The improved season has led to a huge demand for seed from Cotton Seed Distributors (CSD), with current seed orders now nearly double the June planting estimates. 

Planting seed supply has tightened, with limited stocks of Bollgard III variety Sicot 746B3F. Sicot 748B3F and Sicot 714B3F are still available and CSD also holds reserve stocks of Bollgard II varieties Sicot 74BRF and Sicot 71BRF. Bollgard III cotton will make up about 95 per cent of the crop in its first year of commercial production.

The Wee Waa-based CSD plant is still producing seed against back orders, meaning that any new order will become available from mid-to-late October at the earliest.

Cotton Australia chief executive officer Adam Kay said the national predicted planted area was increasing with every rainfall event. 

Rainfall has also improved dryland and semi-irrigated cotton prospects. The rain has come at a good time, coinciding with an increase in the bale price, up to $500 earlier this week.

According to Namoi Cotton trading supervisor Pedr Harvey, growers were currently selling 2017-crop cotton at or just below the $500 mark, and cotton seed was trading at $300 a tonne in most growing regions. 

“The winter rains and the certainty growers now have in their water budgets are enabling them not only the opportunity to market their 2017 crop but also their 2018 and 2019 crops as well,” Mr Harvey said.

The biggest concern for growers now is being able to get in the paddock to plant in time. Farmers are hoping to being in early October.

Cotton Seed Distributors extension and development agronomist Rob Eveleigh, Wee Waa, said growers wouldn’t be limited by water, but by land, as many took advantage of improved chickpea prices and planted more winter cropping this year.

“We’re looking at 45,000 hectares to 50,000ha in the Lower Namoi, which includes Walgett, and earlier in the year, we were expecting between 11,000ha and 12,000ha, so it’s a very big expansion. In the Upper Namoi they’ll grow about 17,000ha to 18,000ha of irrigated cotton, an increase of 2000ha to 3000ha, but they don’t rely as heavily on dam levels because they have more access to groundwater.”

Cotton Australia expects a much larger crop than last season, up from 265,000 hectares and 2.6 million bales in 2015-16, to more than 400,000 hectares and more than 4 million bales in the 2016-17 season.