It’s time to talk about champions of cotton again, as nominations open for the 2025 Australian Cotton Industry Awards.
The Awards will be celebrated at the Empire Theatre in Toowoomba, Queensland, on 7 August. They’re being held in conjunction with the Cotton Collective and Australian Cotton Tradeshow, which will run from 6–7 August at the Toowoomba Showground.
Nominations across all categories close on 28 March. These are the Bayer Cotton Grower of the Year, AgriRisk High Achiever of the Year, Cotton Seed Distributors Researcher of the Year, Incitec Pivot Fertiliser Service to Industry, and the CRDC Chris Lehmann Young Achiever of the Year Award.
The CRDC Chris Lehmann Young Achiever of the Year
As part of their prize, the recipient of the CRDC Young Achiever Award will receive a bursary to attend the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation’s TRAIL Emerging Leaders Program, valued at $12,000. It’s a seven-day program held in Canberra in early March each year.
This is a new aspect of the award, with 2024 awardee Sharna Holman, CottonInfo’s Technical Lead for Biosecurity and Disease, the first recipient to complete TRAIL as part of her award.
CRDC General Manager, Communications and Extension, Ruth Redfern, said with the amount of talent and contribution exhibited by younger people in the industry, there are plenty of young achievers worthy of nomination.
“Investing in our young achievers is a natural fit for us, and we look forward to meeting all the nominees this year,” Ruth said.
“No doubt we will see faces that have come through one or more of the programs we invest in to build capacity in the Australian cotton industry.”
Investing in future leaders
CRDC supports the development of people in many ways: through Nuffield Australia’s farming scholarships, the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation’s programs, AgriFutures Australia’s Horizon Scholarships, our own CRDC summer and honours scholarships, the Cotton Australia and CRDC Australian Future Cotton Leaders Program, and the CRDC-supported SHIFT on-farm workforce development program.
A strong indication of the number of passionate young achievers out there is the fact that Cotton Australia and CRDC received 50 applications for the most recent Future Cotton Leaders intake, demonstrating the calibre, initiative and drive that exists in the next generation.
CRDC encourages young people working right across the industry to apply, and others in the industry to nominate or shoulder tap someone who fits the description of a Young Achiever awardee. We are proud to help recognise and celebrate young people doing great things for cotton.
To submit a nomination for the CRDC Chris Lehmann Young Achiever of the Year Award (and other categories), visit the Cotton Australia Awards Nominations page.
