We had pumps in all our retention ponds
on our module lots and those pumps were
pumping full force the morning after Har-
vey arrived. The wind and rain hammered
cotton modules both in the field and on
the lots. Many tarps were blown off and in
about two days the rivers and creeks began
to rise, flooding lots of modules, fields and
many homes.
Everyone knows of people who lost ev-
erything to flood water, even those who had
never seen water come anywhere close to
their homes in the past.
Our employees spent about two days re-
covering modules before we could get back
to ginning. We estimate to have had more
than 106,000 bales ginned, picked and in
modules when the storm hit. Many of those
bales were lost to the flood.
We do have a very good cotton policy
that covers our producers. cotton as soon
as it goes through the pickers until it is
baled and reaches a cotton warehouse. This
is a policy that we have had every year to
protect producers’ cotton crops from fire,
windstorms and rising water whether on the
turn row in the field or on our yards.
As you can understand, after this storm
we had to deal with many wet modules that
could not be ginned. At first, there were a
couple of nights when we could gin only
15 bales in 12 hours because of wet cotton.
This drove us to moisture test every module
before it was picked up to be ginned. This
allowed us to leave the wet modules and gin
the dry ones.
As we had seen in 1991, we know that
some of the modules that were wet early
on would go through the heat and then,
after some time, would dry out enough to
be ginned. Not all wet modules were wet
from the rain — some were picked wet late
at night or early in the morning. These are
probably our worst to deal with.
Because we are skipping wet cotton, many
producers have farms that have not been
completed because their wet modules were
skipped. We continually test these modules
every three or four days and now we are
seeing a good number of these that have
dried enough to gin. These are being put
We do appreciate all the patience and
understanding from our producers. I would
also invite anyone who hasn’t been to tour
our gins to ask and we will be glad to give
you a tour and explain the machinery and
technology that we are using to do the best
job on ginning your cotton.
back on the gin list. to keep up with the orders.
I can assure you that your board has been
kept abreast of every move we are making
and I can also assure you that your employ-
ees are working intensely to gin your cotton
in an orderly manner. Every bag that is shipped out of this area
is adding value to the crops you produce
and deliver to United Ag. It also serves to
remove corn from this area, therefore help-
ing corn basis for the whole Gulf Coast.
Our goal is to treat all our producers fair-
ly and continue to gin and pick up modules
as they were called in. Currently, we have
about 3,000 modules on our yard and about
3,000 modules in the field. Most of the 3,000
modules in the field were picked after the
storm. So far, grades and seed quality have
remained very good. Another positive is our feed mixing plant
that will be online by November 1. This
plant will not only take bushels out of this
market and add value to your corn, but it
will also help cattle producers by cheapen-
ing their Purina Cattle Limiter and making
backgrounding and feeding cattle more
competitive. This will allow producers to
put extra gains on their calf crop at a profit-
able level.
As of October 9, 2017, we have ginned
about 60,000 bales and feel like we have
about 80,000 more to go. We have had some
very good days ginning, and also some very
bad days. Wet cotton is tough on a cotton
gin, so repairs are being made almost daily.
We do appreciate all the patience and
understanding from our producers. I would
also invite anyone who hasn’t been to tour
our gins to ask and we will be glad to give
you a tour and explain the machinery and
technology that we are using to do the best
job on ginning your cotton.
On a positive note, our cotton warehouses
are full and shipping pretty good so hope-
fully we will start refilling the empty spots
in about a week or 10 days.
Our corn bagging plant is making big
strides and we have shipped United Ag
High Caliber Deer Corn as far north as Fort
Worth and as far south as the Rio Grande
Valley. Since the addition of our stacking
robot, production has more than doubled
and the plant has had to run 24 hours a day
Your farm supply stores are running
smoothly and sales have been good. Any
ladies who haven’t tried our Blue Creek
Market should stop by and browse. Business
has really picked up there as more and more
people are learning about United Ag’s Blue
Creek Market.
I want to sincerely thank everyone for
your patronage of your cooperative and
especially our cotton producers for their
patience and understanding.
Sincerely,
Jimmy Roppolo
P.S. Our goal is to be finished ginning by
December 15 with around 150,000 bales
ginned.