By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
Tifton, Ga. — The most modern small-scale reproduction of a
commercial cotton gin in the world is ready for researchers to
use to help improve the quality of Georgia cotton.
Gov. Sonny Perdue, University of Georgia President Michael F.
Adams and other state and agricultural leaders officially opened
the UGA MicroGin. It’s custom designed and constructed to enable
researchers to gin small samples of cotton in a manner that
replicates the way cotton is ginned in large, modern gins.
“This facility will allow researchers and farmers to improve
upon a commodity already well established here,” Perdue
said, “and allow them to follow it from the field to the
consumer. This will help our cotton farmers better compete
globally.”
Georgia farmers are penalized about 5 cents per pound of cotton
due to fiber quality deductions. Over the past three years,
they’ve lost an average of $24.5 million annually due to poor
cotton quality, said Don Shurley, a cotton economist with the
UGA Extension Service.
Farmers deliver their cotton, usually in large modules that can
weigh 10,000 pounds, to gins, where it is dried, cleaned and
ginned, a process that separates the cottonseed from lint. The
microgin produces lint that is like the lint that comes out of a
commercial gin.
Plans for the facility include cooperative research to improve
cotton fiber and textile quality and educational purposes.
The microgin is ready to be used for this fall’s cotton
harvest.
The microgin project was conceived by the Georgia Agricultural
Commodity Commission for Cotton and CAES scientists and
engineers, with input from the Southeastern Cotton Ginners
Association, the Southern Cotton Growers and the private
sector.
Funding came from the State of Georgia (Traditional Industries
Program), U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State
Research, Education and Extension Service, Georgia Department of
Agriculture, Georgia Agricultural Commodity Commission for
Cotton and UGA CAES.
Georgia’s 1.3 million-acre cotton crop during 2003 produced 2.1
million bales with a farm-gate value of more than $700 million.
