HIGH COTTON
From one small seed comes a plant that is integral to the fabric and fiber or our daily lives.
Written by Leslie Woodard
Like the strong smooth weave of new denim jeans, Texas Tech University’s cotton research is woven indelibly into the cotton industry’s past, present and future. From one small seed comes a plant that is integral to the fabric and fiber of our daily living.
The cotton we know today has evolved over centuries from Southern plantations to a multi-billion-dollar worldwide industry. Fibers are longer and stronger. Seeds are more heat-, cold- and drought-tolerant. Harvesting is faster and more efficient. Processing is quicker and more precise. Many of the advances in cotton technology and research are attributable directly to work done at Texas Tech University, work that resulted from visionary foresight by the university’s founders.
In 1923, the founding fathers wrote into the charter of Texas Technological College that the school would study cotton and textiles. The second building constructed on campus was the Textile Engineering Building. Today, Lubbock and Texas Tech are in the center of the world’s largest cotton patch. The 125-mile radius surrounding Lubbock produces about 20 percent of the country’s cotton crop, which is about 5 percent of world cotton production. Texas High Plains’ cotton has moved from use in low-end production to being the preferred type of cotton for some particular kinds of manufacturing and for popular fabrics, such as denim. Lubbock is home to the largest concentration of cotton research infrastructure anywhere.
Research and subsequent practical applications coming out of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources are helping cotton producers and others involved in the cotton industry to grow crops more efficiently and to make better-informed marketing decisions. Texas Tech’s cotton research is even supported by the Department of Defense to create improved fabrics for protective clothing.
A large part of the history of Texas Tech’s cotton research comes from its International Textile Center, an auxiliary of the university. The center is charged with conducting research that will lead to greater use of cotton and other natural fibers, and with assisting the textile manufacturing industry in the efficient use of these fibers. The International Textile Center serves as a research, evaluation and consultation center for the global textile industry.
Beginning in the late 1960s, Texas Tech’s International Textile Center played an essential role in the research, development and evaluation of High Volume Instrument technology used to measure the essential properties of cotton fibers. Since 1992, the United States Department of Agriculture has used these systems exclusively to evaluate the entire U.S. cotton crop. The technology continues to evolve, as Texas Tech researchers and industry partners study experimental measurements to enhance the information that the instruments gather.
Texas Tech’s Department of Plant and Soil Science also continues its ongoing exploration of ways to make cottonseeds more stress-tolerant and to make fibers longer and stronger. Dick Auld, Ph.D., department chairperson and professor of plant genetics, says a lack of genetic variability exists in cotton, which makes it necessary to search for and identify new genes for specific cotton traits that would increase the cotton’s quality or value.
One project Auld and other researchers are working on is to reduce the amount of oil the cottonseed produces. “The plant expends twice as much energy to produce oil as it does to produce cellulose, or fiber. If you reduce the amount of oil produced in the seed, more of the energy is available for fiber production,” Auld said.
Another study in Auld’s cotton breeding program involves trying to reduce the maturity time of certain types of cotton. “The Texas High Plains has a considerably shorter cotton growing season than other parts of the state or the South,” Auld said. “We are working on breeding a line of cotton that has a shorter maturing period. The fiber will be every bit as long as types of cotton grown in other parts of the state.”
Auld’s preferred method of genetic manipulation is chemical mutagenesis, meaning, applying a chemical to the seed to change the DNA structure, which randomly changes the genes involved. Auld says with this method, if a researcher finds even one desirable trait, the process is extremely cost-effective. In fact, he said, by this process, his researchers found a gene that when expressed in a certain type of cotton, increased the fiber length two-tenths of an inch.
Auld’s cotton genetics methods do, however, differ greatly from the methods of genetic engineering used by molecular biologists at Texas Tech, such as Randy Allen, Ph.D., a professor of biological sciences and plant sciences, and co-director of Texas Tech’s Center for Biotechnology and Genomics, specifically in plant molecular biology.
