Using Yield Monitors to Harvest On-Farm Cotton Variety Trials

Grain yield monitors have successfully been used to harvest variety and hybrid trials when certain guidelines were followed. However, there has been concern regarding cotton yield monitors and the way that they measure flow rate. A Beltwide effort was initiated to assess yield monitor performance in replicated variety trials with the objective of determining the source of yield monitor errors and developing protocols for using yield monitors to accurately harvest cotton variety trials. In the second year of this study, data were collected from at least five trials across four states. The trials were conducted with field scale plots containing at least six varieties. Yield was measured with the yield monitor and a reference scale. The reference scale varied among locations, but was an accepted device to measure variety mass.