31Jul
Cotton is analyzed to measure fiber strength, length, uniformity of length, color, and fineness of fiber. Non-fiber content in a bale is also measured. A professional Classer does this work with sophisticated equipment. Quality control checks are made to be sure the instruments and Classer accuracy are on target. The USDA sets the classing standards together with the cotton industry.
A cotton crop of one variety will produce fibers of similar length. Fibers may vary within a bale, so that is why the length uniformity tests are done.
The finer the fiber is, the finer the yarn that can be spun from it. Color of the fiber rates the whiteness. The whiter the color, the more valuable the cotton. Cotton may yellow from weather conditions before harvesting. The tiny bits of leaves that may be mixed in the fibers (called trash) affects the value, because the trash must be removed before the fiber is processed. Fiber strength affects the resulting fabric made from the fibers.
Tags: General Quilting & FUN
29Jul
Seed cotton modules are transported from the field to the ginning facility where the seed and lint will be separated. The module is opened (mechanically) and the cotton goes through dryers to reduce moisture. Cleaning equipment is next, where foreign matter is separated from the cotton. These steps make processing easier and improve the fiber quality.
After the cleaning, the cotton is blown to the gin stands. (The blowing is technically called “Air Conveyance”.) There are circular revolving disks that look like saw blades that pull the fiber through narrowly spaced openings, leaving the seeds behind. The lint is cleaned from the revolving “saws” by either brushes or air blasts. This is the ginning process.
Once the cotton fiber has been ginned, it is packed into bales that weigh about 500 pounds. The bales are moved to warehouses for storage. Typical gins can process about 12 bales per hour, but the newest machines can produce up to 60 bales per hour.
Tags: General Quilting & FUN
28Jul
This music machine was supposedly made partly from farm machinery pieces as a cooperative effort between the University of Iowa Engineering and Music Schools. However, it has been claimed by a team at Animusic, a digital animation company in Texas.
Doesn’t matter to me, I still like it.
Thought you might, too.
Tags: General Quilting & FUN
27Jul
One of the most important parts of cotton growing is timing the harvest. It is crucial that cotton is harvested soon after the boll has opened and before any bad weather can ruin the crop. Rain will damage the quality of the cotton, and can diminish the marketable yield.
Harvesting is done by machine, and there are two main types of picking systems. One system that is mostly used on the huge expansive fields in Texas and Oklahoma are “stripper harvesters”. They have large roller-brushes that strip the entire boll from the plant. The rest of the cotton growing areas use “spindle pickers” which are machines with barbed spindles that turn and “pick” the cotton from the boll and then release it into a hopper. The boll stays on the plant with spindle pickers.
In this stage, the cotton is called “seed cotton” because the seed is still in it. Seed cotton is packed into huge modules for shipping. These are shaped like a huge loaf of bread and might weigh as much as 25,000 pounds.
Tags: General Quilting & FUN
26Jul
The day the red flower falls off the plant, it leaves behind the little ovary filled with tiny beginnings of seeds. As it ripens, it grows into the pod that is called the boll. The green boll is juicy inside as it grows throughout the rest of the season.
Here’s the really cool part. All over the surface of the baby cotton seeds, individual cells begin to grow the same day that the red flower falls off. Remember, the seeds can’t be more than three days old themselves. After about a month, the growing surface cells have elongated until they are about an inch in length. They are hollow. They continue to grow for another month or so. The bolls open, and the sun and air dry the insides into the cotton fluff we are familiar with.
So each cotton fiber is a Single Cell from the surface of the cotton seed, elongated into a hollow tube. That’s why it is so difficult to remove the seeds from the fibers.
Tags: General Quilting & FUN
25Jul
Did you know that the growing season for cotton is from 150 to 180 days?
I guess if you live in the South you are used to seeing cotton fields, and a long growing season doesn’t seem that odd. My garden season stretches with early and late plantings, but those are overlapping cool weather garden plants. In southern Texas farmers can begin planting cotton in February!
Cotton seedlings appear a week or two after planting, depending on rain and temperature. Then 4-6 weeks after that the flower buds begin to form. The early buds are called “squares”. (Any quilters besides me enjoy that parallel?) The flowers open in another three weeks. The blossoms can be creamy to dark yellow when they open. In only three days, the blossom will open, turn pink and then change to dark red and then fall off. In those three days the flowers are pollinated, which sets the stage for the seed pod to grow.
Three days seems like a very short time. Busy bees, too.
Tags: General Quilting & FUN
24Jul
The home sewing market for textiles is seriously dwindling. Processing and marketing fabric for home sewing is less and less of the market share. Developing and maintaining home sewing fabric lines is very expensive, and the smaller the market becomes, the more textile companies look at cutting it from their product base. The sensible trend is always toward the most profit and the biggest market, in this case global markets and large manufacturers of clothing and home decorating goods.
If we want to be able to have quality home sewing fabrics in the future, we’ll need to make sure that there are ready customers to support it. And we need to support US cotton.
Learn to sew. Learn to quilt.
Teach someone to sew and quilt.
Start a sewing group.
Every stitch helps.
Tags: General Quilting & FUN
24Jul
US Textile manufacturers use over 7.5 million bales of cotton annually. One bale weighs about 500 pounds. (That’s over 3,750,000,000 or 3Billion 750Million pounds.)
About 57% goes into apparel, 36% into home furnishings, and 7% into industrial products. It has been estimated that if all the cotton produced annually in the US were used to make men’s dress shirts, it would make more than 13 Billion shirts.
I’m thinking about how much quilting fabric and batting that would be.
Tags: General Quilting & FUN
24Jul
The total average US cotton crop will place over $35billion worth of products and services into the economies of the 17 southern Cotton Belt states that stretch from Virginia to California. The jobs are not just agricultural, either. Growing, harvesting, and ginning the cotton provides jobs for mechanics, machinery manufacturers and distributors, banks, transportation, and warehousing. These are only a few areas touched by the cotton industry.
Cotton is America’s Number One value-added crop. The entire business revenue in the US economy is over $120billion annually.
We also export enough cotton that it helps reduce the US trade deficit. Annual exports average over $2billion. In recent years the US has supplied about 37% of the total world cotton exports. That is the equivalent of over 10.5 million bales. Most US cotton is sold to Asia and Mexico.
And that isn’t even counting the exports of yarn, denim, and manufactured cotton products which have also seen huge export increases.
Pretty impressive for a little fuzzy pod.
Tags: General Quilting & FUN
23Jul
Cotton contributes significantly to rural economies in America. Rural areas depend on farm income for stability. Cotton production and prices can be counted on year after year in Cotton Belt states.
There are actually two crops from one cotton planting. The fiber is one, and cottonseed is the other. A tremendous amount of cottonseed is produced, almost 7 billion tons annually. About two-thirds of the cottonseed is fed whole to livestock. About one third is crushed or pressed. This results in a high grade salad oil, and a high protein meal that is mixed in with livestock, dairy, and poultry feed. Over 155 million gallons of cottonseed oil are used annually in human foods such as margarine and salad dressing.
Tags: General Quilting & FUN
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