September 2025
12536829-DL08-22
Touched by Angels
Success at the Ekka
PAGE 4
COVERAGE INSIDE
Showgirls shine on the big stage The Queensland Country Life Showgirl winner for 2025 is South West sub-chamber’s Aleacea Nixon from Roma Show Society. On 6 August, the showgirl finalists had the honour of visiting Government House where they were presented their state finalist sashes by the Queensland Governor, Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young AC PSM. They also got a tour of Parliament House, and shared lunch with the speaker and other MPs. Runner-up was South Burnett’s Carly Jaenke from and showgirl’s choice Shanika Tappert. Read more about Carly’s experience on page 48
2025 Showgirl winners: showgirl’s choice Shanika Tappert, winner Aleacea Nixon, and runner-up Carly Jaenke. (Supplied)
A twist to cotton The 2025/26 cotton season has begun for some growers, with the first planting starting around Emerald in the Central Highlands. And, in an interesting twist, many have just finished picking last season’s cotton.
Emerald grower Aaron Kiely has already planted 70 hectares of an initial 95ha due to soil moisture levels and increasing temperatures after deciding to grow-on part of his cotton crop last season. “We had to do the calculations to see if it
would be viable, but we chose to harvest some and grow-on other cotton for up to 90 days and that meant we were picking last season’s crop only days before planting this season’s in another field.” Growing cotton-on can mean additional in-
puts in water, fertiliser, herbicide and defoliation but Aaron is pleased he decided to go ahead, resulting in good fruit loads, strong growth and a substantially improved yield. STORY PAGE 3
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