Location: Cotton Production and Processing Research
Project Number: 3096-30600-001-002-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jan 1, 2026
End Date: Dec 31, 2026
Objective:
The objective of our work is to develop technologies that help to protect and manage seed cotton in modules during harvesting and ginning.
Approach:
Continuing with work begun in earlier years, work this year will investigate the change in fiber and seed quality of cotton stored in round modules as a function of harvest moisture content and storage duration. Large scale field locations in Texas and Mississippi are planned to produce cotton for use in this portion of the project. The cotton in TX will be machine stripped while the cotton in MS will be spindle picked and, moreover, differences in growing environments, production practices, and cultivars are expected to generate varying crop conditions at harvest that will make the findings of this work applicable across the US cotton-belt. Seed cotton moisture sensing systems including the Delmhorst C2000 with 830TC probe and VOMAX through transmission microwave system will be evaluated to determine the reliability in the reported data and determine (if possible) the relationship between the test unit moisture reading and the gravimetric oven-based reference method moisture content. Ginning of modules and/or samples will be conducted based on producer needs and availability of research facilities.
Cotton has been machine harvested using cotton pickers and strippers in the United States for over 80 years. Extensive work has been conducted on improving and optimizing the current harvesting mechanisms but limited work has been conducted on developing new methods for harvesting cotton. A new concept is being investigated that collects whole cotton plants from the field and makes the total biomass grown available for post-harvest processing and utilization. An objective of our effort this year is to conduct and facilitate research efforts focused on the development of this new cotton harvesting approach. Specifically, in-field studies to determine the storage characteristics of whole-plant harvested cotton compressed into bales ranging in bulk density from about 10 to 18 lb/ft3 will be conducted. Cotton plants will be compressed using CPPRU’s mobile seed cotton sampling unit and the compressed bales will be stored under cover at CPPRU in Lubbock for storage durations ranging from 0 to 4 months. Samples of the bales will be collected after storage for fiber, seed, and vegetative material characterization. Another portion of our work will aid in the development of a post-harvest machine system designed to open compressed bales of whole-plant harvested cotton and separate the seed cotton and vegetative materials for downstream processing. Separated seed cotton will pass into a traditional ginning system configured for stripper harvested cotton while the vegetative material will be made available for production of bio-fuels, bio-composite materials, or other value-added products.
Earlier work on developing the USDA Electronic Module Management system has been beneficial in helping gins understand the potential for RFID to help automate module management and produce new site specific information for use by growers in managing fields for both yield and quality. Additional presentations of this work and publications detailing the components of the USDA EMM System will be prepared and given in 2026.