Our tour of Tandou holdings gave us the opportunity to inspect both their orchard and their venture into cotton growing. Their claim of best practice in respect to the methods used to produce the end products, and application of greatest efficieny to achieve maximum return - (and thereby profit for shareholders) - was justified by what we saw. The rationale applied, figuring the best manner in which to prune and support the stone-fruit trees so that fruit is allowed to mature and is easily picked, has passed initial trials. Their approach is to find means to guarantee that quality fruit is brought to market early in the season and so gain advantage in the price stakes. Where ventures showed little return for effort those scheme have been dropped.

The company has to a large extent, so far, avoided conflict with small-enterprise farmers by diversifying into fields with different market strategies. For example, Tandou vines are grown for the wine industry, (chiefly Chardonnay), whereas small holdings produce table grapes (as we saw on Geoff Walsh's property). Also with apricot and apple harvests, crops are timed to ripen at different dates. This is meant to minimise the threat to smaller competitors, and so keep them on side - yet the threat to the livelihood of small property owners remains. Geoff's return from his 10 acre property depends on his personal effort, with him managing alone except when pickers are required at harvest time. Having to pay large transport costs for his fruit to be delivered to market is also an expensive challenge he has to meet.

Tandou plans to plant Pima and Upland cotton, alternating with cereals crops, on the dry bed of the former ephemeral Lake Tandou. Water is drawn from the Menindee lakes system, and irrigation is carried out by sub-surface drip through a gravity-fed/furrow system, with fertilizer added at source. A general lack of sufficient water, experienced by all growers, means it is impossible to ensure enough of an allocation is available throughout the entire growing season. This has put the Tandou cotton scheme in jeopardy, with one cotton yield having already been missed. Planting for this year's crop had just been completed, with no guarantee of a yield. The considerable expense involved in establishing milling facilities had been more than matched in its profits in the first three years (before the drought).

Problems with occasional flooding as well as (in the main) insufficient water to substantiate the amount of irrigation that all parties would like to achieve, is compounded by the degree of salinity that determines which crops are economically feasible and what initiatives should be put in place to protect the ecosystem into the future.

The crops that are grown in the Menindee Lakes area depend entirely on how much water is flowing down the River Darling.

Water is allocated with priority given to ‘permanent’ crops such as vines and fruit trees. ’Permanent’ crops depend on a constant supply of water all year where as ‘annual’ crops depend on a seasonal, usually heavier supply. Those growing ‘annual’ crops, vegetables, cereals, cotton etc. have received such a small percentage of their allocation that last year (drought) and this year (very low flows) have only been able to sow a very small amount of their normal crops.

Tandou Orchards is a highly successful grower and marketer of apricots, apples and wine grapes. Part of their success is their ability to be first at the markets with their fruits, because of the ideal climate. They have selected fruits that are water efficient and can tolerate high salinity levels for short periods. During the drought salinity levels reached 3000EC; apricots can survive on 1400EC, vines 1600EC and apples 800EC.

Trees and vines are irrigated with perforated dripper lines, which are 15cm below the surface ensuring that the water is supplied directly to the roots of the plants and minimises evaporation. Liquid fertiliser is dispensed through the same system (the process called ‘fertigation’), creating an almost hydroponic effect. By using a single dripper line and root pruning the trees every two years their size is contained making it easier to pick the fruit and to maximise water use. The line is flushed regularly to ensure that the perforations do not block and this flushing is pumped to settling dams and recycled.

Organic matter and cow manure are dug into the ground before planting and prunings and fallen leaves are used as mulch. Watering is controlled by a computer, which uses information collected from probes in the ground, rainfall, transpiration rates etc. Trees and vines are grown along the line of the dunes where sand depth assists drainage. Vines are now being planted East/West instead of North/South to reduce heat damage and reduce water use.

From the start, Tandou Orchards made the business decision to avoid planting crops grown by existing farmers in the area. These include red and white table grapes and annual crops, cereals, onions, tomatoes, lettuces and rockmelons.

It is difficult to understand how water can be allocated to cotton, rice, vine, fruit and other growers when the priority should be to communities who depend on decent quality water for drinking and household requirements

The Tandou Farm was created in 1972 on what was once a vast ephemeral lake-bed in the Menindee area. Approximately 14000 of the 17000 hectare basin of deep cracking, self-mulching clay, has been developed for cropping. Using a combination of gravity fed flood-furrow irrigation and some sub-surface drip feed irrigation, cereal and cotton crops are grown in rotation. Cotton is grown in discrete 1200 acre (approx.486 Ha) drip fed fields, which are graded with approx. a half of the normal drainage “fall” of one foot per mile used for irrigated cotton fields. Planting is on twin mounds straddling the ten inch deep trench within which the special poly-pipe dripper system is buried. The larger mounds are separated by deeper drainage trenches – which allow any “natural” water from rain to drain from the plants, avoiding plant over-watering. Because of the geography of the old lake-bed, no water can leave the farm. Vegetable waste is composted on-site and used on crops and in the nearby Tandou Orchard. Cotton seed separated by the ginning operation is sold for later processing.

Cotton ginning plant was installed at Tandou in 1991 for an original cost of $4.5 million. Subsequent improvements have raised this cost to approx. $10 million, which has since been recovered by reduction in transportation costs. The freedom from dependence upon external processors has enabled closer quality control of the product and has permitted Tandou to market premium grade Pima cotton as well as high quality versions of the traditional “upland” varieties.

Pima cotton, with its longer staple and more uniform micron fibre is a superior grade and earns approx. 30% more per weight than the upland varieties. The tightly trapped Pima seed must be ginned away using a “roller” gin mill, much slower and gentler in action than the normal “saw” toothed gin employed for the upland varieties. Ginned Pima cotton is baled in unbleached calico bales for supply, apparently exclusively, to Swiss customers.

The Tandou group treats cotton as an “opportunity” crop, planting when water is available. The drought of last year and this year’s greatly reduced water availability (about 30% of allocation) has hindered cotton growth with drastic impact on the business. The group has managed to hold key people so far, but much will depend on the yield from this year’s reduced crop.

Whilst at Tandou Farm, we repeatedly observed “smart” farm management with clever use of available resources by very proficient, well motivated operators. It has been documented elsewhere that Australian cotton growers produce much more cotton per litre of water than any of their overseas competitors, and water use per hectare is similar to that for citrus and grain crops, less than rice crops and more than wine grapes.

If cotton must be grown in Australia, then this must surely be the way to do it. The bottom line question, however, remains “do we have the water available to permit this industry to continue?”

John M