2005: Engineering Systems for Seed Cotton Handling, Storage and Ginning

The number of operating cotton gins in Texas has steadily declined in the past 40 years from 1400 to less than 280 while the production of cotton has remained at approximately 4-5 million bales. In order to market the 5 million bales with fewer gins, the remaining gins will be processing more seed cotton in the future. It is likely that the cotton ginning industry will be faced with longer seasons with associated issues relative to variable and fixed costs, transporting modules longer distances from farm to the gin and finding acceptable methods of at least partially paying producers for the cotton lint and seed value. These changes in the harvesting/ginning interface will likely result in a new system of handling and ginning of seed cotton. The goal of this study is to utilize a systems engineering approach to analyze scenarios that could help cotton producers and cotton ginners achieve an optimum system that would be economically attractive for the future of the cotton industry. Results from this study have shown that the fixed cost per bale follows a negative exponential trend as the percentage utilization of gin is increased. The average fixed cost per bale was estimated to be about $30 while the average variable cost was estimated at $20 per bale following the assumptions used. The average total cost was estimated at about $50/bale. A relationship was developed relating the total cost of gin operations as a function of utilization rates for the different ginning rate categories. This initial result provided a general trend on how the operation of cotton gins could be made more efficient. The term “percent utilization” of a gin is defined in this study. One-hundred percent (100%) utilization is the ginning rate multiplied by 0.8 efficiency and 1000 hours. It is anticipated that this mathematical descriptor may be used in the future for management decision support. It may be possible for gins to take advantage of economies of scale in their ginning operations. The immediate consequence of ginning more cotton with fewer gins will be the expected transport issues associated with moving large numbers of seed cotton modules over longer distances and the problem of transporting them utilizing the Interstate Highway System. This will be the topic for subsequent systems analysis work.