On The Land
18 September, 2026
New focus on expanding cotton industry
A NEW generation farmer is now among a growing group of primary producers focussing on the expansion of cotton growing in the Mareeba-Dimbulah Irrigation Area.
A NEW generation farmer is now among a growing group of primary producers focussing on the expansion of cotton growing in the Mareeba-Dimbulah Irrigation Area.
Mr Salvetti has been growing cotton crops for the past four years at his farm and has emerged as a picking contractor across the Far Northern region.
He has worked with Cotton Seed Distributors for the past few years, hosting variety trials and field walks on his farm and has partnered with the Department of Primary Industries on a number of cotton trials.
As part of the FNQ Cotton group, Mr Salvetti is developing a practical online resource to support cotton growers in a region where the industry is still relatively young and where managing the wet season, freight and production systems can be challenging.
He plans to use social media and videos to share what is happening on his farm, including lessons learned, mistakes made and decisions taken as his family grows cotton in rotation with sugarcane and soybeans.
“The idea is to create a place people can go to find out information,” Mr Salvetti said.
“Cotton is a great industry but it’s always tricky when you’re starting off and you have to deal with a unique environment like that in Far North Queensland.
“So, if we can share what we have learned and help others get started, hopefully we can help grow the cotton industry in the north.”
Also serving as president of FNQ Sustainable Cropping, he is focussed on further developing leadership skills to support local growers and promote cotton production across the region and the establishment of a cotton growers association.
A noted farming innovator, Mr Salvetti gained wide acclaim at last year’s FNQ Growers annual awards for his tireless efforts and also is a participant in the Australian Cotton Leadership program.
He is among a group of 17 young farmers who are part of the Australian Cotton Industry Young Leadership group, committed to growing, research and expansion of the cotton industry.
Addressing the recent Australian Cotton Growers’ conference, Jason said that across the past two seasons, the region’s growers who planted about 1500ha of cotton, mostly “in rotation with their existing farming business”, which generally consisted of both cattle and sugarcane.
“Growers that are committed to growing cotton in the Far North Queensland area are also committed to working out how the cotton puzzle will fit together in our region,” Mr Salvetti said.
“In 2024, we saw record yields with some cotton going up to 11b/ha using as little as two megalitres of water per hectare, while dryland growers achieved yields up to 9b/ha in some fields.
“We worked it out; we knew exactly what we were doing…and then this year came along.”
He said the 2025-26 season delivered more than 1060mm of in-crop rain, with most damage caused by frequency from rain on 54 of 84 days.
“Unfortunately, we did see a decline in yields because of that, but it wasn’t as bad as we thought.”
Mr Salvetti said the season reinforced lessons learned during 2024 including that “crops established at least four weeks before the start of the wet season that can get to about eight-ten nodes fare significantly better than those that are planted closer to the start of the wet season”.
“This year early crops planted in December…about three weeks before the start of the wet, yielded close to 9b/ha, while crops planted later in December, closest to the start of the wet season, yielded 6b/ha and crops planted in January, after the start of the wet season, averaged possibly between 3-4b/ha with some growers even contemplating whether or not it was worth picking,” he explained
“One of the challenges that we do have in the north is that we aren’t trying to find the 1% gains, we are trying to find the 40% gains and that’s where crop establishment is going to get our gains.”
He said despite the impacts of the 2025-26 season, optimism prevailed in the region, with growers believing “we are close to cracking the code”.
“The growers I have spoken to speak positively about the industry, about our future and, as we continue to grow cotton and work towards a reliable strategy for growing cotton, we can see a future in cotton,” Mr Salvetti said.
