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Aggieland | I posted this over in the Café and many people said to post here as well.
Just a little disclaimer, I manage a cotton gin.
I'd like to know more about your views on cottonseed. I particularly want to know about cotton seed and its value to you as a feed stock and aflatoxin.
This past season I sold several loads through a broker that went to dairies in Colorado and Idaho and would like to sell more next year. Here's my dilemma, aflatoxins scare the hell out of me. The previous owner of my gin said he got sued by a dairy once for aflatoxin being too high but the dairy couldn't prove which gin it came from so all the gins that had delivered there got sued. He said it cost him a bunch of money and he just settled to end it. I'm in a situation where if I could sell to more dairies I could increase my revenues which would then increase my chance to expand my customer base. I have searched all over the Internet trying to find a test kit for cotton seed and haven't found one yet.
How do you as a dairy test your cotton seed for aflatoxin?
What I'd like to do is test frequently during ginning or loading and ensure that my loads are under 20ppb before they ship. If I could do that I'd be willing to sell direct to a dairy saving them money and making me a little more (cut out the broker). I feel the cost would be worth it. My only other thought is contract language releasing the remaining loads if a load tests too high? The broker currently takes some of this risk and is taking a good premium for doing so and I don't fault him for doing so. I've never bought a commodity so I do not their verbiage on what happens when a load fails the test. I shipped 15 loads this year, never had a test done on my end, never heard of one getting rejected. The drivers all said they delivered to dairies. Most importantly I got paid for all of them.
Next year I'm hoping to get more per ton than what the oil mill pays because I feel like that's where I can become more competitive. At the end of the day my goal is to make my farmers the most income per bale of cotton out of any gin in a 100 mile radius. If I can do this my income will reflect it as well. Thanks for reading and I appreciate any insight you can give me.
Thanks for reading.
Caleb | |
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Question for dairy and cattle guys.
