As the harvesting and ginning season gets underway, ginners and warehousers are encouraged to make sure the software they use to assign bale tare weights is up to date.

This emanated from a review of the official bale bagging and tie tare weight table in the packaging specifications that resulted in a change in the table. That review occurred during the NCC’s Joint Cotton Industry Bale Packaging Committee in February and was approved by USDA in May. The outcome is an adjustment of the official tare weight for PE film and six wire bale tie patterns. The change only affects the one combination of bagging and ties. The result is a four pound tare weight instead of five pounds for PE film and six wire bale tie patterns. The tare weight change went in effect with the 2011-2012 marketing year.