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Need a cotton stripping contractor around Moree, Narrabri, Walgett, Mungindi or elsewhere through the cotton belt?
Henderson Cotton Contracting is based around Moree NSW and runs specialised cotton stripping gear, including the two custom 18-metre John Deere CS770 setups featured in Talking Gear Tuesday.
Head over to Henderson Cotton Contracting on Facebook, or if their timing, location or setup does not suit your job, give Dillon at Broadacre Contracting a call on 0439 300 380.
Broadacre helps growers get cotton stripping requirements in front of suitable contractors and deal directly with the people doing the work.
You can also post the requirement as a tender through Broadacre Contracting.
But if you are actually looking for the Henderson contractor story rather than the machinery nerd stuff, start with Talking Gear Tuesday EP21.
Because Episode 21 was about what these boys built.
Episode 25 is about why the bloody thing might have been worth building.
We are back at Moree NSW with Ethan from Henderson Cotton Contracting, and this time the conversation is not really about how you build an 18-metre cotton stripper. It is about what happens after you build one.
“With innovation comes efficiency.”
That is basically Episode 25 in one sentence.
Legends, welcome back to another Talking Gear Tuesday.
If you watched or read Episode 21 with Henderson Cotton Contracting, you already know the backstory.
Two John Deere CS770 cotton strippers.
Custom-built 18-metre stripper bars.
Twelve units at 1.5-metre spacing.
Extensions.
A different auger arrangement.
Years spent getting the concept working.
And yes.
It is real.
Apparently enough people thought our social footage looked like AI that I need to clarify that.
No AI stripper bars here, legends.
The Henderson boys actually built them.
Episode 21 asked:
Why would you build an 18-metre CS770?
Episode 25 asks the much better question:
What does 18 metres actually give you once you get into the paddock?
That takes us into productivity.
Controlled traffic.
Wheel tracks.
Diesel.
Machine hours.
And ultimately the reason most agricultural innovation exists in the first place.
Efficiency.
We deliberately split this Henderson Cotton Contracting story across two Talking Gear Tuesday episodes.
Episode 21 was the machinery and innovation story.
How did these bars come about?
Why 18 metres?
How were they built?
What row configurations are they targeting?
Episode 25 gets into what I really wanted to know once I had seen the machines working.
Did all that effort actually create an advantage?
Because innovation for the sake of innovation can become a fairly expensive hobby.
You can fabricate anything.
You can modify anything.
You can spend years perfecting something nobody else has.
But once that machine reaches the paddock, it eventually needs to justify itself.
And Ethan’s explanation was basically:
yes, because the efficiency is where it starts making sense.
Henderson’s figures through the episode relate specifically to their own machines, crops, conditions and operating experience.
They are not John Deere factory performance figures.
They are not a controlled trial.
And they should not be taken as a guarantee that another grower or contractor will reproduce them.
But they are bloody useful real-world numbers to talk about.
Before getting into Henderson’s modifications, it helps to understand what a standard John Deere CS770 actually is.
The CS770 is John Deere’s current self-propelled cotton stripper platform in Australia.
John Deere also advertises the CS770 as delivering 15% greater fuel efficiency than the previous CS690 in its own internal comparisons.
Important distinction:
that 15% is a John Deere CS770-versus-CS690 claim.
It is not a claim about Henderson Cotton Contracting’s custom 18-metre bar.
That becomes important later because we have two different efficiency conversations happening.
One is:
what did John Deere change when it developed the CS770?
The other is:
what has Henderson potentially gained by taking that machine and building a much wider custom stripping system?
They are related.
They are not the same claim.
This is what makes the Henderson machines interesting.
John Deere’s Australian CS770 literature lists factory 8-row and 12-row stripper heads.
The current factory options include configurations such as the SH8R, SH12R and SH12F.
Henderson’s configuration is different.
This is not an 18-metre option you simply tick on the John Deere order form.
The Henderson crew developed the wider system themselves.
Ethan explained through our first episode that it took a couple of years to get the setup where they wanted it.
That means Episode 25 becomes particularly interesting.
Because now we have an operator who has actually run the thing telling us what the result has been.
I am deliberately not going to say it is definitely the only one in the world.
We have not independently proven that.
What we can confidently say is that it is not a standard John Deere factory configuration, and I certainly have not seen another CS770 setup like it in Australia.
If somebody overseas is hiding another one somewhere:
send it through.
I would genuinely love to see it.
This was the first number that really made me listen.
Ethan told us Henderson Cotton Contracting is roughly 25% better off on productivity with the custom 18-metre bars compared with the 12-metre fronts they had been running.
Twenty-five per cent.
That is not a tiny optimisation.
Again, that is Henderson’s real-world operating figure.
Not my figure.
