But that won’t be true of kids from the Griffith-Leeton-Jerilderie-Berrigan region, at least not in respect of cotton anyway.

Traditionally grown in the far north of NSW, the fluffy white flower is gradually making its way south.

And it is a crop that is well worth being involved in, according to Kel Baxter of Namarang at Berrigan.

Mr Baxter’s family has both a large cropping farm and an extensive bulk agriculture haulage company, which runs 30 trucks and employs about 50 staff.

It was because of the family’s transport business that they became aware of the potential of a cotton crop.

“We were working up north during the drought and I took notice of the crop,” Mr Baxter said.

“Then when I saw they were growing it south of Hillston I suspected it would grow down here.

“Our heat is a drier heat than up north but we have more hours of sunlight.”

The Baxters have just harvested their second cotton crop, which they grow on 186 hectares of their 7285-hectare property, with the balance used for canola, wheat, barley and maize.

“There is actually more cotton now produced in Australia than wool,” Mr Baxter said.

“We are getting 2000 bales, weighing 227 kilograms each, off 186 hectares but when we had sheep, 12,000 of them produced 440 bales, weighing 200 kilograms each.

“However they obviously needed a lot more land.”

Mr Baxter said cotton fitted in well with the business’ philosophy of “spreading the risk” or “not having all your eggs in the one basket”.

“We have been growing maize since the 1970s as a summer irrigation crop and now are able to sell into Japan as a non-GM crop,” he said.

“This has given us an opportunity to take advantage of an overseas market.

“Cotton is another crop which gives us a a buffer when our other produce is threatened because of prices or whatever and it is a growing market.

“And it is also an irrigation crop that is very water-efficient.

“It is a bit like beef and sheep. When one is going well the other usually isn’t”.

Cotton also fits in with the business’ crop rotation.

“There are a couple of reasons why we decided to try it,” Mr Baxter said.

“The first was the introduction of Round Up Ready cotton reduced the need for cultivation or handchipping.

“The next was the development of plants resistant to attack by heliothis caterpillars eliminated the need to use endosulphan.

“And the development of the round bale picker dramatically reduced the labour required.

“Using older machines the work we observed being done by two machine operators and another loading bales would have required up to 20 people working in the paddock.

“However it all came about when we had prepared some land to grow maize but did not secure a contract. So we decided to have a crack at cotton.”

Mr Baxter said the industry was growing solidly in the area.

“The Rorato family up the road towards Jerilderie grows their own crop and contract harvests ours,” he said.

“We transport our crop to the Southern Cotton Gin at Whitton, which was started by six growers.

“And I believe our yield is as good as that in northern NSW.”

However, just like Mr Baxter said growing cotton was as calculated risk as are other crops.

“It is a GM crop, so it is very expensive to get into,” he said.

“And we need to develop a shorter-season variety.

“We are harvesting in May when it would be preferrable we were doing it in April.”