“One of our goals is to make cotton that establishes well in colder temperatures, yet can yield well in dryland conditions,” Allen said. “One of the problems with traditional breeding is that stress tolerance usually comes at a cost to the yield. So we approach the problems transgenically, by introducing genes from other plants that carry the desired trait,” Allen said. “We’re looking for genes that will break the linkage between yield and stress tolerance. Our approach is to increase the expression of genes that protect cells from damage caused by oxygen radicals. Working with plant physiologist A. Scott Holaday, Ph.D., we have found that transgenic plants that express certain antioxidant genes maintain higher levels of photosynthesis after exposure to stress and in preliminary field tests, these plants appear to be more productive than normal plants under dryland conditions.”
Allen says, like stress tolerance, fiber length and yield also are opposed. “Anytime you breed for longer fiber, you get less yield. The breeders know this. So, as in our fiber quality research, we’re looking for ways to break down the linkage between fiber length and yield.”
What Allen has done is to try to identify one or two genes that specifically affect length, then, to take a cotton variety with typically short fiber, to introduce these genes, and to see if it results in longer fiber. What he found is that cotton plants do not express the optimum amount of an enzyme called xyloglucan endotransglycosylase, or XET, which when expressed, allows the cell walls of cotton fiber to expand and stretch, resulting in longer fiber.
“When we overexpress this gene, we get a consistent 15 to 20 percent increase in fiber length in the variety we’re using.”
Allen says researchers haven’t done extensive yield tests on the variety, but he believes a chance exists that they will be able to break the linkage between fiber length and yield. The use of the gene has been patented by Texas Tech and a Japanese textile company that funded the research.
Commercializing any genetically modified plant, Allen says, is an extremely expensive proposition, and is becoming more so every day. Because of the prohibitive cost of marketing a transgenic line, Allen says, Texas Tech’s approach has to be to license the technology to a seed company that has the capital to see the process through. “We have great technology, and we are making strides in seed tolerance and in fiber quality. The question is, whether commercializing these improvements is economically feasible,” Allen said.
Allen is among many biologists at Texas Tech studying different aspects of the growth process of cotton. Candace Haigler, Ph.D., another professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, is researching the synthesis of cellulose, the major structural component of plant cell walls. A practical problem is the cool night hindrance of cellulose deposition required for cotton fiber maturation. The cool nights experienced around Lubbock in the summer and fall often result in a lower yield, a less mature and less valuable cotton crop being harvested.
Haigler, along with Holaday and other coworkers at Texas Tech, have studied the basic biochemistry and molecular biology related to this cool temperature inhibition for several years. “We designed a cotton transformation strategy to try to alleviate the effect,” Haigler said. “Transformed plants now available can produce more mature cotton fibers with thicker cellulose walls under cool night temperatures.” These promising results were obtained in a growth chamber, and similar promising results were obtained in a small field plot. If the results can be routinely reproduced in the field, Haigler said, it should be of major benefit to High Plains cotton producers and to the textile industry.
However, advances in cotton quality will help very little if soil and water conditions do not meet the requirements for successful cotton production. In soil research, Texas Tech’s Plant and Soil Science Department is linking farming to modern satellite technology to produce crops more efficiently, by studying precision agriculture practices.
Precision agriculture uses global positioning satellite systems to assist farmers in potentially increasing profits by redistributing field inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides for more efficient use. Cary Green, Ph.D., associate professor of soil chemistry, says fields are not necessarily uniform and may not need to be treated as such.
“Traditional agriculture treats crop fields uniformly with respect to production inputs,” said Green. “However, soil properties can vary in time and space and affect crop production. As a result, uniform application of agricultural inputs may result in over-application in some areas and under-application in others. Precision agriculture technologies are available that allow variable application of crop inputs within a field.”
According to Green, field variables are anything from moisture to soil fertility, to pathogen elevations to weeds and insects. Fields with little variability in these factors would not benefit significantly from the use of precision agriculture.
In precision agriculture, satellites are used to locate and plot areas where researchers then take samples. These samples are sent to a lab to determine soil fertility and other factors. A yield monitor can be used to record yield from different areas of the field, and combined with the global positioning system information, can provide locations of high and low yield.
Green has been conducting research on two irrigated cotton fields near Lubbock since 1998. For one of the fields, four potential management zones were identified, based on yield and a combination of soil parameters. Those zones can serve as basic management zones for further variable application experiments.
