By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
Tifton – The quality of Georgia’s cotton crop has declined in
recent years. It’s already costing farmers money. Industry
experts want to change that before the state’s cotton gets an
economic stain it can’t remove.
About 60 ginners, farmers, millers, buyers and University of
Georgia experts met to discuss the problem here March 16 at the
UGA Cotton Fiber Quality Symposium.
Stigma?
“Georgia once had an exceptional reputation within the cotton
industry for high-quality fiber,” said Don Shurley, a cotton
economist with the UGA Extension Service. “But some textile
mills now avoid purchase of Georgia cotton, and farmers are
seeing deducts in certain grade categories.”
South Bryan, a cotton buyer for Avondale Mills, one of three
domestic mills that purchase half the U.S. cotton production,
agreed. Some large mills are not buying Georgia cotton.
“Georgia doesn’t have a real stigma now, but that perception
could grow if the (quality) problem is not addressed,” Bryan
said.
And once the stigma is there, it will be hard to erase, he
said.
Poor grades cost
Shurley figures Georgia farmers lose about 5 cents per pound due
to poor cotton quality. In 2002, poor quality stripped farmers
of $43 million in potential income.
Georgia cotton generally scores well in most grade categories.
But it gets poor grades in two important ones: short fibers and
inconsistent fibers. Most mills now use high-speed spinning
equipment. Short, inconsistent fibers don’t run well through
these spinners and can jam them, costing mills time and money.
Georgia had the worst cotton fiber length quality in the country
last year, Shurley said.
Most mills prefer cotton fiber that is “long and strong,” he
said. Last year, about 11 percent of Georgia’s cotton met this
requirement. Getting that perfect cotton is tough, but other
cotton-producing regions come closer. The Memphis region had 24
percent of its cotton meet the high standard.
Competition
Georgia cotton has to compete against high-quality cotton around
the world. It is estimated that 2 out of 3 bales of U.S. cotton
will need to be exported because of continued decline in U.S.
mill capacity.
Other global cotton regions, such as China and West Africa,
still pick cotton by hand using cheap labor. They can produce
high-quality cotton favored by more modern, fast mills, said
Mike Watson, fiber quality researcher with Cotton
Incorporated.
There are two types of cotton buyers in the world: the high-end
buyer and “the bottom-feeder,” those who buy poor quality cotton
because it’s cheaper, Watson said, and turn it into low-quality
clothing items.
Georgia cotton could find a type of cotton-price purgatory, he
said, where it’s too poor for the high-end buyers and too good
for the bottom-feeders.
Cotton demand is strictly driven by consumer wants. If it was
strictly up to mills, Watson said, they’d all use man-made
fibers that can be made longer and stronger consistently.
Fiber fix
Cotton varieties in development might curb the problem, said
Steve Brown, a UGA extension cotton agronomist.
Different farmer practices, such as harvest timing, could also
help. And the cotton industry as a whole could look at better
ways to handle cotton from seed to the mill to preserve
quality.
Scientists with the UGA College of Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences will begin cotton quality research this
year at a new microgin on the UGA Tifton, Ga., campus. The
microgin is a scaled-down version of a commercial gin and will
provide scientists a real-world environment for tests.
Last year, Georgia and Mississippi produced about 2.1 million
bales of cotton to tie for second place in U.S. production
behind Texas’ 4.3 million bales.
A sample of each Georgia cotton bale is sent to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture lab in Macon, Ga., to receive grades.
