Beltwide Conferences to be in Nashville
Under the theme “Orchestrate
Your Opportunities,”
the 2008 Beltwide Conferences will meet Jan. 8-11 at the Gaylord Opryland
Hotel in Nashville. In addition to the Cotton Consultant Conference on Tuesday afternoon, the Production Conference will meet on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Eleven technical conferences
are scheduled to meet during Beltwide.
The Cotton Consultant
Conference, a new addition to Beltwide, will be open to all attendees. However, the conference is specifically for crop consultants,
and is intended to provide
continuing education units. General session topics include Variety Selection, Insect Management,
and Weed Management. The last part of the Cotton Consultant
Conference includes eight breakout sessions, during which consultant and extension speakers
will discuss best management practices. The Extension Cotton Specialists will also demonstrate the eXtension Web site.
Production Conference topics
will include Washington and Trade Policy, Emerging Technology’s Value to Cotton Production, and Pest Management.
There will also be a Cotton
Incorporated Report and Grower Panel.
The Cotton Quality Measurements
Conference, one of the 11 technical conferences during Beltwide, provides an opportunity
for researchers focused on cotton quality and the measurements
of cotton quality
to share their research. Presentations will include active and recent research pertaining to instruments and procedures used to measure and evaluate the many properties of cotton fibers.
Concerns currently faced in this field include the measurement challenges
in cotton breeding and biotechnology programs,
global competition and discussions of a universal
classing system, and the acceptance of globally recognized cotton standards
and cotton testing conditions.
The conference is a forum for discussing relationships among fiber quality, processing efficiency and product quality, measurement characteristics such as fiber length distribution, fiber neps and contamination (trash, seed coat fragments and stickiness), and new developments
in measurement and fiber evaluation technology.
Vikki Martin, Associate Director
of Quality Research in Fiber Competition at Cotton Incorporated,
is chair of the Cotton Quality Measurements Conference.
Several of the presentations are based on research funded by Quality Research-Fiber Competition
and will focus on the fiber measurements that produce the best yarn quality.
Thursday afternoon presentations
will include Preliminary Evaluations of Micronaire Measurements
by Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy for Field Applications
by Dr. James Rodgers, Real-Time High-Resolution Cotton Fiber Length and Maturity Measurements
Using Image Analysis by M. Shahriar, Data Mining of Cotton Fiber Quality Measurements
by C. Turner, Relationships
Between Fiber and Yarn Tensile Properties by Dr. Eric Hequet, and A New Approach to Predicting Cotton Yarn Quality Attributes from Fiber Characteristics
Using Universal Equations - Part II - Update and Merits by Dr. Y. El-Mogahzy.
Friday morning presentations will include Impacts of Glass Use in Cotton Color Measurements
Conferences from front pageby Dr. James Rodgers, Moisture in Cotton by Oven Drying by Dr. Joe Montalvo, An Investigation of Cotton Moisture Measured by HVI and Oven Methods by Dr. Leon Cui (X. Cui), Developing an Automated
Machine Vision System for Objective Soil Release Evaluation by A. Gururajan, and Within Bale Variations of Cotton Fiber Properties
by Dr. Devron Thibodeaux.
All presentations will be recorded and made available at www.beltwide.cotton.org.
Ag Research to Highlight Sustainability
The Cotton Incorporated Agricultural
Research Department will host a booth highlighting the sustainability of cotton at the 2008 Beltwide Conferences in Nashville. A special feature at the booth will be a video showcasing
how Cotton Incorporated is working with brands and retailers to convey the message to the consumer that cotton is a sustainable fiber.
The Ag Research staff will be involved in numerous technical sessions during Beltwide. Dr. Jeanne M. Reeves, Director of Agricultural Research, is organizing
a seminar titled “Precision Management of Production Costs: Standardized Record Keeping For Cotton’s New World.” Scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, the seminar is for cotton growers, who from seed to harvest collect and store vast amounts of information
and need a more standardized
system of data collection and management.
To help growers get the most benefit from all this data, Cotton Incorporated has been working with Red Wing Software and MapShots and continues to fund research into the development of a precision, standardized system that will allow growers to determine
and manage their true production
costs of cotton and other crops.
Dr. Patricia O’Leary, Senior Director of Agricultural Research, will preside over an open forum titled “Management of the Sucking Bug Complex Across the Cotton Belt.” Scientists will give short presentations in a roundtable format and then facilitate discussion
and interaction among consultants,
growers, and industry and other stakeholder groups.
In following with Cotton Incorporated’s environmental
conservation efforts, Fiber Competition wants to transition the traditional paper newsletter to an electronic
publication for as many recipients as possible.
Please send the e-mail address to which you want to receive your newsletter to:
EFSSystem@cottoninc.com.
You will receive the newsletter
in an Adobe® Acrobat® .pdf file format, which allows you to view it online as well as print it, if you prefer. We hope you will enjoy receiving the newsletter electronically and participating in conserving
our natural resources.
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