cotton boll
We meet the nicest people here in the valley and one of them was a man driving one of those trucks that haul cotton from the farmer to the gin. Neil asked him if we could just follow him out and take pictures. He said sure and if you like, I'll give you a tour when we get back to the gin. I was super happy because I had been telling Neil I wish we could see how they process the cotton.
Good thing he gave us the tour because I got it a bit wrong in last weeks post. Don't bother going back to see what I did wrong because I erased the bad part....covering my tracks....trying to look good..
this is the gear on the truck that helps him load the module. He puts the truck in neutral and then this pulls the truck up under the module and the conveyor in the truck bed guides it in.
He is loading one of these modules..it weighs about 20,000 pounds.
It does require a lot of equipment and handling to get these modules to the gin. The newer way of doing it is in round bales. It requires one machine and one man.
These bales are headed to the shredder which breaks the compressed cotton up a bit.
now it goes to a dryer
This is a cotton gin
The above part is the ginned cotton that is being sent on to continue the process, the bottom is the cotton seed which is sold separately and the twigs, leaves etc. are sent off to a bin on the side.
cotton seeds
These are just stored in a hopper outside and then sold to a company in Mexico.
The next process is adding moisture.
I asked him didn't he just remove the water? It seems that just like your hair on a dry day the cotton gets all frizzy once it is ginned and a little moisture calms it down.
And it's formed into bales and inserted in plastic.
So now it is all ready to leave in bales of about 500 pounds. It will be sold at a price of about 50 cents a pound. This lady is putting the USDA label on .
USDA samples.
Each bale has a label and a corresponding label is rolled up inside a sample from that bale and sent to USDA for grading
They also have a secondary product called dirty cotton that they sell for manufacturing that requires less quality.
And this is Virgil who (whom?) I cannot thank enough.
I hope I got it right.
Virgil's dad runs this gin and Virgil has worked there since he was 14. At that time he could not work inside..Child labor laws, but he would rake up and do small chores outside.
He has a wife and family now so he needs a job with benefits and retirement so he is a full time fireman but he still works part time for his dad.
Ginning here is from June to October, but Virgil's dad has now gone on to Georgia and then on to other states, ending up in North Texas.
Nice hair, Barbara,,,,it was a windy day.
