Friday night saw Scott and Cath Vincent, of "Wirrigai" Narromine, take the Suncorp Top Field Award at the MCGA annual Awards Dinner, held at the atmospheric Showground Pavilion at Trangie.
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A crowd of 135 people from all facets of the cotton industry enjoyed the chance to celebrate and socialise for the night.
This year saw a change in how the Crop Competitions were organised, with two awards, the Top Field and the Farm of the Year.
The Suncorp Top Field Award was based on the highest ginned yield of any field over 20Ha.
The four Macquarie Valley gins supplied the names of their ten highest yielding fields, and the growers were contacted to have the option to opt in or out of the competition.
This was hotly contested and the final winners were Scott and Cath Vincent of "Wirrigai", Narromine, with 14.3 bales per hectare.
Mr Vincent has only been growing cotton for the past three years, and paid homage to the support and open-heartedness that he has found inall sections of the cotton industry.
Bob Ford from Cotton Seed Distributors made a special presentation to Andrew Gill, "Waterloo", Narromine, for the Dr Norm Thomson Shield for Outstanding Fibre Quality in a CSD Variety Trial.
Andrew regularly undertakes trials for CSD and is always in the top percentage with the fibre quality of his trial.
Sinclair Steele from Auscott, Warren, was recognised for his input into the industry, receiving the Tracserv Young Achiever of the Year Award. Sinclair gives his time generously, regularly guiding people around Auscott, sharing his knowledge and experience with them.
He has also completed a rural leadership course, is one of the organisers of the MCGA Golf Day and is currently Vice-Chairman of MCGA.
The Chesterfield Farm of the Year Award had three finalists, initially selected from the three top whole-farm ginned yield results from each gin.
Once again, growers were given the chance to opt out before any information was given out by the gins.
The judging panel then interviewed the finalists regarding their crop management, water use efficiency and weighted in the overall production of the farm.
The finalists were Scott and Cath Vincent, "Wirrigai" Narromine, agronomist Matt Ward; Michael, Marie-Anne and John Noonan, "Braeburn" Nevertire, agronomist Mat Ceeney; and Stewart, Fran, Jock and Harley Crawford, "Quondong" Narromine, agronomist Matt Ward.
The surprised and delighted winners were Michael, Marie-Anne and John Noonan who thanked their agronomist Mat Ceeney for all his input.
The final award for the night was the highly esteemed Jim Beale Memorial Services to the Industry Award.
This year's recipient went to Mike Shields of Warren, who has been incredibly active in so many different facets of the cotton industry for the past 25 years. Rob McCutcheon did a great recap on Mike's contribution to the local industry.
"Our award nights are great events and we were pleased to bring the night back into the valley after having the past three events in Dubbo," MCGA chairman Brett Cumberland said.
"It is a wonderful chance to celebrate the successes of the season, and an opportunity for growers from the length and breadth of the valley to spend some time together."
"The night owes a lot of its success to the generosity and support of our sponsors: Tracserv, Chesterfield Australia, Suncorp, Darling Irrigation, CGS, Namoi Cotton, Rabo, Cargill, CSD, Tahlee Consulting, AgPro/Louis Dreyfus, Delta and Auscott Limited."
