Cottonseed

Cottonseed is a by-product of the cotton plant, which is primarily grown for its fibre. Although cotton has been grown for its fiber for several thousand years, the use of cottonseed on a commercial scale is of relatively recent origin. Cottonseed is the second most commonly produced oilseed in the world just slightly ahead of rapeseed averaging one-fourth that of soybeans in the same period. However, cottonseed oil falls to about fourth or fifth in the world production of oils, due to the relatively low amount of oil in the seed (about 18%) and to the great amount of cottonseed, which is fed unprocessed to cattle, especially dairy cattle. In the United States, which is the world's second largest cotton producer behind China and just ahead of India, about 15% of the producer's income is from the seed portion of the crop. Oil, linters, hulls and meal are produced in the processing of cottonseed. Cottonseed meal is produced principally by the extraction of oil by solvent methods or mechanical crushing.