By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
Georgia’s cotton industry has a problem, and it’s costing
farmers and the state money. But scientists and industry leaders
say a new University of Georgia facility will help them solve
this problem before it gets worse.
A cotton microgin is being built on the UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ Tifton, Ga., campus. It
will be used primarily by the UGA CAES cotton team to help
Georgia farmers improve their cotton fiber quality.
Poor fiber quality has been a costly problem for Georgia farmers
for many years. Last year alone, it stripped $43 million in
potential income from Georgia farmers, said CAES cotton
economist Don Shurley. The production value of Georgia’s 2002
crop was around $356 million.
Georgia farmers are penalized about 5 cents per pound of cotton
due to fiber quality deductions, Shurley said.
“What we’ve got to do is find a way to keep this lost money in
Georgia farmers’ pockets,” Shurley said. “That money can help
keep those communities that depend on cotton income in jobs and
afloat.”
The same, just smaller
Farmers deliver their cotton to gins, usually in large
modules that can weigh around 10,000 pounds. The primary purpose
of a
standard, high-capacity gin is to separate the cotton seed from
the cotton lint. The lint is used to make shirts, jeans and
other products. The seed is used to make oil and feed for
livestock.
The UGA microgin has been designed to handle cotton just like a
large gin, just on a smaller scale. It will allow scientists to
more efficiently collect data from smaller, experimental cotton
samples.
The samples will vary from a few pounds to 50 pounds, said Craig
Bednarz, a CAES cotton physiologist. Bednarz chairs the microgin
project committee.
The building will be about the size of a tall barn. The gin is
designed to have plexiglass sides so visitors can see what
actually happens to the fiber during the ginning process.
Georgia’s problems
“This microgin will give researchers and producers the data and
tools needed to develop better management practices and ways to
handle cotton and address cotton problems specific to this area
of the country,” Bednarz said.
The mission of this facility won’t duplicate microgins in other
parts of the United States, said Georgia Cotton Commission
Executive Director Richey Seaton.
“This facility will support the entire spectrum of cotton
research here in Georgia and in the Southeastern region,” Seaton
said.
Cotton farmers are struggling through a period of low prices.
The industry will have to find ways to reduce costs and save
money to remain competitive in the world market. “But not at the
expense of yields or fiber quality,” Seaton said.
The microgin will provide a facility for UGA geneticists,
economists, molecular biologists, plant breeders, physiologists,
animal scientists and agronomists to not only help farmers, but
also work closely with the textile industry and address its
concerns.
The microgin will cost around $1.5 million. Funds have come from
the Georgia General Assembly and federal sources, said David
Bridges, assistant dean for the UGA Tifton campus.
Cotton fiber quality is graded in six categories: color, staple
(length), micronaire (a measure of the fiber surface area),
strength, uniformity and extraneous matter.
When Georgia farmers deliver their cotton to a gin, a sample is
sent to a federal facility in Macon, Ga., to be graded. Cotton
from the microgin will go through the same process.
