Impacts on Cotton Fiber Quality from Multiple Pickings Compared to Traditional Single Pass Harvest Systems

Cotton producers annually struggle with removing seed cotton from production fields due to weather conditions, harvest capacity, and logistics.  These delaying harvest factors often devalue lint quality and value.  To resolve this issue, Cotton Incorporated has initiated a research initiative of developing autonomous robotic cotton harvesters.  These robotic harvesters will have the capability to perform multiple harvest events gathering lint from mature open bolls each time they are deployed.  The objective of this study was to determine the economic value, either from yield increases and/or improved lint value comparing three different harvest methods. The study was conducted near College Station, Texas A&M Research Farm located along the Bravos River.

Three harvest methods were used, a multiple hand harvest, a traditional single pass machine picker and a onetime end-of-season hand harvest.  All harvested samples were ginned on a ten saw table top gin at the end of the season and analyzed with HVI.  Two cotton varieties, DeltaPine 1612B2XF and 1646B2XF, were used in the experiment to evaluate a range in maturities.  Yields were not statistically different among the three harvest methods.