Exploring spatial variation of lint yield, fiber quality, gross revenue, and net profitability in a cotton field: a module by module approach

摘要

This paper describes using a wireless communication and GPS-based electronic system for exploring spatial variation of lint yield, fiber quality, gross revenue, and net profitability in a cotton field. The system utilizes GPS mounted on the cotton picker to record the location information of each cotton basket during harvest, and wireless communication to track the basket from picker to boll buggy and module builder. The result is a module area map that indicates from which part of the field each cotton module is harvested. After modules are ginned into bales and classified, the information concerning individual harvested modules (including acreage of module area, total lint weight, total market value, average yield, HVI fiber quality parameters, gross revenue, and net profitability) can be determined and associated with their geographic areas to develop a set of module level maps. The field test on a Texas A&M cotton field showed that the system could effectively and adequately reflect the spatialpattern of lint yield. Comparing to the conventional methods of exploring spatial variation in precision agriculture, this module by module approach is simple, straightforward, cheap, and therefore has great potential in application of precision agriculture for cotton production.