For a number of decades, the USDA and the National Cotton Ginners published a summary of the cost of ginning. That survey and paper were published every three years. In the past few years, while the paper is published every three years, the NCGA and USDA are collecting data every year. They moved the survey to an online version (although paper is still available) and allow gins to use the tool to track their own data year after year.

The Southeast has been historically low in participation for this survey. So low, in fact, this year we risk not having our information included in the national data. We need YOUR help in getting our data to NCGA and USDA to get accurate data for the WHOLE country.

Recently I was contacted by a state legislator in one of our states. They are potentially forming a committee to look at the cost of insurance in their state. This legislator represents a rural district with a few gins in it and they wanted to know how the increase in insurance was affecting the cost to farmers. I had to poll a few gins I knew would put information together form me to give them accurate and real numbers. I couldn’t match that with other parts of the southeast because there’s very little data in the NCGA database.

Please take some time to fill out the survey. Once you create an account, you can stop and come back and fill it out piecemeal if you like. OR you can download a paper copy and send it to Harrison at the NCGA. The benefit of creating an account is that you are able to go back and look at your old data to see how things have changed over time.

We need your help. Go to www.cottonsurvey.org and begin the process. It will really help the industry as a whole. Individual gin’s information is kept confidential.