improve yields in their core cotton business.

“We are experimenting with different rotations and crop orders to see how those changes impact on cotton yield and quality,” he said.

“We have implemented lots of changes in technology such as variable rate application of chemicals and the adoption of genetically modified crops to improve our yields.

“What we are looking at now is the impact rotations can have on improving our yields.”

See the full story in this week's The Land.