Kimberley Resumes Cotton Harvests After Decade Lull
After a decade, Kimberley's cotton growers are harvesting cotton once more.
The ABC reported around 800 hectares of GM cotton will be balled up by a Queensland contract harvester next month.
However, growers were not overly optimistic they could replicate the achievement next year.
"When us growers got together at the start of the season it was a lucrative crop due to the price, but that has come back a fair way and the logistics of getting it trucked over to Dalby in Queensland to get ginned is rather expensive," Matt Gray said in the ABC.
"So at the moment I think it'll remain as a one-off for now."
Cotton researcher Penny Goldsmith, who had been supervising this year's crop, said trying to grow cotton in the region has been challenging what with the late wet season, the cool weather and few pest problems.
"But with all of those challenges if we get 8.5 bales a hectare it'll be good and if we get more we'll be laughing," Goldsmith said in ABC.
Gray said he hopes to make a profit on his crop of around 8 bales a hectare.
Cotton prices reached record highs at the start of the year, hitting $1,000 a bale, but have since dropped by more than half.