Texas Cotton Ginners’
Association Executive President
As I write this story, we still have a few members trying to finish ginning the 2018 crop. The projected total for last year is about 6.9 million bales, which is a good crop considering the dry summer and wet harvest. In the past several years, Texas has shown we can produce a lot of cotton with a little help from Mother Nature.
A combination of several factors has led to an increase in cotton acreage in the Northern Texas Panhandle since the first gin was built there in 2004. In recent years, the region has seen significant growth in cotton infrastructure, including four additional gin plants.
Currently, two more are being built. At the same time, one new gin plant is in the works for the Southern Rolling Plains, and numerous other gins across the state have had major expansion projects going on the past few years.
It is no doubt an exciting time in the Texas cotton industry with all the growth. For this reason, the Texas Cotton Ginners’ Association chose “Texas Cotton — Building for the Future” as the theme for this year’s show.