ABSTRACT

The USDA, AMS, Cotton Program has offered module/trailer (module) averaging on a voluntary basis since 1991. When analyzing the historical results of module averaging for gins across the country, the Cotton Program has concluded that the reproducibility of quality measurements is significantly higher for bales assigned the module average compared to that of the bales assigned the individual readings. This increase in reproducibility denotes less variability in the fiber measurements and a more stable data product. This is advantageous to all segments that utilize the Cotton Program's classification data. In addition, analysis of all gins that participated in module averaging during 2002, representing 3,121,351 bales, has shown that it was more advantageous, on average, for gins to utilize module averaging when comparing the monetary value of individual bales to that of module averaged bales when using the government loan program as the basis for the monetary analysis. In 2002, the Cotton Program implemented a new policy of assigning all outlier bales within a module, with the exception of the first and last bales, the module average without requiring a review classification. This was done because historical data and studies have proven that outliers, when retested, virtually always approach the module average within acceptable testing parameters. The first and last bales were excluded because they occasionally prove to be true outliers resulting from the overlapping of modules or trailers having varying fiber properties. The Cotton Program is encouraging all gins not currently participating in the module-averaging program to try the program to investigate these potential advantages.