2008 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416) 1. Develop technologies for production, harvesting, and storage that directly impact gin plant operation, gin product quality, and textile mill operation. 2. Develop new and improved processing, sensing and control technologies for superior fiber/seed separation, foreign matter identification and extraction, accurate online cotton properties measurement and efficient process control to produce higher quality fiber more economically for optimal textile utility. 3. Develop new technologies and alternative uses for cotton production systems, ginning equipment, lint, seed, and gin by-products to increase the value of gin-related products. 4. Develop new knowledge and technology for assessent and remediation to assist with ginning industry safety and environmental regulatory compliance. 1b.Approach (from AD-416) The approach will be to combine well-defined experiments, testing specific hypotheses, with long-term, higher risk exploration of innovative concepts that may lead to new technologies. The laboratory interdisciplinary team of 5 ARS scientists, 10 Federal employees and various other support personnel brings collaborative relationships and diverse experience together to focus on 17 projects directly supporting the laboratory research program. 3.Progress Report The scope of this project covers all aspects of the cotton industry, including new variety development, harvesting, saw and roller ginning, emission monitoring and control, cotton quality effects on textile processing, and regional cotton companion and specialty crops. Current research cooperators include university, commercial, private, state, and national ginning organizations, and other USDA laboratories. This annual report will not list a completed significant accomplishment, but substantial progress has been made on most laboratory and cooperative research ongoing under the main as well as the subordinate projects. This laboratory is currently the only ARS laboratory doing research on preparation of cotton for harvest and improving the performance of spindle pickers. A significant investment has been made by ARS and the Propane and Education and Research Council in developing a four-row thermal cotton defoliator that will undergo final field tests this harvest season to obtain comprehensive field operation data. Likewise, Cotton Inc. has supported the development of an experimental spindle-picker that is capable of independently varying ground travel and picking machinery operational speeds. This unit was used last harvest season and will continue to be used by several projects during the next few harvest seasons to quantify cotton fiber quality damage occurring at harvest as well as qualifying experimental picking component designs. Several research projects under the parent CRIS project are concentrating on fiber quality as affected by the roller gin stand and methods of lint cleaning. Cooperative research with Lummus Industries is being done with the high speed rotary knife roller gin to increase its flexibility by being able to differentially separate more desirable fibers from less desirable fibers, and improving functional components of the gin stand itself. Investigations are also being done on improved grid bar designs for saw-type lint cleaners as well as pneumatic lint cleaning methods as potential replacements for conventional saw lint cleaners. Other projects include working to identify cotton contaminants such as insect sugars and man-made plastics during the processing of raw cotton. In addition, laboratory engineers are working with specialty crops such as chile and pecans to apply ginning materials handling and control methods to the mechanical harvest of these regional companion crops. A current project with AMS is focusing on transferring machine vision techniques to identify particular cotton trash components to the classing line to improve the grading of US ginned cotton. This laboratory also is proactive in transferring technology to the industry through organized training schools, technical meetings, ginning demonstrations, and related talks to students and the general public throughout the year. This laboratory's published research on cotton and its frequent contact with other institutions and the public continue to open up new research opportunities, not only on cotton, but on related problems in companion crops. NP306, Components 1b, 1c, and 1d. 6.Technology Transfer Number of Active CRADAs 2 Review Publications Whitelock, D.P., Armijo, C.B., Gamble, G.R. 2008. Evaluating a fiberglass roller covering on a roller gin stand. Journal of Cotton Science. 12:143-149. Hughs, S.E., Armijo, C.B., Whitelock, D.P., Buser, M.D. 2008. Particulate emission profile of a cotton gin. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 24(2):145-151. Buser, M.D., Wanjura, J.D., Whitelock, D.P., Capareda, S., Shaw, B., Lacey, R. 2008. Estimating FRM PM10 sampler performance characteristics using particle size analysis and collocated TSP and PM10 samplers: Cotton gins. Transactions of the ASABE. 51(2):695-702. Faulkner, W., Buser, M.D., Whitelock, D.P., Shaw, B. 2008. Effects of cyclone diameter on performance of 1D3D cyclones: Cut point and slope. Transactions of the ASABE. 51(1):287-292. Whitelock, D.P., Armijo, C.B., Gamble, G.R., Hughs, S.E. 2007. Survey of seed-cotton and lint cleaning equipment in US roller gins. Journal of Cotton Science. 11:128-140. Chun, D.T., Hughs, S.E., Armijo, C.B., Baker, K.D., Mcalister III, D. 2006. A study of bale moisture addition. Transactions of the ASABE. 50(2):325-330. Baker, K.D., Hughs, S.E., Chun, D.T. 2008. Use of a rotor spray system for moisture addition to cotton lint. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 24(4):491-495. Lu, Y.Z., Curtiss, J., Miranda, D., Hughs, S.E., Zhang, J. 2008. ATG-anchored AFLP (ATG-AFLP) analysis in cotton. Plant Cell Reports. 27:1645-1653.