In partnership with the National Cotton Council (NCC), USDA is piloting a program for the 2024-2025 cotton crop that will allow bales to be shipped in four-bale groupings that use averaged quality data. These groupings of four bales or multiples of four bales will carry the same official USDA classing data for all eight quality factors in an effort to make the flow of cotton into the marketplace more efficient.
The program is completely voluntary and can be tried on one or multiple modules at any time during the season. For more information, stakeholders can view a list of technical frequently asked questions or reach out to any one of the 10 regional cotton classing officesor to the Cotton Grading Division leadership of Robert Seals, Jr., Director, Robert.Seals@usda.gov or Byron Cole, Deputy Director, Byron.Cole@usda.gov.
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