ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF HARVEST AID TIMING ON FIBRE QUALITY AND TEXTILE PERFORMANCE.

Currently there are concerns relating to high micronaire, short fibre content and neps in Australian cotton. This study investigates the influence that harvest aid management practice has on fibre quality and textile performance, with the aim of minimising these problems. Harvest aid treatments were systematically applied at different times from 29% to 100% open bolls for field grown Gossypium hirsutum plants. Yield was significantly less for treatments applied up to 56% bolls open, yet remained constant for later harvest aid treatments. The range of fibre maturity across treatments was small (maturity ratio 0.88 for the earliest cf. 0.91 for late treatment application), while micronaire and linear density were significantly less for treatments applied up to 42% open bolls, yet similar for later treatments. Nep content was high for all treatments (>250 counts/g with no lint cleaning) with later treatments trending to have less nep. The addition of lint cleaning significantly generated neps at approximately 100 counts/ g per lint cleaner passage. No significant differences between timing of harvest aid treatments were noted for yarn performance attributes (yarn irregularities and strength for carded 20 tex ring spun yarns). There was however, a significant relationship between fabric colour intensity (b*) and time of harvest aid treatment with the earlier treatments taking up less dye. This study is part of an ongoing and larger initiative linking crop management practices with textile performance to enhance quality at all levels of the production chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]