Spinning Performance of Australian Long Staple Cotton 340BRF

Spinning trials of a new CSIRO bred Australian Upland cultivar with improved staple length called Sicala 340BRF have been carried out in collaboration with Chinese spinning mills.  The staple length of the cultivar approaches 1.25 inches (31.8 mm) and is being marketed as Australian long staple (ALS) cotton.  One container (24 tons) of 2010 season Sicala 340BRF cotton was shipped to China and evenly distributed to six leading Chinese cotton spinning mills. At each participating mill the cotton was ring spun into Ne 40, Ne 50 and Ne 60 yarns with metric twist factors of 117, 120 and 123 for the three yarn counts, respectively. Results of the trials showed there was large variation in spun yarn quality across the six mills.  The spinning performance of Sicala 340BRF was compared with the performance of a high quality mix of international cottons used by a top participating mill for production of Ne 50 and Ne 60 yarns.  The international mix included both Pima and Upland cottons from the USA (CA, SJV, Memphis), Xinjiang, Australia, Egypt, Israel, Brazil and India.  The results confirm the spinning performance of Sicala 340BRF is comparable with the average of the international cottons for production of high quality Ne 50 and Ne 60 yarns.