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Eastern Arkansas | We get loan premiums on cotton. I average 4.5 cents most years. We have very wet winters with lots of rain and wind. When I had regular modules, holes in tarps, tarps blowing off, modules built in mud holes, etc. my grades were not near as good. And I would have quit a few modules with no premium or even discounts. that in combination with zero loss on harvested cotton, no piles in the field, none built in a mud hole where the truck has to leave the bottom 6 inches, etc. has paid for my wrap each year.
The worst weather damage from round bales happens if they are grouped with the cotton touching, if there is daylight between the bales it's very unlikely to have weather damage.
A local gin has been running an experiment and saving some modules outside for a year and even had some for 2 years and they had zero loss in cotton or quality. They said it was as good as a freshly picked bale.
I replaced 3 pickers, 6 tractors and 14 people with 2 baler pickers and 1 tractor. I can also pick more cotton a day with those 2 pickers than I ever did with 3 baskets. Like I said every farm is different but for my farm, when you look at the operation as a whole, a baler picker is a lot cheaper to run.
Edited by reedfarmer 11/19/2017 09:15
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Cotton Harvest
