A Determination of Cotton Market Prices Required to Justify the Use of A Field Cleaner in Cotton Stripping

This study addresses whether there are certain cotton price levels that would justify by-passing the field cleaner in cotton stripper harvesting due to the increased value of lint loss.  Further, this study also attempts to address whether the ginning sector is benefiting from the use of field cleaner in cotton harvesting.  Results indicated that the value of lint lost in the harvesting and ginning stages was higher for field cleaned cotton than non-field cleaned cotton.  However, the field cleaned cotton realized additional ginning cost savings when cotton was field cleaned.  A comparison of net returns to the production sector indicated that field cleaned cotton produced higher net revenues than non-field cleaned cotton for all ranges of cotton price and lint loss of the study when one-priced ginning is used.  Similar results were found for two-priced ginning except when cotton prices were extremely high and total lint loss for field cleaned cotton was also high.  Results also indicated that the ginning sector does realize a cost savings associated with lower module transportation costs when hauling field cleaned cotton.  However, the ginning sector’s net returns for field cleaned cotton were found to be lower regardless of whether one-priced or two-priced ginning was used.  A comparison of one-priced versus two-priced ginning suggests that two-priced ginning produced higher net returns for the ginning industry for both field cleaned and non-field cleaned cotton.