This Week
Turnout Percentages – Factors
Involved
9th April 10
Facts
Compiled by the CSD Extension and Development Team
Turnout Percentages – Factors Involved:
Every season there are always questions at harvest and ginning time
about variation in gin turnout of cotton crops. This can be a point of
contention between grower and ginner and can lead to disappointment
when actual yields do not reflect estimates based on module numbers
and weights from particular fields.
What is Turnout (Lint) Percentage?
The turnout percentage is a simple measurement of the weight ratio of
lint to seed cotton in any particular field. Each module is comprised of
lint, seed, trash, burr, mote fibres and moisture. For example if the lint
percentage is 40%, 50% may be seed and the remaining 10% by weight
of extraneous matter such as trash and mote. These ratios can be
influenced by many environmental and management influences.
Factors That Affect Turn Out:
T u rn o u t
For a number of
Figure 1: Relation ship between yield and turn out.
seasons
the
(Sicot 71BR, 114 fields)
CSD Extension
45
and
Sicot 71BR
44
Development
5 Years
43
team have used
42
their variety trial
41
program
and
40
segmented
39
picking method
to
assess
38
different aspects
37
y = 0.0443x + 38.608
of crop growth
R2 = 0.0022
36
to
further
35
understand the
5
7
9
11
13
15
components of
Yield
high
yielding
cotton
crops.
This work has shown there is no correlation between turnout and lint
yield as shown in Figure 1. There are greater influences on yield such as
fruit retention, boll number and boll
Table 1: Indicative turnout
weight.
percentages* and seeds/kilo
1. Inherent Turn Out of the Variety: for popular Australian cotton
Some varieties inherently have higher varieties.
turnouts than others, depending on Variety
TO
Seeds
seed size and seed weight. For
%
/kg
example, Sicot 80BRF has a large Sicot 71BRF
42
10,260
seed (low seeds/kg) and hence has a Sicot 70BRF
41
10,265
39
10,325
much lower turnout than Sicot 75 with Sicot 80BRF
Sicot 71B
41
9,730
a very small seed (Table 1).
40
10,275
2. Trash Content: High trash levels in Sicot 71RRF
42
10,495
the modules will reduce turnout as this Sicot 71
42
11,625
material has to be removed. Also the Sicot 75
Individual results may vary >+/-5%
gin will be able to use more heat and *from
these figures
lint cleaners to remove this trash from
It should be remembered that many of these factors that influence the
turn out percentage do not affect the final yield, just the perception of the
final yield.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
• Discuss ginning of your cotton with your preferred gin,
determine the desired outcome and expectations in terms of
gin configuration and cotton sample quality .
Contacting the CSD Extension and Development Team
Wee Waa
Wee Waa
Narrabri
CSD Office
Bob Ford
Rob Eveleigh
02 67950000
0428 950015
0428 915921
Moree
Goondiwindi
Dalby
James Quinn
David Kelly
John Marshall
On Friday
the lint – an operation that further reduces the lint percentage. Timely
and effective defoliation and correct spindle picker setup (pressure
doors) is one way to minimise the amount of trash.
3. Moisture Content at Picking and Ginning: In very dry picking years
(such as 04/05 and 05/06) turnouts are higher due to the gin having to
increase moisture into the lint to prevent fibre brittleness and achieve
uniform bale moisture content. Alternatively modules with higher
moisture, (harvested early morning after a dew, or post rainfall) require
extra heat to reduce the moisture content to allow the seed cotton to
pass efficiently through the gin thereby reducing the weight and
potentially damaging the fibres. Picking should not occur unless seed
cotton moisture content is 12% or less.
4. Irrigated and Dryland: Growing conditions can play a vital role in the
development of the seed and fibre. In most irrigated conditions the crop
is growing under good conditions throughout the entire season. In
dryland the plant may suffer through periods of moisture stress, which
can impact not only on fibre length and micronaire and seed size.
Commonly dryland turnouts are a few percent below that seen in fully
irrigated conditions for the same variety. Harvesting with strippers may
also produce a lower turnout as they are inclined to capture more trash
than spindle pickers.
Figure 2: Average Segmented picking turnout
5.
Compensation
across high yielding crops data set. (Samples
/Competition Issues:
ginned through 10 saw research gin)
In the segmented
picking work carried
FP 13+
2nd pos +
out by the CSD team in
1st pos
recent seasons we
FP 9-12
found
very
little
variability in turnout
FP 5-8
from different parts of
FP 1-4
the plant (Figure 2).
First position boll
Veg
position bolls have a
slightly higher turnout
than those further out
20%
30% Turnout 40%
50%
on the fruiting branch.
In scenarios where the first position boll is lost the plant compensates for
this and the turnout percentage of second and third position bolls
increases as more assimilates are available to these bolls
6. Fertile Conditions Late into the Season: In scenarios where the
crop has completely cut out and conditions are still quite fertile (adequate
N and H20) extra assimilates can be pumped into developing bolls. This
increases both seed size and also increases the fibres’ maturity
(micronaire). There is a slight relationship between micronaire and turn
out percentage, when conditions occur that improve the maturity of the
fibre are also likely to increase seed size.
0428 950028
0428 950021
0428 950010
Sicot, Sicala, Siokra and Sipima cotton varieties are a result
of a research program conducted by CSIRO.
Supported by the Cotton Research & Development
Corporation until 2006
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