The United States cotton ginning industry has seen many new trends over the past years. These trends include the consolidation of gin plants, adoption of mechanically harvested cotton, universal density bales and net weight trading, long-term cottonseed storage at the gin, adoption of HVI cotton classing and gin process control, electronic data handling, and increasing environmental regulations. Gin numbers have steadily declined while annual volume and operational costs continue to increase. Gin owners are looking for every opportunity to improve the bottom line by increasing capacity, volume, and value to the customer. Gins will become increasingly sophisticated with the use of new technology to reduce labor and operating costs, while optimizing market value.