Cramer-Krasselt visits cotton farm to inform their work with Cotton Council International.

By Kelsey Kruzel, VP, Social & PR Group Director

October, 2024 – As part of our work with Cotton Council International, we headed to Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri for a fully immersive deep-dive on the cotton industry, including:

▪️ Getting to drive a cotton picker on the farm! We rode along with the farmers as they taught us how to drive the $1.1M cotton picking machine. They drive these 12+ hours per day during harvest season and it was so informative to listen and learn from them.
▪️ Seeing how the the cotton is prepared for spinning at the cotton gin where we learned that modules of cotton weigh 5000 pounds! Lint is separated from the seed and trash and the piles of cotton seed are taller than a building. The gins run 23 hours during this season, six days a week.
▪️ Touring the USDA classing office and learning how the U.S. is the only country to class every single bale of cotton. This gives U.S. cotton an advantage because mills can track the cotton to the farm it came from, allowing for traceability and sustainability claims that no other country can make.
▪️ A great day of meetings on the current state of the industry. This is a tough year for cotton farmers as their input costs are set to be higher than the profits they will make selling their cotton. Cotton demand is down across the board, in large part due to polyesters and fast fashion companies. Despite this, cotton farmers are having some of the best yields in years.

Overall, we’re so grateful to all of the wonderful members of the cotton industry for showing us what it takes to make the cotton we love.