Cottonseed Moisture and Seed Damage at Gins

Abstract

Cottonseed merchants are concerned about damage to cottonseed that occurs at the cotton gin. Because of these concerns a two-year study was conducted to determine the effect of cottonseed moisture levels and seed cotton feedrates during ginning on cottonseed damage and the occurrence of seed coat fragments (SCF) in the lint. Five cottonseed moisture levels were tested the first year whereas four were used the second year. Two feedrate levels were considered each year. During the first-year experiment, the higher feedrate gave significantly higher seed damage while the SCF count only showed a higher trend. However, neither seed damage nor SCF numbers were significantly affected by the feedrates in the second-year experiment although both parameters tended to be higher for the higher feedrate. Seed damage increased with moisture content with the largest increase occurring at seed moisture levels above 12%. Seed coat fragment numbers and weights in ginned lint tended to be larger for the higher moisture contents. The study indicated cottonseed was more susceptible to damage at higher moisture contents and that high feedrates seem to accelerate the damage process.