Filling a big role in cotton
A new Cotton Australia chairman
WORKING on a farm at St George during the school holidays is what first piqued Hamish McIntyre’s interest in cotton. That interest has led him to become the new chairman of Cotton Australia.
“Our family has been growing irrigated and dryland cotton since the early ’90s, irrigated and dryland cotton,” Mr McIntyre said.
“My first introduction to the crop was working for our neighbours, David and Betsy Turner, on the school holidays.
“I did studied agronomy at Gatton Ag College once I finished school and worked as a dryland agronomist in the Goondiwindi and Moree districts.”
Mr McIntyre then returned to the family property in the Toobeah district to manage their grazing and irrigation development.
“In 1996 I went on to manage a large-scale cotton irrigation development at Dirranbandi for the Cameron family,” he said.
“My wife and I have since grown our family business to include irrigated cotton farms in the St George district as well as dryland farming, cattle breeding and feed-lotting.”
Mr McIntyre has been on the board of Cotton Australia for seven years, and was deputy chair for three years before taking over the role as chairman.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
“We have a challenging season ahead due to water shortages throughout our growing regions.
“Without general rain our production is expected to be half the size of this year’s crop.”
However, Mr McIntyre said he has a positive outlook for the future of Australia’s cotton industry.
“I think there is huge potential for greater production when water does come,” he said.
“The outlook is looking good for the production of natural fibres, whether it’s cotton or wool, due to the increasing issues with microfibre plastics in the world’s oceans.”
The production area for cotton should expand to the northern regions of Australia, according to Mr McIntyre.
“Our industry has large scale growth potential in northern Australia,” he said.
“So we’re looking at a change in land use up there.”
❝I think there is huge potential for production...
— Hamish McIntyre