Harvest Timing and Techniques to Optimize Fiber Quality – Initial Findings

Improved cotton varieties introduced to the Texas High Plains area over the last ten years have lead to increased yields and improved average HVI length and strength.  However, cotton produced in the region continues to face challenges with regard to fiber quality and spinning performance when competing on the world market against high quality and often hand harvested cotton produced overseas.  Variable growing conditions (e.g. waning irrigation capacity, late planting, variable growing season temperatures, and early freezes) from year to year tend to produce crops with low maturity, high short fiber content, and excessive nep counts.  New strategies and techniques are needed to help produce, harvest, gin, and market the crop grown on the High Plains in order to maximize producer returns.  Research has shown that fiber maturity varies on the plant with more mature fibers found from inside position bolls on lower fruiting branches.  This finding suggests that it may be possible to develop harvesting technology or techniques that segregate fibers by quality.  The objective of this project is to investigate the influence of harvest timing and methods on fiber quality.  Conventional harvesting systems (a spindle picker and a brush-roll stripper with a field cleaner) will be used to harvest cotton at different stages of development quantified by percent open bolls.  The goal is to utilize natural stages of development to help segregate and optimize machine harvested fiber quality.