Not John Deere’s figure.
And not a promise that sticking a wider front on something automatically gives everyone another 25%.
But think about the principle.
If a contractor can cover materially more country with the same power unit, that can potentially mean:
For the winter-cropping people reading this, I originally tried to compare it to a header.
If somebody told me they had found another 25% productivity out of one header without buying another complete machine, I would want to know exactly what they had done.
Now, it is not a perfect comparison.
A cotton stripper and a grain header are not doing the same job.
And someone from cotton is probably already preparing a message explaining why my comparison is terrible.
That is okay.
I have your attention now.
Mission achieved.
The important part is not my dodgy header comparison. It is that Henderson says the wider setup materially increased the amount of work they can do with each machine.
Now we get into one of the strongest reasons this 18-metre setup interests me.
Controlled traffic farming.
And this is bigger than cotton.
Controlled traffic farming, or CTF, is essentially about keeping machinery traffic on defined permanent lanes rather than driving heavy machinery randomly over more of the productive crop bed.
I have talked about this previously through Talking Gear Tuesday with Customized Spreading down around Birchip.
My rough farmer interpretation has always been:
we cannot make compaction disappear, but we can give it somewhere to live.
That is not a scientific definition.
But it is basically how I picture it.
GRDC has reported that moving to controlled traffic systems can reduce the proportion of cropped land exposed to compaction from around 40–60% to less than 20% in suitable systems.
That does not mean Henderson’s 18-metre bar reduces soil compaction by a set percentage.
The actual outcome depends on tyre or track setup, axle loads, soil moisture, existing tramlines, machinery widths and the rest of the farm system.
But a wider working width can reduce the number of harvesting passes required.
And if the width lines up with the grower’s planting and controlled-traffic system, the benefits become much more interesting.
CottonInfo has documented Australian cotton growers modifying harvesting equipment specifically so machinery wheel spacings line up through their controlled-traffic systems.
So this is not some theoretical idea I have invented after too much coffee.
Matching machinery is a genuine part of controlled-traffic cotton production.
This part interested me more than a specification sheet.
Ethan told us growers particularly noticed the wheel-track benefit through a wet season.
His feedback was that after stripping, growers could come back in and plant chickpeas without contending with as many harvesting wheel tracks across the paddock.
That is operator and grower feedback from Henderson’s own work.
It is not an agronomic trial.
But it makes the practical value of controlled traffic very easy to understand.
Because when everything is dry and perfect, a wheel track can feel like a theoretical discussion.
Get a wet season.
Get ruts.
Then try to plant the following crop through the mess.
Suddenly the discussion becomes much less theoretical.
This is where I think the grower benefit of Henderson’s build becomes clearer.
It is not:
“Look how wide our machine is.”
Being wide for the sake of being wide achieves nothing.
It is:
can this width fit the grower’s system better, reduce unnecessary traffic and still get the crop off efficiently?
That is a much better question.
Now for one of the numbers everybody asks about.
Diesel.
During Episode 25, Ethan told us Henderson had seen fuel consumption around:
Around 5 L/ha
Around 8 L/ha
Those figures apply to Henderson Cotton Contracting’s own operating experience with the custom 18-metre CS770 setup.
They are not a universal CS770 specification.
Conditions matter enormously.
Yield matters.
Speed matters.
Soil matters.
Machine setup matters.
Operator matters.
And comparing fuel figures from two machines in completely different crops or seasons is fairly useless.
Ethan also discussed smaller-width setups potentially sitting higher again on litres per hectare.
That is useful context.
But I am deliberately not turning that into:
“An 18m Henderson stripper guarantees X litres per hectare of fuel saving.”
We do not have an independently controlled, same-paddock, same-crop test proving that.
What we do have is a contractor reporting that the combination of greater productivity and their fuel use per hectare is working in their favour.
That is the honest version.
Diesel has always been one of those everyday farm costs.
It is there.
We use it.
We complain about it.
Then we fill the tank again.
I was trying to come up with an analogy while writing the original version of this yarn.
And this is what I came up with.
A farm and diesel are a bit like a lunchbox and a sandwich.
It is the everyday thing.
You expect it to be there.
It is not supposed to be the exciting part.
Then diesel starts pushing through $3 a litre and suddenly that plain sandwich has become a five-star burger with the lot.
Now everybody is paying attention to the bloody sandwich.
And that price shock really happened.
On 25 March 2026, the ACCC reported average retail diesel prices across more than 190 regional Australian locations had reached 307.6 cents per litre.
That was up 28.6 cents per litre in a single week.
That does not mean every farm was paying $3.076/L for bulk agricultural diesel.
Bulk supply arrangements differ.
Locations differ.
Fuel tax credits matter.
Timing matters.
