COTTON growers from the Narrabri, Goondiwindi and Gunnedah regions have been named finalists in the 2025 Bayer Cotton Grower of the Year award and AgriRisk High Achiever of the Year award.
Cotton Australia last week announced five finalists, with results to be announced at the Cotton Collective in Toowoomba in August.
Thomas Popp, who farms Springfield at Kurumbal, east of Goondiwindi, was named a finalist alongside Tom and Julia Eather, from the Bellevue Pastoral Company, Narrabri and the Brownhill family from Merrilong Agricultural Company at Spring Ridge, south of Gunnedah.
There were five finalists, with each grower highlighting excellence in farming practice and outstanding recent results in cotton production.
This year, each of the five finalists, nominated by their Cotton Grower Associations and fellow growers, will be considered for the Bayer Grower of the Year Award and the AgriRisk High Achiever of the Year, with one recipient to be announced in each category.
This year the finalists are:
Tyson Armitage: Wamara Farming Trust, Cecil Plains, Queensland;
Brownhill Family: Merrilong Agricultural Company, Spring Ridge, New South Wales;
Tom and Julia Eather: Bellevue Pastoral Company, Narrabri, New South Wales;
Thomas Popp: Springfield, RMI Ltd, Kurumbal, Queensland; and
Matt Richards: RDS Farming, Nobby, Queensland.

Tom Eather farms Bellevue Pastoral Company, Narrabri, with his sister, Julia. Tom and Julia are finalists in the 2025 Bayer Cotton Grower of the Year award and AgriRisk High Achiever of the Year award.
Cotton Australia’s CEO Adam Kay said the nominees for this year’s top cotton industry awards are all highly deserving, with some encountering a challenging year particularly with the onset of rain at the start of picking.
“The awards are the Australian cotton industry’s top grower honours for the year, and they recognise a range of attributes including innovation, sustainability, water efficiencies, nutrition and soil health, and commitment to their own communities,” Mr Kay said.
“This year the nominees represent a range of cotton growers with one producing only his third cotton crop while another family has been growing cotton for more than 30 years and are now 5th generation farmers.
“I am also pleased to say that all the nominees this year are family farms ranging in size from two full time employees to more than 60 across several farms, displaying the great diversity that Australian cotton farms are renowned for.”
The growers were nominated after winning regional awards or after recognition from other growers, impressed by their farming strategies and crop outcomes. The farms included in this year’s nominations include some with predominantly rain fed crops while others are fully irrigated, using a variety of irrigation methods.
As part of the judging effort, Cotton Australia supported last year’s Bayer Grower of the Year Scott Balsillie and AgriRisk High Achiever Steve McVeigh in visiting each of the nominee’s farm’s, accompanied by sponsor representatives, to witness first-hand their innovative and forward-thinking farming practices.
“Being named as the recipient of the Bayer Grower of the Year award for 2024 was the highlight of my agricultural career, and being able to visit the finalists on their farms in 2025 has been another highlight. They are all very dedicated and talented and each one deserves recognition for what they are achieving,” Mr Balsillie said.
The Bayer Cotton Grower of the Year and the AgriRisk High Achiever of the Year awards will be announced at the Cotton Collective at the Awards Dinner in Toowoomba on 6 August this year.
The CRDC Chris Lehmann Young Cotton Achiever of the Year Award, the Cotton Seed Distributors Researcher of the Year Award, and the IPF Service to Industry Award will also be announced at the Collective dinner.
Tickets for the Cotton Collective and the Cotton Awards Dinner will be released shortly.
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