I have been wanting to take the kids to Jeff's cotton gin. Jeff is Laura's step dad. Luckily, Laura was in town for her grandmom's birthday so we toured the gin together.
The first step is the cotton field. Since cotton is not a food, they use tons of pesticides to keep the bugs away.
Laura and I in the cotton field
The cotton fields are sprayed for defoliation and turns brown.
Jordan and Anna in the field
Next the cotton is picked (by machines of course) and bought to the gin in large trucks.
The cotton was sucked up a large vacuum to be separated.
This machine combs the seeds out of the cotton. It sends the seeds to the seed room and the cotton to the bailer. All the trash and other bits go in a different direction. They are used for stuffing furniture and other things.
The bailer compacts the cotton into 500 pounds bails every 4 minutes.
The cotton looks like this after it is bailed. Now it is sold to make fabric and cotton balls. It is nice to know that something is still made in America.
This is the seed room. The seed are sold and crushed to be made into cotton oil. It was like SC snow to the kids. You can see how high it is. Hunter is a little over 5 feet and it towered over him.
Cotton seed fight
