RELIABLE rainfall, fertile soils, viable temperatures and good sunlight enticed one of the largest cotton producers in NSW to purchase a large-scale property on the Central Tablelands in Far North Queensland.
With holdings in Moree, NSW, the Statham family who own Sundown Pastoral, purchased the 43,706 hectare St Ronans Station in August 2019, in the middle of the drought to try and keep their team and business going.
The Statham family have been growing cotton at St Ronans, between Mount Garnet and Mount Surprise, since early 2020. They planted 1200ha of dryland cotton in January of that year, which went on to yield 5.6 bales/ha when it was picked in June.
Sundown Pastoral co-owner David Statham described the expansion as a success for company.
We ventured up north for a bit more reliable rainfall and tried to find a bit of scale.
- David Statham
"Not one day's over 36 degrees and we're 740 metres above sea level so there's reliable rainfall, fertile soil and perfect temperatures to grow cotton," Mr Statham said.
"We came up here and grew our first crop in 2020 and had a fair bit of success and we have since learnt a lot from it."
Despite the successful move, Mr Statham said distance from the service industry to their property can be challenging at times.
"To get something fixed in Moree it takes a couple of hours, whereas here it takes a couple of days," he said.
Mr Statham said their planting window for their dryland cotton on the central Tablelands can be restrictive as well.
"In terms of our planting window for cotton, we've got to get the crop in the ground before the rain," he said.
"At the start of this year, it rained for 21 days straight, so we had to wait until it stopped raining to try and get a dry window to finish planting.
"We had 60 per cent planted before the rain and then we had to wait for three or four weeks to plant the other 40pc.
"We were lucky to receive an April rainfall event and we needed that to get similar results to last year or better."
The Stathams have plans to build more on-farm water storages in the near future.
Cotton Growers Tour Success
In late March, a FNQ Cotton Growers tour on the Atherton Tablelands attracted more than 140 farmers and industry leaders from across Australia.
As fall armyworm continues to put pressure on farms across the Tablelands grains industry, an increasing number of farmers are trialling the fibre crop as a more resilient and potentially lucrative alternative.
The Stathams and three other cotton producers on the Atherton Tablelands joined together to showcase their cotton success to other farmers and industry leaders across Australia.