USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has announced that with COVID numbers continuing to fall, the ARS ginning laboratories in Las Cruces, NM, and Stoneville, MS, can host the remaining 2022 ginner schools. Ginners, gin managers and superintendents are urged to register for the Western Ginners School on May 4-5 and the Stoneville Ginners School on June 8-9.

The 35th annual schools will be two days instead of three, and there will be no on-site registration. Credit cards can be used for online registration at www.cotton.org/ncga/ginschool/index.cfm where course descriptions and more information are available.  

The schools will continue to offer the course levels I, II and III and continuing education courses. Levels I, II and III programming will feature practical information on all aspects of ginning. Topics to be covered range from gin safety and maintenance to drying/moisture restoration systems and seed cotton/cottonseed handling systems.

The continuing education courses will include topics such as the use and practical application of variable frequency drives, gin upgrades and increasing capacities, air pollution controls, labor issues and H2-A, press rebuilds to increase press capacities, and stabilizing catastrophic injuries.

The three schools’ programming is coordinated by the NCGA, working in conjunction with USDA’s Greg Holt and the three USDA ginning laboratories. School cooperators include USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, NCGA and its member associations, the NCC, Cotton Incorporated, gin machinery/equipment manufacturers and suppliers, and select land grant universities.