Business owner Scott Davies said from a construction point-of-view, the upgrade "was all on target".

He is "really happy" with where the project is up to, and "having local contractors there to assist us with the project has been fantastic".

"We haven't had any issues around COVID that have held us up in delivery of equipment and things like that," Mr Davies said.

"All of the processing equipment is installed and we've constructed the shed around the project.

"Final duct work will be done by the end of the month and we're really sort of down to the electricians doing all of their end point terminations."

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An official sod-turning sparked the beginning of the works back in June 2020, and it was announced at this time the upgrades would boost the production of cotton-related products from about $60 million to $150 million.

Mr Davies said in terms of the current crop, they were about eight to 10 weeks away from picking, and the gin would be up-and-running at this time to get that done.

"The cotton is looking good, we're back to potentially a normal production season around that 100,000 bale mark," he said.

Thankfully, the ongoing mice plague hasn't impacted cotton crops too much.

"We probably haven't seen cotton as adversely affected as other summer crops, but they're certainly there," Mr Davies told the Leader.

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