Trash Particle Distribution Measurements in Ginned Cotton

A beltwide commercial cotton gin sampling project was initiated for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 ginning seasons to assess the changes in upland cotton quality during the ginning process and throughout the ginning season. The Cotton Trash Identification System (CTIS) developed at the Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory was used to identify trash objects in the cotton samples collected for the study. The objective of this project was to compare CTIS trash categorization with AFIS, HVI and MDTA3 analysis. Particle size distribution histograms similar to those generated by AFIS were generated for the acquired cotton images. CTIS average size, dust count, trash count, and total count measurements were compared with the AFIS measurements. The CTIS measurements were also evaluated against High Volume Instrument measurements for percent trash.