Cotton is pumping at Worth Gin Company

SYLVESTER, GA (WALB) - Tons of freshly-harvested cotton is being pumped through this machinery at Worth Gin Company in Sylvester to get it ready to be shipped overseas.

"Yeah, the crop looking real good, not as good as it was last year, but the crop looking good," said Gill Haskins, Assistant Manager, Worth Gin Company.

Yields are down this year, mainly because cotton grown in low areas sat underwater much of the growing season because of south Georgia's wet summer, but there's still plenty of cotton for the gins to handle.

"We were making a lot of 2, 3 bale cotton last year, this year around 2 bales on the average"

Cotton brings in huge cash flow for the South Georgia economy. The state sells more than one billion dollars worth of cotton a year.

"Average for Worth County, you're looking at 15 or 20 million dollars for the economy here in South Georgia," said Haskins.

But growing the cotton is only part of the process. Separating the fibers from the seeds and getting it ready for market is what's happening here, and that takes a lot of manpower.

''One shift has 10, the other shift has nine, for both shifts nineteen guys," said Haskins.

The machinery at Worth County Gin Company can put out about 1200 bales of cotton in 24 hours.

"It's amazing, it really is, the equipment we got is state of the art equipment, it's awesome," said Haskins.

And that awesome equipment will continue to run almost non-stop for weeks.