Mechanical harvest methods efficiency and its impacts on quality of narrow row cotton

Abstract

The large scale cultivation of cotton in the Cerrado areas was made possible by large investments in technology, particularly in mechanized harvesting, which makes the business viable. However, the use of harvesters causes qualitative and quantitative losses to the final product, reducing the profitability of production. This study aimed to evaluate the fiber characteristics of narrow row cotton using harvesting Pro-12 VRS picker and stripper. The experiment was conducted on a farm in the municipalities of Sorriso in the 2014 agricultural season. The experimental design was randomized blocks with seven replicates. The treatments consisted of five harvesting systems: Pro-12 VRS picker, finger stripper with and without field cleaner and brush stripper with and without field cleaner. The efficiency of the harvester was quantified by determining the yield and total loss. Impurities in the harvested cotton were quantified by determining the percentage of bark and stem present in the sample. The following technological fiber characteristics were analyzed through the HVI tool: Trash, UHM, SFC, Elg, Mic, +b, Rd, UI and STR. Cotton in hardened management system has less trash content when harvested with the Pro-12 VRS picker. The Pro-12 VRS picker, however, failed to preserve the intrinsic quality of the fiber.

Engineering canopy architecture with enhanced yield through variety, geometry alterations and PGRs suiting mechanized cotton cultivation

“…Mechanization especially in cotton is in uenced by various factors such as cotton varieties, plant spacing, and the application of growth regulators like mepiquat chloride (Nayra et al, 2018). The choice of cotton variety and their characteristics of the crop, such as plant height, canopy width, number of branches, boll dimensions, and bracts angle, signi cantly in uence the performance of cotton pickers (Nowrouzieh et al, 2022).…”