THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 18, 1995 TAG: 9501170128
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JODY R. SNIDER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Long : 115 lines
FARMER CECIL BYRUM says he never thought he'd pick three bales of cotton to the acre in Isle of Wight County.
This year, he did it.
Commonwealth Gin Manager G. Tom Alphin Jr. never thought he'd see 200 modulars - huge, 1,500-pound rectangular bundles of cotton bales - still waiting to be ginned in late January.
This year, seeing is believing.
A record-breaking cotton crop has the state's two cotton gins, Commonwealth in Windsor and Southside Gin in Emporia, working overtime to finish ginning more than 80,000 bales that have been trucked in by local farmers.
The gins cranked up last September and aren't expected to wind down until the end of this month.
In fact, last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that Virginia ranked first in the nation for the highest cotton yields for an unirrigated crop.
``We're ginning three times the amount that we did last year,'' Alphin said. ``The yields are averaging two bales to the acre. And some farmers are getting three bales to the acre.''
At Southside Gin, owned by Sam Pope and Steve Ferguson, the gin has been running 24 hours a day since September.
``It's been a hellacious crop,'' Pope said. ``That's good for the farmer, but it's not good when we're still ginning in January. The farmer wants his crop to be ginned by Dec. 20.''
During a normal year, both gins shut down by that date to give farmers time to get their cotton grades back from the USDA station in Florence, S.C. A sample from each field is sent to the department to be graded on the cotton's whiteness and other criteria. Farmers are paid according to the grade.
Although part of this cotton boom can be attributed to a sharp increase in acreage - from 22,000 in 1993 to 42,000 in 1994, according to USDA figures - farmers also got lucky with the weather.
``Cotton adapted well to the dry weather we had in June,'' Commonwealth Gin's Alphin said, ``and then we got the rain we needed to make a good crop.''
For farmer Byrum, cotton was a huge success.
``We had good prices. Good yields. Good weather. What more is there to say? To say it was a success would be an understatement.
``Acreage will be way up next year. I think it will be more than 60,000 acres. Everybody's going to be planting a lot more cotton and a lot less corn.''
That's what farmer Larry Whitley has done in Southampton County.
He scrapped all 475 acres of corn this year to plant cotton for the first time. He said he put all his money on the white boll because corn had failed him two years straight.
He wasn't disappointed. Whitley said he had some fields that produced three bales to the acre, though his average was two.
``We were going into the unknown because it was our first year with cotton. We really didn't know what to expect.
``But if you talk to those who have farmed cotton for 20 to 30 years, they'll tell you they've only seen three-bale-an-acre cotton maybe three times.''
Whitley said some farmers in the towns of Capron and Newsoms, both in Southampton, harvested 3.5 bales to the acre.
``They got a little more rain than we did here,'' he said.
The average yields across the state, however, were lower.
Alan Seifke, state statistician with the Virginia Agricultural Statistics Service in Richmond, said Virginia cotton farmers picked an average of 1.9 bales to the acre this year.
Because much of the crop has not yet been sold, a cash value hasn't yet been determined. But estimates in September indicated the 1994 crop could be worth $18 million or more. Last year's cotton crop of 22,000 acres was valued at $9 million.
And only four years ago, there were less than 1,000 cotton acres in the state, said Pope of Southside Gin.
``It's an industry that has really taken off in Virginia. It's hard to get the facilities built for as fast as the industry is moving. I wouldn't be surprised to see 70,000 to 80,000 acres next year. Virginia has a potential cotton acreage of between 120,000 to 150,000.''
Next year, in Southampton County alone, cotton acreage is expected to exceed peanut acreage for the first time ever, said Alphin, Commonwealth Gin's manager.
``Cotton acreage is predicted to be between 30,000 to 35,000 acres - and peanuts have never been above 30,000.''
The result, Alphin said, is that he and his family will spend about $2 million to build the state's third gin in Southampton County, scheduled to be up and running by October. Alphin said it will employ 35 people.
Pope, who built the state's first gin when cotton was just starting its comeback in 1991, said he and his partner were looking only for 5,000 to 10,000 acres when they started Southside Gin.
``That's what it takes to support a gin, and that was a risk back then,'' Pope said. ``Today, that risk is gone. It's so good right now, it's almost scary.
``Right now, cotton seems to be where the action is.'' ILLUSTRATION: COTTON'S COMEBACK
[Color Photo]
Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Huge flats of cotton are waiting to be sucked up a tube to start the
ginning process at Commonwealth Gin in Windsor.
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
TOP: Cotton is stacking up outside Commonwealth Gin in Windsor,
awaiting ginning. Usually by December, the gin has completed work on
the cotton crop.
LEFT: Raw cotton becomes a blur as the ginning machines go to work.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Tom Alphin keeps track of the cotton in processing
from his office at Commonwealth Gin.
BOTTOM LEFT: Len Alphin listens to a production question as work
goes on at the Windsor gin.
KEYWORDS: COTTON by CNB