While #MamaSaidEatYourFruitsAndVeggies and led by example doing it, she also bought you #denim jeans and cotton shirts. Today I’m going to share about #cotton, how we plant, grow, harvest and gin some of the highest quality lint and seed in the world, here in the desert. #YumaAZ

Here is our prepared and planted beds. Some years we can plant in the existing moisture in our reused lettuce beds and “plant in the mulch”, but most years it’s warm and dry, so we irrigate to start the crop.

If you can be the first to answer correctly why we water every other furrow at germination, and you follow me @JohnBoelts, I’ll mail you some @Desert_Premium swag(just some hats and maybe a thermos...sorry it’s not more fancy swag).

Cultivating cotton...

We plant our cotton from late February to the end of March. By late May it looks like this:

In June and July my boys cleaned up a few weeds that missed our 2 application of herbicide(1 of glyphosate and Prowl H2O layby) and our couple of cultivations. No one appreciates good weed control from herbicide & cultivation more than those of us who chop the rest of the weeds.

In late July we cut off irrigation and dry the cotton down to defoliate. Defoliation is the process of dedication of the plants with warm dry weather and/or application of a defoliant chemical, which causes leaf abscission.

With all of the green leaves removed, so they don’t stain the white lint or inhibit harvest, it’s time to just pick it!

And here is the @JohnDeere #cotton picker is slow motion and super slow motion, so you can witness the wonder of modern mechanical harvest...

Then it’s time to organize the round modules so the gin trucks can pick them up.

We grow about 1,750 pounds of cotton/acre(or 2,000 kg/hectare). That’s enough cotton to make over 1,150 pairs of tight fitting or relaxed fit /acre. but if we don’t gin the cotton(the process of separating #cotton seed from the lint fibers), it can’t be made into clothing.

Above you see large rectangular modules being fed into the gin’s equipment. They are similar to the round modules we use. Here the modules are broken down...

Now for the fancy equipment that separates plant particles...

...and #cottonseed from the lint...

...and improving fiber condition...

...preparing #cotton for packaging...

...and now making #cotton bales...

...and out the door they go...

...and that’s the process of growing and ginning #cotton...

...but wait, there’s more: #cottonseed is an important protein feed that is fed to livestock and of course some of the highest quality seed is cleaned, treated and prepared to be planted next season. Here are the piles of different varieties of #cotton seed:

We grow a lot of the seed stock in #YumaAZ for other parts of the country because of how early in the year we harvest(September) and gin(October) our #cotton. I hope you enjoyed this farm and gin tour. Retweets appreciated.