Cotton bale

A cotton bale is a standard-sized and weighted pack of compressed cotton lint after ginning. The dimensions and weight may vary with different cotton-producing countries.^[1]

A bale has an essential role from the farm to the factory. The cotton yield is calculated in terms of the number of bales.^[2] Bale is a standard packaging method for cotton to avoid various hassles in handling, packing, and transportation. The bales also protect the lint from foreign contamination and make them readily identifiable.^[3]

Bale management encompasses the systematic procedures of categorizing, blending, and assessing bales based on fiber attributes, with the aim of achieving desired quality yarn production at an optimized cost.^[4] Cotton fibres differ in terms of staple length and other physical characteristics; this is an inherent feature.^[5] Bale management, also known as "bale mixing," is the process of analysing, classifying, and then blending fibres from various bales [which also includes the bales received from other stations] according to their fibre properties in order to create yarn of a specific quality at the most affordable price.^[6]

A "bale of cotton" is also the standard trading unit for cotton on the wholesale national and international markets. Although different cotton-growing countries have their bale standards, for example, In the United States, cotton is usually measured at approximately 0.48 cubic meters (17 cu ft) and weighs 226.8 kilograms (500 pounds).^[7] In India, the standard bale size is 170 kg.^{[8][9][10][11]}

The most important parameters of a cotton bale are:

• Density (448 kg/m³)^[10]
• Measurements of the bales (nominally 1.40 m X 0.53 m X 0.69 m)^[12][10]
• Weight (Varies, but ‘statistical’ bale weighs 480 lb)^[10]

Advances in standardization are reducing the variation in weights, sizes, dimensions, and densities of cotton bales.^[8][14]

Candy is another trading unit. A candy weighs approximately 2.09 bales (356 kg).^[15] In India, ginned cotton is traded in terms of candy also which weighs 356 kg (355.62 kg).^[16][17][11]

When cotton is harvested and exposed to ginning, it carries more than 64% cottonseed, 2% waste and 34% fibrous matter (also known as lint).^[18] Lower trash percentage in cotton increases the recovery.^[19] Cotton bales are not pure cotton; they contain foreign contaminants, residual trash and leaf (and other non lint material) that have a direct impact on the recovery in yarn spinning.^[20][21]

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  Cotton Field at Singalandapuram, Rasipuram, India (2017)
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  Cotton field
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  Cotton plant

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  A cotton field, late in the season
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  Cotton plowing in Togo, 1928
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  Picking cotton in Armenia in the 1930s. No cotton is grown there today.
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  A group of Egyptian fellahs picking cotton by hand
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  Hand picking cotton (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)
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  A module builder
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  Cotton modules in a harvested cotton field (Clinch County, Georgia, USA, January 2014).
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  Case IH Module Express 625 picks cotton and simultaneously builds cotton modules
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  Cotton modules in Australia (2007)

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  A model of a 19th-century cotton gin on display at the Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden, Connecticut
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  Diagram of a modern cotton gin plant, displaying numerous stages of production
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  Modern ginning machines in working
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  Cotton bales at the port in Bombay, India, 1860's.
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  Cotton ready for shipment, Houston, Texas (postcard, circa 1911)

• Cotton gin
• Cotton
• Spinning (textiles)
• Wool bale