How is cotton harvested?

Cotton, derived from blooming Gossypium plants, is a major vegetable fiber used in clothing, and the oil extracted from its seeds may be used in cooking or to make soap. Cotton is cultivated all over the world, including in the following states: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Kansas.

Cotton is harvested by machines called pickers or strippers in regions where it is not picked by hand. Cotton-picking machines use spindles to select (twist) seed cotton from burrs attached to plant stems. The seed cotton is subsequently removed from the spindles by doffers, a series of circular rubber pads, and knocked into a conveyance system. Traditional cotton stripping machines employ rollers with alternating bats and brushes to knock the fluffy white bolls off the plants into a conveyor. Following harvest, the majority of the cotton is pressed into huge blocks for storage. These cotton bundles are then transferred to a cotton gin, which is a machine that extracts the seeds from cotton bolls.