Cotton picker

Tonight I was asked to answer a question about cotton on Quora and I decided to go ahead and post my reply here on the blog too since I had already taken the time to write it all up.

🙂 The question was “How is cotton picked nowadays?” The answer I gave them follows with a few minor modifications.

There are a few ways that cotton is currently harvested.

In the US the two predominant ways to harvest cotton on farms is either using 1) mechanical cotton pickers or 2) using a mechanical cotton stripper.

A cotton picker pulling the lint from the plants bracts that hold it on and leaves the rest of the plant as is.

Do people still pick cotton by hand

This is what is used in the Southeast, Mid-South and Far West (CA & AZ). Some areas of Texas and Oklahoma use pickers but on the High Plains (Lubbock & Amarillo, Texas are two of the bigger cities in that area) cotton strippers are commonly used.

Strippers pull more of the plant into the equipment which means there will be additional cleaning or ginning needed. Its interesting to note that within the cotton picker segment

how is cotton picked nowadays

how is cotton picked in 2024