Terry Griffin, University of Arkansas, 2301 S University Ave, Cooperative Extension Service, Little Rock, AR 72204 and Stephen Slinsky, National Cotton Council, 1918 N Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112.
The commercialization of on-board cotton picker module builders (OBMB) will increase the ability of cotton farmers, ginners, and warehousers to track absolute yield and cotton quality back to site-specific locations within farm fields. At the farm level, precision agriculture technology will allow absolute yield and quality characteristics to be georeferenced to exact locations where cotton was harvested providing cotton farmers with more precision in determining what practices or factors impact cotton lint quality and yield. Over the last decade, on-the-go sensors such as instantaneous yield monitors have increased farmers’ ability to collect site-specific yield data; however, collecting site-specific quality data has not been feasible until the introduction of OBMB. OBMB will offer the ability to collect precisely measured lint quality data that was previously unattainable at sub-field geographic areas. Although similar yield and quality measurements have been possible with conventional cotton modules, the usefulness of this data was limited because conventional module sizes are too large to be representative of distinct sub-field locations. In addition, multiple cotton pickers typically dump cotton into a single module and may co-mingle cotton from different sub-field areas causing management requirements necessary to track cotton from conventional modules prohibitive. With absolute yield and quality characteristics georeferenced to exact areal units of only a few acres, cotton farmers will have precise data from sub-field areas to evaluate environmental factors and cultural practices impacting cotton yield and quality. This conceptual paper provides an outline of how OBMB may give cotton farmers increased ability to collect site-specific production data for farm management decision making. This study is of interest to farmers wishing to better understand in-field factors affecting cotton lint quality, cotton picker manufacturers, cotton mills wishing to maintain supply of cotton with known quality characteristics, cotton warehousers desiring to streamline bale management, and cotton researchers.
