Location: Cotton Ginning Research
Project Number: 3050-41000-010-064-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2018
End Date: Jun 30, 2023
Objective:
Research has shown that fiber produced from roller ginning, including high speed roller ginning, is longer, more uniform and contains fewer fiber entanglements than saw-ginned fiber. Roller-ginning Upland cotton is a niche market, but users value the high quality. In the past, adoption of roller ginning for Upland cotton was limited, mainly because it was much slower and thus more expensive than saw ginning. High speed roller ginning has brought the speed of roller-ginning Upland cotton on par with saw ginning, but data on the comparative costs are still limited. The objective of the study is to collect and interpret economic data that determines the ginning costs of saw ginning and high-speed roller ginning of Upland and Pima cotton.
Approach:
A study will determine average variable and fixed costs for saw gins, conventional roller gins, and high-speed roller gins in the Far West. Cost categories that will be used in the analysis include 1) direct ginning expenses such as labor, bagging and ties, power and fuel, and classing fees, 2) indirect ginning expenses such as insurance, repairs, supplies, taxes, and depreciation, and 3) administrative expenses such as salaries, communications, dues and assessments, meetings, and legal and audit fees. Data will be collected from combo gins (gins that contain both a saw and roller gin) in the Far West (California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Far West Texas). The operational structure, processing capacity, and ginning volume of each gin will be included in the Analysis. Information on individual gin plants will not be included for reasons of confidentiality. The cooperator is a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business, New Mexico State University.
