Cotton bale

A Cotton bale is a standard-sized and weighted pack of compressed cotton lint after ginning. The dimensions and weight may vary with different cotton-producing countries.[1]

A bale of cotton on display at the Louisiana State Cotton Museum in Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish in northeastern Louisiana

Significance

A bale has an essential role from the farm to the factory. The cotton yield is calculated in terms of the number of bales.[2] Bale is a standard packaging method for cotton to avoid various hassles in handling, packing, and transportation. The bales also protect the lint from foreign contamination and make them readily identifiable.[3]

Standards

Bale

A "bale of cotton" is also the standard trading unit for cotton on the wholesale national and international markets. Although different cotton-growing countries have their bale standards, for example, In the United States, cotton is usually measured at approximately 0.48 cubic meters (17 cubic feet) and weighs 226.8 kilograms (500 pounds).[4] In India, the standard bale size is 170 kg.[5][6][7][8]

Parameters

The most important parameters of a cotton bale are:

  • Density (448 kg/m3)[7]
  • Measurements of the bales (nominally 1.40 X 0.53 X 0.69 m)[9][7]
  • Weight (Varies, but ‘statistical’ bale weighs 480 lbs.)[7]
Country-wise bale weight[8]
Sr.No. Country Bale in Kgs
1 Australia 227
2 Colombia 233
3 Egypt 327
4 India 170[10]
5 Pakistan 170
6 Mexico 230
7 Nigeria 185
8 South Africa 200
9 Sudan 191
10 Tanzania 181
11 Uganda 181
12 United States of America 225

Advances in standardization are reducing the variation in weights, sizes, dimensions, and densities of cotton bales.[5][11]

Candy

Candy is another trading unit. A candy weighs approximately 2.09 bales (356 kg).[12] In India, ginned cotton is traded in terms of candy also which weighs 356 kg (355.62 kg).[13][14][8]

Trash

When cotton is harvested and exposed to ginning, it carries more than 64% cottonseed, 2% waste and 34% fibrous matter (also known as lint).[15] Lower trash percentage in cotton increases the recovery.[16] Cotton bales are not pure cotton; they contain foreign contaminants, residual trash and leaf (and other non lint material) that have a direct impact on the recovery in yarn spinning.[17][18]

Cotton cultivation
  • Cotton Field at Singalandapuram, Rasipuram, India (2017)
  • Cotton field
  • Cotton plant

Harvesting
  • Cotton ready for harvest in Andhra, south India
  • A cotton field, late in the season
  • Cotton plowing in Togo, 1928
  • Picking cotton in Armenia in the 1930s. No cotton is grown there today.
  • A group of Egyptian fellahs picking cotton by hand
  • Hand picking cotton (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)
  • A module builder
  • Cotton modules in a harvested cotton field (Clinch County, Georgia, USA, January 2014).
  • Case IH Module Express 625 picks cotton and simultaneously builds cotton modules
  • Cotton modules in Australia (2007)

Ginning and bale making
  • A model of a 19th-century cotton gin on display at the Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden, Connecticut
  • Diagram of a modern cotton gin plant, displaying numerous stages of production
  • Modern ginning machines in working
  • Cotton bales at the port in Bombay, India, 1860's.
  • Cotton ready for shipment, Houston, Texas (postcard, circa 1911)

See also

References
  1. Turner, Joseph Addison (1865). The Cotton Planter's Manual: Being a Compilation of Facts from the Best Authorities on the Culture of Cotton; Its Natural History, Chemical Analysis, Trade, and Consumption; and Embracing a History of Cotton and the Cotton Gin. Judd. p. 273.
  2. "Cotton Corporation of India". cotcorp.org.in. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
  3. Forestry, United States Congress Senate Committee on Agriculture and (1928). Standardized Bales of Cotton: Hearing, Seventieth Congress, First Session, on S. 872, a Bill to Standardize Bales of Cotton and Requiring Sale of Cotton by the True Net Weight of Bale. May 16, 1928. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 100.
  4. National Cotton Council of America, "U.S. Cotton Bale Dimensions Archived 6 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine" (accessed 5 October 2013).
  5. "Cotton imports may rise four fold as record exports deplete stocks". The Financial Express. 2012-09-21. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
  6. "Cotton - International Year of Natural Fibres". 2011-09-03. Archived from the original on 2011-09-03. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
  7. "Measurements - The Farm Hub - Textile Exchange". farmhub.textileexchange.org. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  8. "Conversion factors". www.cottonguide.org. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  9. "U.S. Cotton Fiber Chart - Bale Sizes". Cotton Incorporated. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  10. COTTON SECTOR
  11. 14:00-17:00. "ISO 8115:1986". ISO. Retrieved 2021-02-25.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. "MCX traders can see cotton prices in candy too". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 2017-04-09. Retrieved 2021-11-01.
  13. Vora, Rutam. "Cotton trade may soon have uniform unit of measurement". @businessline. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
  14. "Cotton Rate, Today's Cotton Price in India: Cotton News on Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
  15. Akroyd, H. David (2017-10-24). Agriculture and Rural Development Planning: A Process in Transition. Routledge. p. 260. ISBN 978-1-351-96010-6.
  16. Kolanjikombil, Mathews (2018). The Substrates: Fibres, Yarn and Fabrics. Woodhead Publishing India Pvt Limited. p. 21. ISBN 978-93-85059-90-2.
  17. Division, United States Agricultural Marketing Service Cotton (1965). The Classification of Cotton. U.S. Department of Agriculture. p. 9.
  18. Morris, John; Wilkinson, F. W. (1897). The Elements of Cotton Spinning. Longmans.
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