This research was divided into three stages. The first stage developed a model to predict post-anthesis cotton fiber quality. The second stage produced a model to predict cotton fiber quality as harvest is delayed. The third stage created a model to explain the relationship between crop value and harvest date.;An upper quartile length model was developed as a function of boll position. For the 1993 experiment, the predicted and actual length values had good agreement for all positions considered. For the 1994 experiment, the model performed well on branch node one, but it predicted poorly the length on branch node positions two and three.;Microafis was found to be highly correlated with the average boll period temperature. Fiber strength was also affected by the average boll period temperature, boll period cumulative rainfall, and the interactions between these two factors. The predicted and actual microafis values showed good agreement for the three branch node positions considered. The fiber strength model also performed well as indicated by the data.;In the second stage, the boll exposure period was found to be a reasonable predictor of fiber quality values across harvest dates. For the upper quartile length, however, the predicted and actual values had poor agreement. For the microafis and fiber strength, the models showed good performance.;The calibrated and actual crop values showed good agreement. The maximum difference between these two crop values was about ;In conclusion, fiber development and decay models were produced. These models will have a role in the more precise estimation of the value of the cotton crop at different times during the growing season.
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