But it gives us very real context for why reducing litres per hectare suddenly becomes a much louder conversation.
A few litres does not sound like much.
Multiply it across hundreds or thousands of hectares and it absolutely starts sounding like something.
Righto.
Time for a little side mission with the calculator.
I want to be very clear before we do this.
The following figures are an illustration, not a measured Henderson Cotton fuel-saving trial.
We know Henderson reported its own 18-metre CS770s operating around 5 L/ha in favourable dry conditions and around 8 L/ha in heavier, higher-yielding conditions.
We cannot simply compare those numbers with another machine running in different conditions and call the difference a guaranteed saving.
But we can answer a useful question:
if greater efficiency reduced fuel consumption by 3, 5 or 7 litres per hectare, what would that be worth across a decent-sized cotton job?
For the price assumption, I am going to use $3.08/L.
Why?
Because that is approximately the ACCC’s 307.6c/L regional retail average from 25 March 2026.
Again:
replace that with your actual diesel cost when doing your own sums.
3 L/ha reduction
2,700 litres × $3.08 = $8,316
5 L/ha reduction
4,500 litres × $3.08 = $13,860
7 L/ha reduction
6,300 litres × $3.08 = $19,404
Now that gets my attention.
But I do not want the takeaway to be:
“Henderson will save you $19,404.”
That is not what these numbers say.
The takeaway is:
once fuel costs become expensive enough, seemingly small changes in litres per hectare can turn into serious money across a large harvest program.
That is why contractors and growers should measure it properly.
Actual litres.
Actual hectares.
Actual crop.
Actual conditions.
Actual dollars.
Then you know.
This was the next part that nearly put me on the ground.
I asked Ethan what one of these machines is worth.
His rough answer was that once you start adding the extras, a new CS770 can get close to the $2 million territory.
That is Ethan’s indication from the contracting side.
It is not a current John Deere retail quote.
Specifications, options, dealer pricing, finance and timing obviously change the number.
But either way:
we are talking about a very serious capital investment.
And that makes machine hours important.
If Henderson’s setup genuinely delivers about 25% greater effective productivity than its previous setup, there is a simple way of visualising it.
If a certain amount of cotton took 1,250 hours at the previous work rate, a system operating at 25% greater productivity could theoretically complete that same amount of work in around 1,000 hours.
Difference: approximately 250 machine hours.
That does not automatically equal some fixed dollar saving.
But machine hours feed into a lot of things:
I originally went further and started making statements about depreciation and resale value.
I am pulling that back.
Cotton harvester resale values depend on the market, machine condition, hours, age, specifications and availability.
There is no honest universal formula where we can say:
250 fewer hours equals exactly this many dollars in resale value.
But I do agree completely with Ethan’s broader point.
If an expensive machine can complete the same amount of work in fewer engine hours, that is normally a bloody useful thing.
This is another bit of context I found interesting while researching Henderson’s setup.
John Deere itself has been pushing wider stripper-header productivity.
Its factory SH12R 12-row rigid header is promoted as covering up to 48% more acres per hour than the previous 8-row narrow stripper header.
The SH12F 12-row folding header also carries an up-to-48% acres-per-hour comparison against the previous 8-row stripper header.
Again, those are John Deere’s own comparisons for its own factory products.
They do not prove Henderson’s 25% number.
But they do support the broader engineering principle.
Working width can materially change field capacity.
That part is not controversial.
The trick is making the wider machine:
That last bit is where Henderson’s years of development become important.
This is probably my biggest takeaway from both Henderson episodes.
Innovation sounds good.
It is one of those words every company wants in a brochure.
But real innovation can be painful.
You build something.
It does not work.
You cut it apart.
You build it again.
Something else becomes the weak point.
You fix that.
Then you discover the next problem.
That is the bit the shiny final photos normally leave out.
Henderson spent years getting these wider stripper systems to where they wanted them.
Why go through it?
Because if the end result means:
then the innovation has a reason to exist.
I have said through these episodes that efficiency is a little bit like a drug in agriculture.
You get a taste of it.
Then you start chasing the next one.
GPS.
Autosteer.
Section control.
Controlled traffic.
Bigger fronts.
Better logistics.
Camera spraying.
Automation.
None of them matter just because they are cool.
They matter when they make the job better.
Innovation without an outcome is a toy. Innovation that improves the job becomes a business advantage.
And from what Ethan is telling us, Henderson is getting a genuine outcome from these bars.
Strip away all the machinery talk and this is the question that matters.
The grower does not necessarily care how clever your fabrication is.
They care what happens in their paddock.
The exact result will change from property to property.
A perfect 18-metre system for one grower may be completely wrong for another row configuration.
That is agricultural contracting.