Precision agriculture can potentially affect profits in two ways, said Green, “One, by increasing yield, and two, by decreasing inputs in areas where they’re not needed.”
Jerry Brightbill, of Brightbill Farms in Plainview, has used precision agriculture practices for three years, and he has seen proven success in his 4,000 acres of cotton.
“It has reduced overall chemical inputs by 3 to 5 percent. However, it has reduced the rate of Roundup usage by 50 percent,” said Brightbill. “The field computer maps where we have sprayed and where all of the hazards in the field are. Therefore, we can spray at night, and a 50 percent rate of Roundup will do better than a full rate in the daytime. It has given us the ability to find and treat areas of each field in different ways.”
Brightbill says his farming operation has definitely profited. “In decreased chemicals alone, it has paid for itself and then some. Now if we can prove the yield increases by properly matching crop need to inputs, we will be able to add additional profit to the operation.”
Even given perfect soil conditions for crop production, water is a much more critical issue. “In Texas, water is the first, second, third and fourth major limitation to crop production,” says Dan Krieg, Ph.D., professor of plant and soil science in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Krieg and his colleagues are studying water use challenges from many different angles, to help the state’s producers increase crop yields and profits.
An entire spectrum of studies is underway, from no supplementation of rain (no irrigation), to the scientists supplying every bit of water the crops need to achieve maximum growth and productivity.
Texas Tech researchers are studying water supplies, irrigation techniques, water-by-fertility interactions, water-by-variety interactions and population controls. “In dry-land farming, the only way you can supply adequate water per plant to achieve maximum plant efficiency is to limit the population to meet the water supply,” said Krieg.
Krieg is looking at genetic variability in relation to water supply, and says there are genotypes of cotton and sorghum that are more productive within a given water supply, in terms of producing more
seed and bigger seed. “We’re evaluating this interaction in terms of how a plant uses water and how well it produces in response to its water supply,” said Krieg. This effort should provide breeders with valuable information on water-use efficiency.
“We have to learn to use the rainfall more effectively. We have to learn to use irrigation water more effectively and efficiently in order to maintain productivity and keep the agricultural economy somewhat liquid. The whole purpose of everything we’re doing is to make the state’s limited water supply more productive, more profitable and to use it more effectively in crop agriculture,” said Krieg.
“We have to learn to use the rainfall more effectively. We have to learn to use irrigation water more effectively and efficiently in order to maintain productivity and keep the agricultural economy somewhat liquid. The whole purpose of everything we’re doing is to make the state’s limited water supply more productive, more profitable and to use it more effectively in crop agriculture,” said Krieg.
Like Green and Krieg, Texas Tech’s other cotton researchers have strived to make practical applications of the information they gather. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. Don Ethridge, Ph.D., chairperson of the department, believes if producers cannot sell their cotton effectively, there is little point in producing the crop in the first place. “It doesn’t really matter what technology or innovations or strides are made in other aspects of cotton production if the market for cotton isn’t there,” Ethridge said.
His part of the solution has been to take difficult economic principles and formulas, derived from research, and make them available to cotton producers via several fairly simple interactive Internet tools.
One of the departments’ first advances was to initiate the Daily Price Estimation System. The idea was conceived nearly 10 years ago, and the last six years, information has been available online at http://www.aeco.ttu.edu/DPES/. This system estimates the day’s prices for all qualities of cotton, based on what happened in the market that day for cotton with specific qualities and characteristics.
“In such an unpredictable market as the cotton market is, there is a need for reliable and timely information. The availability of more and better information in a marketplace creates a more pricing-efficient market, and price instability is held down,” Ethridge said.
According to Ethridge, governmental approaches and procedures for measuring and reporting prices in the U.S. cotton industry have not changed appreciably over the last century, even though information handling and econometric technology now present countless new possibilities for measuring and reporting those prices. The promise of these possibilities, more than nine years ago, led Ethridge to pursue his notion of the Daily Price Estimation System for the cotton industry.
The use of the DPES in cotton price estimation can add two primary things to price reporting – objectivity and reliability. The Daily Price Estimation System allows a more comprehensive and rigorous analysis of price-quality relationships, while enhancing the speed at which prices can be analyzed and reported.
