The third Round Trial conducted under the auspices of the Task Force on Commercial Standardization of Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC RT 2007-3) was conducted during August and September 2007. 54 testing facilities with 69 instruments participated. Participating testing centers were located in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.
Five cotton samples with known values were mailed to each participating laboratory in August. Each laboratory tested each sample six times each day for five days. Each sample was tested for the six CSITC parameters of length, length uniformity index, micronaire, strength, Rd (reflectance) and +b (yellowness). All five of the samples were from upland saw ginned cotton.
Laboratory results were collected by USDA and forwarded to the Bremen Fibre Institute for evaluation. Laboratories were given an overall ranking, as well as rankings for performance on each of the six tests. Rankings were based on the first four upland cotton samples with known values. The purpose of the fifth cotton sample in all CSITC Round Trials is for special study purposes and is not used for performance-ranking.
The names and results from each test center are confidential, but each testing facility receives an evaluation of its performance in the Round Trial and a detailed diagnostic analysis of results. The purpose of the CSITC Round Trial is to facilitate improved performance.
Rankings were based on the results of each lab in coming closest to the mean values for all laboratories participating in the Round Trial on all six measurements. The range of scores for the combined properties among the 69 instruments was 0.25 to 2.28 (a score of zero would be perfect), and the median overall evaluation of combined properties was 0.47.
The results in CSITC RT 2007-3 are highly consistent with the results from RT 2007-1 and RT 2007-2. The average difference between the evaluation grades of identical instruments in comparison between RT 2007-1, RT 2007-2 and RT 2007-3 was 0.1, which means, that the evaluation of each single testing facility, and therefore its accuracy, is quite stable.
International Cotton Advisory Committee
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