Location: Cotton Production and Processing Research
Project Number: 3096-30600-001-005-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jan 1, 2026
End Date: Dec 31, 2026
Objective:
The objectives of this work are to:
1) Determine the relationship between irrigation amount and fiber breakage for commercial cotton cultivars produced in the Southern High Plains.
2) Investigate the feasibility, integration requirements, and potential benefits of field/harvester based select fiber quality measurements.
Approach:
Ginning of machine stripped bur cotton samples will be conducted at the USDA-ARS-CPPRU in Lubbock, TX. The cotton samples ginned will be produced and harvested in cooperation with Texas A&M AgriLife Research personnel through a study investigating the fiber strength response of commercial cultivars to varying levels of irrigation. Depending upon sample size, whole plot samples of bur cotton will be ginned on either breeder or commercial scale equipment to produce lint for fiber and yarn testing. Before each sample is loaded into the system for processing, a sample of the bur cotton (~50 g) will be collected for gravimetric moisture content analysis using the oven reference method. The remaining bur cotton will be weighed and placed into the system for processing. Foreign matter separated by the seed cotton cleaning system, gin stand, and lint cleaners will be collected and weighed and the seed ginned from each sample will be collected and weighed. The lint ginned from each sample will also be collected and weighed before a sample is collected for fiber analysis. The fiber quality results from the samples ginned on the breeder scale system at CPPRU will be compared to hand harvested boll samples of the field plots ginned on a tabletop gin. It is anticipated that varietal differences in fiber breakage will become evident through analysis of fiber length distributions measured after processing samples through the different ginning systems which apply different levels of mechanical stress.