Cotton Incorporated and analytics leader SAS are collaborating to introduce cotton growers, ginners, and textile companies to advanced analytics and the ways it can strengthen the industry.

Using Cotton Incorporated’s industry access and SAS’ agricultural technology expertise, the alliance will offer new data on crop production and ginning processing to help produce higher yields and reduce downtime for cotton processing machinery, supporting a stronger ecological mindset.

Agriculture has evolved over the years to drive efficiency, yield and profits, and the rise of digital agriculture has the potential to be the most transformative and disruptive evolution of all. Experts at Ernst & Young say investors are pouring billions of dollars into agriculture technology like software because the agriculture industry has begun harnessing the power of data and analytics.

The introduction of precision farming and its use of data sensors, connected devices, remote-control tools, and other technologies has enabled farmers to accurately measure, map, and manage variations in their fields to increase yields and lower production costs.

Why Big Data Matters to the Cotton Industry

A cotton gin separates cotton seeds from cotton fiber. It takes about 90 seconds for a 480-pound cotton bale to go through that process. The faster the gins run, the better. By analyzing the data flowing off multiple gins over several years, SAS identified key factors that affect the rate of processing – gin function, cotton condition and variety, fiber strength – to determine ideal gin speeds that improve machine uptime to get cotton products to market more quickly. SAS and Cotton Incorporated used this project as a method to demonstrate the value of such analytics to industry leaders.

“When Cotton Incorporated talks, the industry listens,” said David Blakemore, CEO of Blakemore Cotton & Grain, a Missouri company that has used SAS predictive analytics to improve the uptime on its cotton gins. “SAS is so precise it can tease a gnat off a dragon’s rump. When you combine that kind of influence and power, you’ve got a winner.”

SAS began in 1976 as a company that analyzed agricultural data. The company established an AgTech business unit in 2019 that forms partnerships with emerging companies.

“SAS’ roots are in agriculture, and we’re eager to make a difference in the cotton industry with support from Cotton Incorporated,” said Paula Henderson, SAS Executive Vice President and Chief Sales Officer for the Americas. “Together we’ll use the latest analytics and artificial intelligence technologies like computer vision and streaming analytics to help companies supply food and fiber to the world.”

“SAS, our North Carolina neighbor, will help the cotton industry further modernize,” said J. Berrye Worsham, President and CEO of Cotton Incorporated. “I have no doubt our work in ginning, textiles, and retail will make a meaningful difference in the ways our industry grows in more fruitful and sustainable ways.”

Based on information provided by SAS