Cotton is a part of the lifeblood of West Tennessee’s agricultural tradition and has been for over two centuries.  We produce nearly all of the cotton produced in our state, nearly 700,000 bales were estimated for this year - and it’s big business for the state.  Just think, one bale of cotton produces 215 pairs of jeans, 3085 diapers, 1,256 pillowcases, 1,217 t-shirts, 6,436 pairs of briefs and $31.3 billion - in the form of $100 dollar bills, according to the National Cotton Council of America.  Now, multiply all of that by 700,000 and see what our West Tennessee farmers produce!

In Tennessee, West Tennessee IS the cotton production.  Our counties between the Mississippi River and the Tennessee River produce nearly all of this large cash crop - although it is actually the #3 cash crop for the state.  Haywood and Crockett are the largest of our producing counties, while the other counties in our area aren’t far behind according to the USDA records.

“Cotton is a big commodity in our area,” said E. Bradley Williams of the Union Gin in Brownsville, Tennessee. “We gin about 20,000 bales at Union Gin, which is comparable with most other gins in the area.”  Williams added that he does gin some cotton from a farmer near Murfreesboro, “He was ginning in Alabama, but about five or six years ago he switched to us, and has been ginning with us since then.”

The yield is a little better this year, up about 200-300 lbs per acre, much better than the last several years. “Weather has been playing havoc getting it out of the field,” Williams continued, “ and with the ginning process.”  Williams and his son Ethan farm about 3000 acres, aside from running the Union Gin that their family owns. “It’s mostly cotton, with the balance in corn and soybeans.”

Quite a bit of the cotton is out of the field accross our area, as farmers hurried their picking.  But you can’t always get everything before the rain starts. Quality of the crop has slipped with the rain, and it will take several long, sunny days to dry out enough to continue picking the fields.  It can take up to ten days to get the grey color bleached out of the current crop. If there is regrowth, and hopefully the freezing temps will thwart that, they may have to retreat the leaves to get a cleaner run-through.

The fiber of the cotton is the major product in our cotton fields at the moment. New developments in cotton seed uses may pose a boon in the coming years.  Currently, the cotton seed is toxic, but a new research study is working on taking the toxicity out of the seed and giving us the ability to convert the seed to flour, among other things.  As a child, I remember going by the cottonseed oil mill and smelling the oil from the seeds. The smell was heavenly, so if something could turn that smell into food, the product is sure to be good!  Current production levels have the propensity to feed 500 million people, if the research experiment continues to produce expected results. [see New Scientist: Edible cotton breakthrough, by Catherin Brahic for more information.