PHOTO: Noa inspects the cotton crop at Waverleigh near Narromine
One of the wettest years on record in NSW has literally dampened hopes of exceeding last year’s record cotton crop of 5.6 million bales.
While water availability was hoped to contribute to a bumper crop, growers in the local region have said this is not the case.
John Elder and Karin Stark, who grow cotton near Narromine on their 2500 hectare “Waverleigh” property said the season has been disappointing.
“We usually plant around 500 hectares of cotton as part of our cropping system. In a good year we harvest around 12 bales to the hectare. This year, due to the weather, we lost around two thirds of our yield,” Ms Stark said.
“What we did manage to harvest was poor quality and will be downgraded…