Comparison of Selected Bale Moisture Measurements in a Commercial Gin

The moisture content (mc) of lint in bales is of interest to the seller and buyer and bales with high mc lint are of especial interest because of the possibility of cotton color loss during storage. In response to this issue a limit has been accepted by the industry of a maximum of 7.5 percent wet basis when the bale leaves the gin. Despite this mc limit gin managers have not had clear guidance on a way to measure the lint mc in a bale. Several visits were made to a commercial gin in which different commercially available mc measurement systems were installed. Some of these were intended to measure the mc of the lint before it was baled and some measured the lint mc in the bale. Data were collected by the different systems for the same bales plus lint samples were taken and returned to the Cotton Ginning Research Unit in Stoneville, MS for mc determination by the oven method, the only standard mc determination method. Procedures at the gin were adjusted to result in lint with different mc. The data from each commercially available system was compared with the oven-based mc and operation factors were discussed in an attempt to provide some guidance on the strengths and weaknesses of each system for use in commercial gins.