Technical Abstract: The Cotton Trash Identification System (CTIS) developed at the Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory was evaluated for identification and categorization of extraneous matter (EM) in cotton. The system’s categorization of trash objects in cotton images was evaluated against Agricultural Marketing Service classer EM calls. AMS classers were tasked in assigning extraneous matter calls (bark/grass) in images acquired by various High Volume Instruments. Soft computing techniques were used to identify EM in the acquired cotton images and categorize them into bark/grass, stick, leaf, and pepper trash categories. Classer EM calls in the HVI images are compared with CTIS bark/grass and stick categorization. Images were acquired from different HVI systems on both the upper and lower camera head, and human classer’s identified the EM by marking the objects on the acquired images. CTIS categorization of EM, were later compared to the Classer assigned EM calls. The main objective of this research is to use CTIS as an effective tool to aid classers in the identification of EM in cotton and, eventually, aid in the development of EM standards for cotton classification.