Abstract:
Australian cotton is purchased for a premium as it meets spinner's requirements on the basis of quality and consistency. Coarse (high micronaire) fibre, high nep counts and excessive short fibre content are aspects of Australian cotton that spinners would like to see improved. Fibre quality in the field is affected by a large number of interacting factors: variety, seasonal conditions, crop and harvest management. This project continues explicit and important research employing a combination of both in-field and post-harvest research efforts to improve the quality of Australian cotton, key strategies of both the CRDC and CRC. Improving the understanding of the links between agronomy and textile performance will allow us to better refine in-field crop management recommendations to ensure cotton produced meets or exceeds market expectations.Specific objectives were to: (i) Improve the understanding of the effects of crop stress on micronaire and its components fineness and maturity. (ii) Reduce neps in the field through development of monitoring approaches to identify instances where crops have an increased risk of neps. (iii) Identify management practices that improve the consistency of cotton taken from the field. (iv) Conduct research to establish the value (price and textile value) of blending/segregation of lint quality based on quality attributes. (v) Identify other unique fibre quality attributes of Australian cotton to enhance its market value. (vi) Maintain research capability and activities into fibre quality research from the 'field to fabric'. This project was successful in providing new knowledge on fibre quality issues through:- Improved understanding of the changes in crop management practices and climate that affect micronaire and its components of linear density and maturity.- A new methodology to predict micronaire using temperature
