After 44 years, Oklahoma’s cotton gin rates are going up. But they still will be below the rates paid in Texas and Arkansas, even after the Oklahoma Corporation Commission approved the move this week.
Commissioners have the constitutional authority to handle such rates and in a 3-0 vote on Wednesday, approved the increase from the $200 per hundredweight to $2.70 cwt and $7.50 per bale for bagging and tying to $10 per bale.
When the Oklahoma Cotton Council filed its application in December 2025, it noted at the time, “Applicant has performed comparison research of the rates charged for ginning picked, snapped, or stripped cotton and the bagging and tying thereof in neighboring states, and has found those rates almost universally to be higher than the rate currently authorized to Applicant’s constituent members for these services in the State of Oklahoma under the Commission’s Order No. 199421. Further, even after the requested increase to permitted ginning and bagging and tying rates for Oklahoma cotton gins were to go into effect, Applicant notes the increased rates would still be lower than the rates charged by many gins in neighboring jurisdictions.”
An Administrative Law Judge urged approval of the new rates and Natasha Scott with the Commission’s Public Utilities Division agreed, explaining there has been an 87% drop in the number of cotton gins in the state since the rates were last approved in 1981.