There is no machine that is automatically perfect everywhere.
What matters is matching:
machine + crop + row configuration + traffic system + conditions + timing.
That is also why Henderson’s broader fleet matters.
The two custom CS770s give them this specialised 18-metre capability.
Their other harvesting machinery gives the business options when another job does not fit that exact system.
This article is intentionally about the John Deere CS770 and Henderson’s efficiency story.
We already built the full contractor and cotton-stripping guide around Henderson in Talking Gear Tuesday EP21.
That is the page I want growers using when the actual search is:
“I need somebody to strip my cotton.”
Henderson Cotton Contracting is based around Moree and is worth speaking to directly where the job suits its machinery, timing and travel.
For other requirements, Broadacre Contracting can help get the job in front of relevant contractors.
Relevant cotton regions can include:
Those locations do not mean Henderson or another individual contractor is automatically available in every region.
Availability, mobilisation, machinery fit and timing need to be confirmed for the actual job.
This is exactly the sort of story we want more of.
Not:
“Here is our new machine. Look how shiny it is.”
I want the reason.
What problem were you trying to solve?
What did you change?
What went wrong?
What did you learn?
Did it save fuel?
Did it reduce passes?
Did it improve job quality?
Did it increase capacity?
Did you fabricate something because the thing you actually needed did not exist?
That is Talking Gear Tuesday.
Growers.
Contractors.
Manufacturers.
Fabricators.
Dealers.
Operators.
If you have built something worth talking about, give Dillon a bell.
Episode 21 showed us what Henderson built.
Episode 25 tells us what Ethan reckons the build is now delivering.
More productivity.
Fewer passes.
Controlled-traffic advantages.
Interesting fuel numbers.
And potentially fewer hours on some seriously expensive machinery.
It is a proper Australian agricultural innovation story.
And those are exactly the stories we want Talking Gear Tuesday to capture.
The John Deere CS770 is a self-propelled cotton stripper with an onboard round-module building system. John Deere Australia lists a 13.6-litre 515hp engine and factory 8-row and 12-row stripper-head options. It is a cotton stripper, not the CP770 spindle cotton picker.
No. John Deere Australia lists factory 8-row and 12-row stripper headers for the CS770. Henderson Cotton Contracting developed the custom 18-metre system featured in Talking Gear Tuesday, using 12 stripping units at approximately 1.5-metre spacing with custom extensions and a modified auger arrangement.
Ethan from Henderson Cotton Contracting told Broadacre Contracting that the wider setup has delivered roughly 25% greater productivity compared with the 12-metre fronts the business previously used. The wider working width also reduces the number of harvesting passes and can better suit controlled-traffic farming layouts. These are Henderson’s operating observations rather than guaranteed results for every farm.
Controlled traffic farming confines machinery to defined traffic lanes so less of the productive crop area is repeatedly driven over. Matching planter, sprayer and harvester widths and wheel spacings can help keep machinery on those lanes. GRDC and CottonInfo have documented controlled-traffic systems in Australian broadacre and cotton production.
A wider working width means fewer harvesting passes are required to cover the same paddock compared with a narrower machine. Where the harvester width and wheel spacing align with the grower’s controlled-traffic system, this can reduce the area receiving unnecessary machinery traffic. It should not be interpreted as eliminating soil compaction.
Ethan reported around 5 litres per hectare in favourable dry conditions and around 8 litres per hectare in heavier, higher-yielding conditions with Henderson’s custom 18-metre CS770 setup. Fuel consumption varies with crop, yield, conditions, speed, setup and operator, so those figures should not be treated as a universal CS770 fuel specification.
Yes. John Deere Australia advertises the CS770 as having 15% greater fuel efficiency than the CS690 based on John Deere’s internal comparisons. That manufacturer comparison is separate from any additional efficiency Henderson Cotton Contracting may achieve through its custom 18-metre stripper configuration.
The CS770 is a cotton stripper, while the CP770 is a spindle cotton picker. A picker removes cotton from open bolls using spindles, whereas a stripper removes more plant material along with the seed cotton and relies on cleaning systems to separate unwanted material. Henderson Cotton Contracting’s machines featured in TGT EP21 and EP25 are CS770 strippers.
Yes, if a machine genuinely covers more hectares per operating hour under comparable conditions, the same total harvest area can be completed in fewer hours. Henderson reports roughly 25% greater productivity from its custom wider setup, although the effect on servicing, wear, ownership cost and resale value depends on the individual machine and operating program.
Henderson Cotton Contracting is based around Moree and runs dedicated cotton stripping machinery. Growers can also call Dillon at Broadacre Contracting on 0439 300 380 or post a tender with the location, hectares, harvest window, row spacing and controlled-traffic requirements so suitable contractors can assess the job.
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