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MSU cotton gin roof damaged by tornado
MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Pace Seed Laboratory was one of about 12 buildings damaged when a tornado hit the Mississippi State University campus Sept. 25.
The building, which lost about half of its roof, houses the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Institute and the university’s mini-gin. The section of the roof above the gin was completely blown away by the tornado.
The gin is one of only three of its type in the nation and is used to process cotton from university research plots and to teach students in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering’s gin
management program.
“No damage was done to the gin machinery,” said Eugene Columbus, MSU agricultural engineer and coordinator for alternative crops and biomass research. “We were in the process of making some modifications to the gin, including installation of a second lint cleaner. We will resume ginning once these modifications are complete and the roof is repaired.”
The roof repairs, he added, may not be complete in time to process cotton from 2005 research.
“If this is the case, we will make other arrangements to process the cotton,” Columbus said. “The gin also will continue to be used to teach gin management students.”
