Field Evaluation of Ginning System Upgrades

The evolution of the end-user market for U.S. cotton from domestic to export textile mills has resulted in the need for gins to re-examine their machinery configurations in order to provide the most flexibility in producing a quality product that meets both the needs of its upstream customer (the farmer) and its downstream customer (the textile mill).  A commercial ginning facility in Mississippi, initially constructed in 2001 featuring a machinery processing configuration based on marketplace conditions at that time, installed miscellaneous machinery upgrades to the seed cotton pre-cleaning and lint cleaning systems.  Seed cotton and lint cotton samples were taken throughout the pre-cleaning and lint cleaning systems, respectively, to evaluate the various levels of cleaning obtained.  Additionally, various processing sequences (from minimal machinery processing to full processing capability) were evaluated to demonstrate the effect on final lint bale quality.