Saturday, December 14, 2013

Where Cotton is King


The diversity in Texas always amazes me.... but then again, when one is traveling through a state that is... well... the size of Texas, it shouldn’t be a surprise!

As we drove south from Amarillo we came into a region where cotton is king. There were extensive cotton fields on either side of the road, looking very much like the snowy prairie we had so recently left behind. 


Most of the fields had already been picked, and some were dotted with huge bales of cotton, topped with humongous tarps. 


This photo shows the bales at the top, an area of the field that has been picked in the middle, and cotton still waiting to be picked.

It turns out I was wrong (again)... and learned something new (again)! What looked like 'bales' of cotton is, in actuality called a "module". A module holds 13-15 bales, each of which weighs about 500 pounds. The modules are transported to the gin yard in trucks that slide the entire module into the bed.


This truck is backing up in order to slide the module on board. Rollers on the bottom of the truck slide under the module and help load. 

Texas is the leading cotton producing state, and the US is third in production, behind India and China. 

This information, and other interesting facts about cotton, can be found at the National Cotton Council's Web site

2 comments:

  1. Like that second picture with the cotton still waiting to be picked. It must be interesting to watch the whole process of cotton picking.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting! I will enjoy your trip! :)

    ReplyDelete

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