Ethridge explained that econometrics, the centerpiece of the system, operates within the realm where economic theory, math and statistics collide. Econometrics is a descriptive term for a general approach to estimating and quantifying economic phenomena.
Sukant Misra, Ph.D., associate dean for research in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and researcher on the DPES project, pointed out that in no way are the researchers predicting or forecasting prices in the cotton market. “We are quickly and accurately reporting and analyzing what the markets are really doing and have done,” Misra said.
With the information generated by the DPES, and funding from Cotton Inc., Misra’s researchers recently developed the Cotton Price Calculator tool. “The purpose of the DPES cotton price calculator is to allow users to calculate a specific cotton price based on the premiums and discounts generated by the Daily Price Estimation System,” Misra said. Two estimation methods are available: One estimates prices using the previous week’s average premiums and discounts generated by the DPES; method two estimates prices using the year-to-date average premiums and discounts generated by the DPES.
“We do not advise a buyer or a seller to buy or sell based on one day’s market results. That’s why the calculator gives them a choice of using the previous week’s information, or the year-to-date information,” Misra said. “Really, the bottom line is that prices vary so much with quality, this tool helps the buyer or seller form realistic price expectations about a certain group of cotton, based on what the market already has seen.”
Another tool available online from Texas Tech’s Agricultural and Applied Economics Department is the Cotton Harvesting Cost Calculator also funded by Cotton Inc. This particular site, also developed by Misra, is an analytical model converted into an interactive program.
“This particular program allows producers to input information into the calculator and discern what type of harvesting equipment might be more cost effective for the acreage and yield of that particular crop,” Misra said. A producer can look at cotton strippers or pickers, two-row, four-row, six-row or eight-row, with or without cleaners, and come out with a suggestion of which harvesting technology would be more efficient for the particular cotton operation. Producers who already own a particular piece of equipment also can use the harvest calculator to estimate their harvest costs.
A third Web-based tool, developed by Misra and research partners at Agricultural Research Services – United Stated Department of Agriculture, is GinQual, a ginning quality simulation model. The site was funded in part by the Cotton Production and Processing Research Unit of the United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service. This site simulates the changes in cotton quality as it moves through the ginning process. On this site, the ginner can specify a certain variety of cotton and other parameters to track changes in quality and yield. There are seven fiber qualities and net cotton weight that are considered.
“The ginners are the primary users of this program,” Ethridge said. “It allows the ginner to simulate the cotton’s moving from various stages of lint cleaning, to see what happens to the weight and other characteristics.”
Larry Nelson, of Edcot Gin in Edmonson, says he is very satisfied with the effort Texas Tech’s Agricultural and Applied Economics Department is making in bringing information and tools to end users in the industry. “I’m very pleased with what’s coming out of their research. These tools can be useful if used to their potential,” Nelson said.
Finally, from the Cotton Economics Research Institute, comes a project led by Emmett Elam, Ph.D., which is still a work in progress. The Cotton Wizard, when complete, will be an interactive tool to help producers with decisions on variety selection. Producers will be able to input information on rainfall, irrigation, soil type, location and other information, and retrieve suggestions on what cotton varieties might be cost-effective for that set of information. Theoretically, the Cotton Wizard will be able to calculate expected net returns for any number of varieties, and also give variability on those returns.
Shawn Wade, marketing director for Plains Cotton Growers in Lubbock, says the Web-based tools developed by Texas Tech are becoming more and more useful to producers, ginners and others involved in the cotton industry.
“As producers look more closely at the decision-making process, these economic tools are extremely helpful,” Wade said. “It is critical for producers and ginners to have the most information possible, whether it is for harvesting, marketing or ginning. These are frontline types of tools.”
Wade says getting the word out about them is crucial. “The more producers become aware of the availability of these tools, and how they can use the information the tools provide, they will become a much more widely used resource for those producers.”
Ultimately, Ethridge said, developing Web-based tools is a way to get Texas Tech research into the hands of those for whom it will benefit most: the producers and others in industry. “The building of the Web programs is not research itself, but it is a way to present analytical research to a user in a user-friendly fashion. How many ginners are going to sit down and do all these calculations to figure out what’s happening in their ginning process? This way, they can go to the Web anytime they want, and run multiple scenarios.”
