Agronomic Impacts on Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Industrial Performance

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is a natural fiber, that exhibits natural variation in fiber quality which can impact its performance as a raw material in industrial settings. Different genetics between varieties impacts fiber quality, yarn spinning, and yarn quality. The same can be said for environmental effects, which are often greater than genetic effects on variation in a production setting. Three different experiments were conducted to develop strategies for building actionable data from commercial scale spinning trials. These experiments focus on questions around environmental impacts on the fiber at various stages of cotton production. The experiments focus on cotton physiology, how late season cool temperatures impact boll development; post-harvest processing of fiber, how growing environment affects ginning energy use; and yarn spinning, how environment effects yarn spinning production. In the first experiment, a set of 54 30-boll bulked samples were taken in Etter, Texas and 427 single boll samples were taken in New Deal, Texas in 2020 before, during, and after a non-freezing cold front. Bolls were sampled from nodes 5, 8, and 11 to assess fruit at different maturity stages. Yield and AFIS fiber quality data show that fiber development within the boll continues despite the cool temperatures. In order to assess the effects of environment on the amount of energy needed to gin cotton, 86 samples grown from 2020-2023 were assessed. Power data was logged for five different motors on a cotton gin: the fan, seed cotton cleaner cylinders, seed cotton cleaner saws, the power roll, and the gin saw. Analysis of energy used showed that the energy required to gin the cotton is affected by the growing environment. A life cycle assessment (LCA) showed that these differences can potentially result in negative environmental impacts. Growing environment also plays a role in yarn spinning and quality. A set of 81 different cotton samples, grown between 2021 and 2023, were grown and harvested using commercial scale practices, and then spun into two different sizes of yarn: a coarser 18Ne yarn and a finer 30Ne yarn. While there were differences found in the yarn quality between the different years and locations, there were also many bales that did not spin using the prevailing spinning protocol. An increased level of twist was applied to each yarn size, 3.64 to 4.00, in order to evaluate the importance of accounting for twist in spinning trials. The higher twist allows for lower quality cotton to be able to spin and enables comparisons to be made across years, even in the highly variable growing environment in West Texas. While agronomic elements are suspected as the primary source of variation, it is also necessary to consider the wear of spinning equipment, so a spinning check bale was introduced in 2021 and was analyzed for fiber quality, spun, and analyzed for yarn quality alongside the samples every year. This check bale exhibited a consistent spinning performance, suggesting agronomic effects are the primary cause of differences seen in the spinning trials. The desired traits of cotton are determined in the field, and the environment plays a large role in the outcomes of quality and efficiency during processing. This research lays the foundation for building a wider body of research on the agronomic effects on fiber quality built around a key resource, the Texas High Plains commercial scale spinning trials.