Evolution of a Cotton Gin
March 2, 2009 Cotton production in the U.S. is centuries old. Now a Missouri Bootheel gin can say it has been around for centuries, too. When picking begins this fall, Farmers Union Gin of Senath, MO, will move from that century into this century as it marks the occasion of being five score and one year old.
“In 1906, several people got together and built the original gin,” says gin president David Harris. “As people passed away or got out of farming, they passed on their shares in the gin. It got pretty diluted; there were a lot of different owners.”
But the legacy of the original owners lives. Gin manager Steve Harris can trace his linage back to the original owners, as can the children of David Harris.
“Steve and I are slightly related,” David says. “But we are better friends and business partners than we are relatives.”
Minutes from the very first board meeting survive. Over the years the original gin company thrived and expanded, adding a grist mill, a grocery store and a railhead. Customers could buy coal and Allis-Chalmers implements.
(Allis-Chalmers was founded in 1840 in Milwaukee and entered the farm equipment business in 1914. A-C was bought by K-H-Deutz AG of Germany in 1985, then sold to AGCO in 1990.)
In 1980, George Paul Harris — Steve’s father, who passed away unexpectedly during the 2003 ginning season — formed a new company with eight stockholders. That same year, the gin on the original site was shut down (the older building still stands), and a new gin plant was built just down the road. George Paul became manager in 1988; Steve took over as manager in 2006.
All of the current stockholders are farmers. Charles Parker serves as vice president, and Cyril Owen is secretary-treasurer.
“We ginned 2,935 bales in 1980; it was a terrible year to start out in the ginning business,” says David. “It was so dry. But it got better after that.”
The Modular Future
The gin took off when two used module builders were brought in from Texas in 1986 to help handle a huge cotton crop that season. “We were ginning around 8,000 bales,” says David. “Then all of a sudden we were up to 16,000 bales just because the module builders freed up our trailers for our customers. They were happy to have them.
“As far as I am concerned, modules are the biggest improvement in ginning,” he adds. “It has allowed us to build this gin and be more efficient.”
The 1987 season saw another bumper crop — “Those were great cotton years,” David says — and the decision was made to build a three-stand Continental plant.
By 2003, the gin was ready for another major expansion, and this time four Lummus stands were brought in. The building itself was extended to hold both plants, but they are completely independent gins under one roof.
“Our decision to use two different (brands of gin equipment) came down to the bids,” David explains. “But besides that, we have customers who think Lummus is the best and others who think Continental is the best. If you come to this gin, you get your choice.”
Also with the 2003 expansion, module feeders were added. “We ginned 90,750 bales in 2006. All but three trailer loads were on modules,” Steve says. “And some of that was just lint we picked up on the yard.”
The only sucker in sight now is a “telescope” inside the gin. “If we end up with wet cotton or something that we can’t gin, they’ll put it right on the floor, then we’ll dry it and mix it,” David says.
Along the way, on-site seed storage and warehouses for the ginned bales were added. “We can hold just about what we gin,” says Steve.
With the coming introductions of on-the-go module-building pickers from Case IH and Deere, the modular world will go through another significant change. David is familiar with the Case IH picker and will have a 625 Module Express on his farm this season. He saw a video of the Deere picker at the Mid-South Farm and Gin Show in Memphis, held the first weekend in March.
The two pickers are distinctly different. The Case IH model builds modules the same width and height of a conventional module, but half as long. The Deere unit produces round bales, similar to hay bales. The Case module requires tarps; the Deere picker wraps the modules in protective plastic. You will be able to decide which picker fits your operation best.
“I’m not expecting any better picking efficiency than we already have — we have a pretty good system going with a picker, a boll buggy and a module builder,” David says. “What we are looking for is getting by with quite a bit less labor, fuel savings and less wear and tear on the equipment we have now. We can make better use of our time.” David adds that ideally, in good cotton, each picker has a boll buggy and a module builder at the ready. “But they would be busy,” he says.
And there will be no new or modified equipment necessary at the gin to handle the Case IH bales. The only investment would be in smaller tarps. “Of course, you will have to take off two tarps at the gin,” David said. “We could get to the point where we are good enough to butt two modules together and cover them with one regular tarp, but I’m not counting on doing that just yet.”
Seed Choice
Choose Lummus, choose Continental. Chose Case IH, choose Deere. But you have the choice of many different varieties of seed, and the Harris’ use three different companies: D&PL, Bayer/FiberMax and Monsanto/Stoneville, and they fit the varieties from each to certain situations.
“(DP) 445 did real well for us last year and so did (ST) 4554 — we shoot for yields,” David says. “Some people will try (DP) 117 this year; we could have a lot of that. I haven’t seen it, but it has looked good in tests.”
DP 445 is a Bollgard/Roundup Ready variety. ST 4554 and DP 117 are stacked with the Bollgard II and Roundup Ready Flex traits.
They segregate, gin and market the FiberMax varieties separately. Says David, “We are growing FiberMax because of the quality. We formed a group here and we are working with a cotton company and the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Both have ties with foreign mills.”
FiberMax varieties chosen are FM 9063 (Bollgard II/Roundup Ready Flex), FM 960 (Bollgard/Roundup Ready) and FM 958 (Liberty Link).
Liberty Link is resistant to Bayer’s glufosinate product Ignite. “Liberty Link is a good tool for resistance (management),” explains David. “We know we have resistant marestail and it looks like we are beginning to see resistance in pigweed.”
Stoneville ST 5599 is a Bollgard/Roundup ready variety that Steve says has shown suppression on some races of nematodes, and, obviously, will be planted in fields with a nematode history. Monsanto/Stoneville and some Extension researchers say ST 5599BR offers root-knot nematode tolerance and has also been proven to exhibit excellent tolerance to the Fusarium wilt/root-knot nematode complex.
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