Robert W. Greene, president of Servico Gin in Courtland, AL, confessed to being troubled by the current ginning environment when he spoke at the Southern Cotton Ginners annual meeting.
Greene, former president of the National Cotton Ginners Association and chairman of the National Cotton Council, says the challenge of rapidly rising costs is one of the first ginners must address. He broke those into five cost categories: capital expenditures, insurance costs, labor costs, electric power and fuel.
Ginners who don't have enough storage and know they will have to ship cottonseed in the fall should consider pricing the as-ginned seed before the traditional gin season slump, which often brings the lowest price of the year. Conversely, they should consider adding storage so they can participate in deferred market increases while selling less seed at the harvest season discount.