Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture

DEVELOPING ACCURATE SPATIAL MAPS OF COTTON FIBER QUALITY PARAMETERS

Awareness of the importance of cotton fiber quality (Gossypium, L. sps.) has increased as advances in spinning technology require better quality cotton fiber. Recent advances in geospatial information sciences allow an improved ability to study the extent and causes of spatial variability in fiber parameters. However, these studies are often harvested by hand and ginned on small research gins. Fiber quality from cotton lint harvested and ginned in this manner is different from that machine-harvested and ginned on production-scale equipment. The objective of this study was to develop a method of correcting for error introduced into cotton fiber quality parameters from samples as a result of harvest and ginning methods. This correction method will allow more realistic comparisons between results that researchers commonly report and measurements that a producer would receive. Field-grown cotton was harvested either by machine or hand, and ginned on a small research gin or a production-scale gin. The results reported here examine the population characteristics for physiological fiber parameters including micronaire, strength, length and uniformity. The correction needed for translating the research results to the production scale was determined. The error inherent in that correction was determined for different populations of cotton fibers from different years. To demonstrate the impact of the research-induced error and the correction factor, spatial maps of cotton fiber length are plotted.