Complaints from foreign textile mills of high levels of neps in U.S. Pima cotton is of concern to the American Pima industry. Previous research has shown that the rotary-knife roller gin stand does not create very many neps during the ginning of Pima cotton. However, there may be other points during the harvesting and ginning process where a large number of neps are made. Using the AFIS nep test, research was done to determine the level of neps in Pima cotton from before machine-picking through to the bale press. The level of AFIS neps in the cotton lint on the plant was shown to be approximately 50% of the total number of neps at the bale press. Also, most of the increase in nep count occurred during the harvesting and seed-cotton cleaning part of the process. Roller ginning and lint cleaning did not significantly change the level of neps in the lint.