Thermal Defoliation Field Trial Locations and Dates
Thanks to the cooperation of many institutions and individuals, thermal defoliation
has been tested in numerous varieties at many locations over several seasons.
Six-row Commercial Thermal Defoliator
The new commercial-scale thermal defoliator constructed by Ag Industrial Manufacturing, Inc., Lodi, CA.
It was cut to half its original length for the 2008 season to make it more maneuverable.
Despite the modification, it is still a large machine.
Covering six 30 inch rows it is capable of treating 5 acres per hour.
Cotton in the foreground treated earlier today is already desiccating.
The leaves on rows treated yesterday are brown and dry this
morning.
Once aligned with the rows, the thermal defoliator steers
itself.
The end of the first shift, Oct 22, 2008.
Louis the night driver turns the machine into another row.
80 acres were treated in three days.
Two-row Prototype Thermal Defoliator
2008 Treating research plots to support studies at the University of California, Shafter.
These trials are part of an EPA grant assessing the impact of thermal defoliation.
Unloading to treat organic cotton in the Midland-Odessa part of
Central Texas (2008).
When the oil wells run dry there will still be farming.
Weslaco, TX July 2004. Scientists were almost as thick as the
cotton.
The impact of thermal treatment is visible the day of
treatment.
At the University of California's West Side Research and Extension Center.
Producers attending the USDA-ARS and UC Shafter Field Day check out cooked cotton.
Refueling while treating stripper cotton on the High Plains of West Texas.
Thermal treatments at New Mexico State University's Plant
Science Research Center near Las Cruces.
The six treatment and harvest date combinations
investigated in Las Cruces.
Numbers indicate the days between
treatment and harvest.
A commercial producer of organic cotton tests the thermal defoliation apparatus on Acala and Pima varieties.
One-row Experimental Thermal Defoliator
The predecessor apparatus was a tractor-towed one row device.
Adjusting treatment temperature (between 250 and 350 F) in 2002.
2002 thermal defoliator shows its stuff.
Entomologist Brad Lewis monitors leaf respiration
immediately after thermal treatment.
Professor Lewis quantified
insect mortality in 2001.
Thermal treatments had
significantly fewer whiteflies and aphids.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Cooperating Scientists:
Carlos Armijo (USDA-ARS Las Cruces, NM)Alan Brashears (USDA-ARS Lubbock, TX)
Reginald Fletcher (USDA-ARS Weslaco, TX)
Allan Showler (USDA-ARS Weslaco, TX)
Michael McGuire and Jay Bancroft (USDA-ARS Shafter, CA)
David McAllister III (USDA-ARS Clemson, SC)
Brad Lewis (New Mexico State University)
Robert Hutmacher and Larry Godfrey (University of California)
(Along with Treanna Pierce, Pete Goodell, Bruce Roberts and Brian Marsh)
And Wayne LePori (Texas A & M University)
Cooperating Farmers:
Don Cameron (TerraNova Ranch, Helm, CA)Doci Alvarez (Alvarez Farms, La Union, NM)
Frank Williams and Mark Fickett (Firebaugh, CA)
Paul Goodman (Dos Palos, CA) and Frank Everidge (Midkiff, TX)
Ed Scott (UC West Side Research and Extension Center)
Gary Lawrence and Mark Pacheco (NMSU Leyendecker PSRC)
Other Key Collaborators:
Paul Burkner and Kevin Wilkerson (Ag Industrial Mfg)Marcia Gibbs (Sustainable Cotton Project)
Steve Jaeger (Railroad Commission of Texas)
Bryan Stegall (NM Propane Dealers Association)
Mark Leitman (Propane Council, Washington, DC)
John Lloyd (USDA-APHIS), Chuck Melton (Fresno County)
Ramon Alvarez and Tommy Rodriguez (NMSU Transportation)
and many others.
Funding provided by the Propane Education and Research Council is gratefully acknowledged.