The cotton harvest is well under way around the region, with headers working through the day and night.
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Out on the Breeza Plains at “Newhaven”, the Tudgeys finished up their dryland harvest on Wednesday.
The dryland crop was caught in a storm during harvest, with hail causing a “little bit of damage” to one block. The storm put the harvest to a stop for a day.
This year, the Tudgeys planted about 500 hectares of dryland cotton and about 500 hectares of irrigated cotton.
When the NVI spoke to David Tudgey in late February, he said that yield and quality would be an issue for the dryland cotton with buds cracking immaturely, however, the end result may be better than anticipated.
“Yields are probably slightly better than expected for a hot, dry year,” Mr Tudgey said.
“Cotton still stands up there and does pretty good in a hot, dry year.”
The Tudgey’s cotton bales have already been trucked to Carroll Cotton and they will wait to find out which quality class it will fall into. Despite the uncertainty, Mr Tudgey said prices are “terrific”.
“Prices have held up there good at the moment,” he said.
“I’ve forward sold quite a bit of cotton.”
If the rain keeps off, the Tudgeys will start harvesting the irrigated cotton in the next week.
“We're doing a bit of maintenance and getting ready to do the irrigation,” he said.
“This warm dry weather we’re having is good for defoliating and picking,” he said.
The irrigated cotton has fared better than the dryland, with the Tudgeys only just keeping the water up to it in the ongoing heat.
“I’m only growing what the water can handle,” he said.
“If you can keep the water up to the summer, it’s ideal weather for irrigated cotton.”
The farmer is already looking ahead to winter crops, with oats already in the ground for forage. He will also look at planting wheat and chickpeas.
“Soon as everyone finishes picking, it would be good to see a good fall of rain,” he said.
“Things aren’t looking so good for winter crops – there’s just no soil profile at the moment.
“It needs to rain a bit first. It’s the first year it’s been so dry heading into sowing wheat.”
All going well, Mr Tudgey will plant in early June, but if the rain holds off, he may have to plant as late as July.
