No longer king

Steve Sterling is dressed in cotton, surrounded by workers baling cotton, and is practically breathing cotton as white puffs float around the gin like snow.

Sterling, general manager for Cotton Producers Co-op in Tuscumbia, finally had enough work to give his workers a half-day's shift recently.

What used to be the height of the cotton ginning season - when gins remained open 24 hours and cranked out tons of processed cotton for market - has become a wait-and-see game for local cotton gins hopeful for just a solid day's work.

Inside the steel-sided warehouse, machines march field-picked cotton along a conveyor from a 10-ton block. Mammoth machines roar - arrays of heaters, blowers, extractors and finally balers - pushing out 500-pound bales the size of washing machines.

There are 14 stockholders in the co-op.

"At one point in time within the last few years, these farmers have grown cotton - they plan to return to cotton," Sterling said.

In Alabama and nationwide, the cotton-ginning market has gone into a free fall. The number of cotton bales produced in Alabama dropped from 177,100 bales in 2006 to 76,300 bales in 2008, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. The total U.S. ginned bales decreased

60 percent between 2006 and 2008 to 2,027,100 bales.

The Shoals' four cotton gins include one in Leighton that will not gin any cotton this year.

Cotton bolls consist of "lint," the trade term for the white/off-white fiber where a seed develops inside. Cotton ginning is simply the removal of the seed embedded within the lint.

Cotton ginning peaked in 1902 when 30,948 cotton gins operated nationwide, according to the National Cotton Ginners Association. By 2008, 734 cotton gins remained, but cranked out 50 times more cotton per gin than a century ago.

Harrison Ashley, vice president of the National Cotton Ginners Association in Memphis, said several factors were involved in the decrease in the number of gins and the amount of cotton processed.

"When the financial crisis came about, the demand for cotton followed that downward trend," Ashley said. "Many gins are just hunkered down and waiting for things to improve."

Recent numbers show signs of improvement, he said.

This year, the relentless rain damaged the crop, delayed harvest and resulted in poorer quality seeds.

Randall Vaden is part-owner of Scruggs and Vaden Gin Co., a cotton gin that opened in 2004 in Lauderdale County.

"Last year, the cotton seed price was pretty strong, which offset the low bale numbers," Vaden said.

The recession, however, dragged down the price of cotton along with many other commodities.

To make up the difference, many gin operators are diversifying in farming and grain facilities, selling the cotton waste as compost, even renting out warehouse space meant for cotton bales.

A few years ago, the balance between cotton and grains tipped in favor of beans and corn, commodities with prices that soared because of increased demand from the biofuel sector.

Many cotton farmers switched to more profitable grains, leaving gins with less cotton to process.

"We're growing more grain ourselves," Vaden said.

In 2008, the gin produced 8,500 bales. This year, Vaden expects 6,000 to 7,000 bales.

Less cotton harvested means less need for cotton gins, a potential negative spiral that Vaden said "would be tough to come back from - if there's no gin, you can't grow cotton."

Part of the irony is that cotton gins have become more efficient at a time when less cotton is grown.

Although ginners are bigger and faster, the basics to cotton ginning have remained the same for more than 200 years.

Raw cotton moves from a conveyor belt up a giant drying tube. The bolls then travel through pipes along the ceiling before they are dropped into two ginners, each with a gap through which cotton balls whiz by in a blur. The seed-free lint gets a quick cleaning then moves to where it's packed into bales.

One worker monitors the computer. Three workers watch as a giant machine squeezes the bale. They then tie it up with thick wire and move away when the bale decompresses amid a snow of cotton puffs called motes.

The 10-ton cotton load will become 15 bales.

Asked where the cotton is going, Sterling replied, "A lot of it is exported to China and India."

Five years ago, Cotton Producers Co-op ginned 30,000 bales. This year, the hope is for 2,000 bales.

One woman pulls samples from the bales for USDA grading of the strength, color, length and even fiber diameter. The better the quality, the better the price.

The gin can handle 20 bales per hour, a total of 100 hours of work for a staff of three full-time and nine seasonal part-time workers. The 10 tons are processed in about 45 minutes. In 1997, when Sterling started working at the plant, the gin processed between two to four bales per hour.

After baling, inspectors classify cotton. In further proof of the shrinking cotton market, this year will be the last that the Alabama classing office is open. In 2010, the office will move to Memphis.

The gin cut two full-time workers in the past six months in addition to two workers laid off in the past two years.

A beige, leather chair sits by Sterling's desk. "A lot of times when we were running 24 hours, I would sleep here," Sterling said, motioning to the chair. "Now, I get to go home."

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@TimesDaily.com.