I mentioned the tour Donna took on Saturday. She joined a group of about 50 people from the Casa Grande RV Resort on an outing to Caywood Cotton Farm.
Nancy and Al are the current owners of the family farm. Al was a pilot for Southwest Airlines before he retired and took on farm duties. Nancy was an educator at the University of California. The farm was established by Nancy’s grandparents. Al and Nancy’s children and grandchildren work on the farm, making it a five-generation affair.
They give tours of the farm on Saturdays during the off-season. Donna said that the presentation was very interesting and informative, giving a detailed account of the cotton industry, She highly recommends the $10 tour. She took a few pictures and I gleaned some information from the brochure she brought home.
The growing season begins in the spring, after any danger of frost or freeze has passed. Cotton seed that’s been treated with a fungicide is planted with a planter pulled by a tractor. It can plant up to 12 rows at a time. The planter digs a small furrow, drops the seed, then covers it with dirt by dragging a section of chain link behind the planter.
It takes about a week for the seeds to germinate and pop through the soil. Now the farmer must cultivate the soil, uprooting weeds and grass that would compete with the cotton for nutrients, sunlight and water.
About two months later, flower buds called squares form. After another three weeks, they open with creamy white to yellow petals. Within a few days, the petals turn purple. Then they wither up and fall, leaving a green pod called a boll.
The boll is shaped like a tiny football. Inside the boll, seeds are formed and moist fibers grow. The fibers eventually expand and split the boll open, exposing fluffy cotton.
Demonstration cotton field
The cotton bolls don’t mature and open all at once. Near the end of summer, most of the bolls have opened and harvest time is near. Each boll contains 24 – 30 seeds, comprising most of the weight of the boll. Before the harvest, the cotton plants are sprayed with a defoliant which causes the leaves to dry and fall off. This makes the cotton cleaner for picking.
Close up of cotton in the demo field
Picking is done with a machine. It uses a system of fast spinning spindles, daufers and brushes to pull the cotton from the plant and blow it into a basket. Modern pickers can pick up to six rows at a time.
The baskets are dumped into a container called a cotton module builder. The capacity of the module builder is about 15,000 lbs; 2/3 of the weight is seed with the remaining third cotton. When full, the module builder is removed and transported to the cotton gin, which is operated by a co-op of farmers in the area.
The ginning process begins with powerful vacuums that pull the cotton into the building and through cleaning machines. The seeds and cotton are separated and plant trash such as burrs, stems, leaf material and dirt are removed.
The cotton fiber, minus the seeds are now called lint. The lint is pressed into bales weighing 470 – 500 lbs. The seeds are processed separately. They have short fuzzy fibers that are removed and sold. Then the seed itself is sold.
Cotton seed
The cotton bales are classified for quality before they can be sold. There are 20 total grades, ranging from Fair (best) to Middling and Ordinary (lowest grade). Ever heard the expression “fair to middling?” Well, that’s where it comes from. You may have heard of Pima cotton. That’s a high-quality cotton grown in Pima County, here in Arizona.
Ginned cotton samples with Pima cotton on the right
Casa Grande is in Pinal County, which is the largest cotton-producing county in Arizona.
On Sunday, I packed the trailer. The forecast called for a chance of rain overnight. I didn’t want to pack a wet scooter and chairs in the morning.
On Monday morning, we rolled out of Casa Grande RV Resort at 10:30am. Just before we pulled out, I saw a text message from our friend, Dave Hobden. He was in the area and wanted to know if we could get together. The timing wasn’t right as we were packed up and rolling. Driving to a coffee shop or something in a 56′ rig isn’t that easy. We’ll meet up again.
We rolled up I-10. I stopped at Riggs Road, about 30 miles south of Phoenix and topped up the tanks at the Shell station. They had good big-rig access, high-speed diesel pumps and the price was right – just $2.69/gallon. That’s the best price we’ve paid since we went out on the road. Because we’ll be sitting in Mesa for the next two months, I wanted to park our coach with a full fuel tank to reduce the chance of water condensing in the tank.
We’re set up in the Orangewood Shadows RV Park. The name is appropriate – there are orange trees full of fruit everywhere. The park in Casa Grande had wide paved roads that made maneuvering the coach a breeze. Here, not so much. It’s the typical Mesa RV park with narrow roads and park model dwellings right on the edge of the street. Dropping the trailer in our site and positioning the coach took some doing. We were assisted by one of the park hosts, Al. He did a terrific job of directing me into the site.
Coincidentally, another Alpine Coach pulled into the RV park a few sites down from us. I met the owners, Peter and Donna Ohm. They’re from Stockton, California and have owned their 2003 40′ Alpine since new. We found that we had mutual friends in the Alpine Coach Association. He’s a retired farmer and they enjoy traveling. They’re here for the Barrett-Jackson car auction.
The weather forecast calls for rain showers today. Tomorrow the sunshine is supposed to return with no rain in the foreseeable forecast. This will put a damper on today’s activities as we were both excited to do some cycling. We’ll wait until tomorrow to get our bicycles out.