AUSTRALIA'S cotton industry has long been acclaimed for its cutting edge science, research and technology, however it appears there is a secret weapon in taking water use efficiency rates to dizzy heights - the great Australian barbecue.
A group of Darling Downs cotton producers, who have been achieving WUE results that place them in elite company have been gathering at the end of the season to mull over what has worked and what has not, assisting some impressive on the ground gains.
All of agronomist Matt Holding's cotton farmers meet at the end of each season to share what worked and what didn't and that's been a major benefit to all, as they focus on water efficiency.
"Every year at the end of the season we have a get together with all the guys that Matt is involved with here," Brookstead cotton grower Hamish Bligh said.
"We all sit there and talk about how the season went and what we ended up with and what worked and didn't work," he said.
The group have already set the bar high with their cuts in pesticide use, using on average 40 per cent lower rates of chemical than the national average.
The focus is now water, with the ambitious goal to achieve a minimum of two bale per megalitre applied.
There are many management strategies being combined to bring water use down.
Darling Downs cotton grower of the Year Johannes Roellgen moved to overhead irrigation many years ago allowing variability in water delivery quickly pending changing weather patterns and events.
"It comes at a cost with higher set-up, energy and diesel inputs but those costs are outweighed by the increased water efficiency of around 25 per cent," Mr Roellgen said.
"With licences out of the Condamine River we find overhead irrigation way better then flood irrigation, which is harder to regulate and control if there's a flood after watering," he said.
Mr Bligh had similar results.
"With the overhead irrigators we are about 25pc more efficient than the flood irrigation," he said.
"And it gives you a system where you get more crop under the irrigation because we don't have to set up the flood systems and laser level and all those sorts of things."
Howard Rother relies on drip irrigation for most of his cotton and he said he can achieve as much as 3.5 to 4 bales per megalitre in the best conditions.
"I like to think that were trying to grow more crop per drop because if we can grow more cotton with the same water that's where it will be beneficial to us," Mr Rother said.
"We want to push the boundaries - the agronomist thinks we can go to 12 and a half bales per hectares on skip row."
There have been some tangible benefits to the push for better WUE.
In 2020, Mr Blight harvested an entire cotton crop with only one in-crop irrigation - good plant nutrition allowed the first irrigation to be pushed back to February.
"We got away with one in-crop irrigation and achieved about 12 bales. We were pretty lucky because we got a good 75 ml storm at the end of the season which helped us through and made the water use efficiency look really good."