From the seed through the entire production process to end use, Texas Tech is involved in identifying more and better uses for cotton and cotton by-products. Texas Tech animal science researchers also are looking at the possibility that incorporating cottonseed into cattle feed can reduce the instances of E. Coli in feedlot cattle. Mindy Brashears, Ph.D., and Mike Galyean, Ph.D., are studying what happens to levels of E. Coli 0157:H7 in cattle when they are fed cottonseed. Cottonseed is commonly fed to dairy cattle as a good source of protein and fiber. However, feedlot cattle have not had access to this diet on a regular basis because of high use by the dairy industry. Brashears’ and Galyean’s pilot study involved two dozen cattle divided into two pens; one fed a standard diet and the other, the whole cottonseed mixed into the feed. The animals were fed the cottonseed within 28-42 days of slaughter, and were tested for E. Coli every 14 days. After 28 days of feeding, 66 percent of the control animals tested positive for E. Coli, whereas only 25 percent of the animals fed the cottonseed tested positive. In the spring of 2003, the two researchers will perform a full-scale test on 120 to 130 animals for 120 to 180 days. They will be able to test over the entire feed period, as they will buy the cattle at a fairly light weight. Galyean says particular components of the whole cottonseed, like the oil or fiber, may specifically affect the E. Coli levels. Therefore, Galyean’s and Brashears’ spring project also will test the effectiveness of individual components of the seed. “The components of cottonseed are the fiber (hulls and lint), the protein, which is what cottonseed meal consists of, and the oil. We will feed these components mixed together in the diet and see how this mixture compares with whole cottonseed,” Galyean said.
Aside from cottonseed, Texas Tech researchers also are studying new uses for the fiber itself. Seshadri Ramkumar, Ph.D., a research associate in the Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. National Program for Countermeasures to Biological and Chemical Threats, at Texas Tech’s Institute of Environmental and Human Health, is working on incorporating cotton and other natural fibers into protective fabric, used for such things as chemical protective suits, to improve comfort and breatheability. Steven Presley, Ph.D., the research coordinator for the Zumwalt program, and an associate professor in Texas Tech’s Department of Environmental Toxicology, said this particular research comes at a time when there is a heightened awareness of biological and chemical threats to the United States and around the world.
“Protective fabric technology is something we’re looking at in response to a need by the Department of Defense for lightweight protection against chemical, biological and ballistic threats,” Presley said.
Ramkumar’s research involves non-woven materials, and utilizes a state-of-the-art H1 technology needle loom. Texas Tech is the first and only facility in the United States to have this technology. Blends of cotton, wool, mohair and synthetics have been successfully manufactured into non-woven substrates of different weights.
“A substrate is a flat fabric material that comes out of non-woven machinery, that hasn’t been made into a garment,” Ramkumar said.
In regard to the protective fabric research, he said the aim is to develop a protective composite substrate, out of both synthetic and natural materials, to deliver protection in chemical warfare. “Cotton can be a component of this, to add comfort properties to the fabric,” he said. There are other entities researching protective fabric, but, he said Texas Tech is the only one using non-wovens in the process. Ramkumar recently has filed a patent application on the method to develop chemical warfare protective substrates through the Institute for Environmental and Human Health.
Texas Tech’s non-wovens laboratory also is capable of developing heavyweight composites, which will bring more value to cotton by developing high-value products such as upholstery, carpet, cushion pads and absorbent products – items that do not typically contain cotton. Ramkumar said that the needlepunch technology is very versatile and cost-effective for cotton, as the process skips the spinning and weaving steps of the fabric manufacturing process.
“The overall goal is to develop 100 percent cotton non-woven substrates that will have a variety of applications,” Ramkumar said.
Real-life applications and information gleaned from cotton research have been part of the fiber of the university from its very beginning. From the development of HVI technology many years ago, to the development of biosafe fabrics for defense purposes, Texas Tech’s cotton and related research has come a long way. Texas Tech will continue to lead the world, staying on the cutting edge of investigation and exploration in the global cotton industry.
Story produced by the Office of Communications and Marketing
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