“Our family has been farming here since 1961 when our grandfather Paul and Frank Hadley immigrated from California,” Daniel said. “There was cotton in Australia at the time but it was on a small scale and they came here and kicked off a modern cotton industry and it’s grown from there.”

Daniel is the business manager of the family-owned and operated company, Merced Farming, while Sam is the crop production manager overseeing the 7500ha operation, with about 3500ha developed for irrigation.

Farming decisions are based on five main elements, according to Sam, plus examining what’s happening with commodity markets.

“Water is often the main factor, but so is the land, capatal, people and equipment,” he said. “In an average season with full water we irrigate about 1700ha of cotton. 

“Our views on growing cotton are based more on growing for margin than yield, with the focus on getting the most out of the inputs that go into the crop, particularly water.”

The Kahls aim for maximum efficiency and calculate water and nitrogen to produce 12 bales of cotton per hectare, compared with many who aim for 15 bales.

“We budget to use only 6ML/ha as we believe that gives us the best return on the water, around 2 bales per ML,” Sam said. “We water the cotton about six times using 0.8-1ML at each water.”

The brothers and their father, James, plan water use carefully as it takes five days for the water to get to the farm, but new Mace meters mean that pumping can now be monitored digitally.

“They’re more reliable than old style meters and you can check it online, making it easier to monitor how much we pump and ensure it isn’t more than we’ve ordered,” Daniel said.

They always aim to have empty dams after the last irrigation so there’s no unnecessary losses from evaporation

Wheat is planted straight behind the cotton and then if there’s moisture available mung beans are the next crop in the rotation, followed by corn. They also run a self-replacing Angus herd of 300 breeders with progeny turned off as weaners.

“In normal conditions only irrigate the cotton, with the other crops grown on rainfall,” Daniel said. “Cotton gets priority for water because it makes the best returns.

“However, in years when we don’t have full water allocations, we have to change our decision making o ensure those other elements of land, people and equipment aren’t sitting idle. That might mean planting irrigated mung beans, which use 2ML/ha instead to make better use of the smaller amount of water.”

At “Glencoe” about one quarter of the irrigation water comes from ground water and the majority from Lake Keepit, however, the Kahls don’t use the ground water in good years.

“This year and last year Keepit has a significant amount of water so we haven’t used the ground water, choosing to give it a rest and a chance to fully recharge,” Daniel said. This helps drought proof production by ensuring the ground water is available during dry times.

More than 80 per cent of the water that flows in the Namoi is for the environment – irrigators can access 16 per cent and the town water supply and stock and domestic users account for the remaining 4 per cent.