Quality is always important to the cotton industry, but the price advantage for good quality is sometimes small. A gin can only maintain the natural quality of individual fibers, never improve it. Ginning is a compromise between several quality factors and lint turnout.

A ginner can operate the equipment to maximize the quality factor that the market is rewarding at any particular time. To do this, he must know the market premiums for high quality and evaluate the potential of his seed cotton. He must also know how gin machinery and gin operating procedures affect each quality factor and the turnout. His objective should be to produce the most variable bale of cotton possible from the seed cotton that he receives, while not damaging the other quality factors which are not directly reflected in the price.

This paper will review the primary ginning factors that influence bale value from the producers' viewpoint. All the operations and machinery recommendations covered will ignore any cost to the ginner.