Cottonspec is a yarn quality prediction software developed by CSIRO with support from the CCC CRC, CRDC and Chinese partner mills. Validation trials conducted as part of this project showed Cottonspec was a useful mill management tool, giving spinners immediate feedback on the fibre they use in terms of yarn quality. The software program gives excellent predictions of yarn tenacity and evenness from (five) HVI properties.

Cottonspec will be launched in China later this year at a technical seminar to be held jointly by CSIRO, ACSA and the China Cotton Textile Association (CCTA).

Cottonspec has the capacity to improve the classification of Australian cotton by linking cotton fibre quality with yarn quality with theoretical modelling. The prediction algorithms favour fine, long, strong cotton, i.e. play on Australian cotton fibre characteristics. The package can be used by spinners to select the most suitable cottons that best meet the spinner’s needs, or as a quality control tool to benchmark performance against “best commercial practice”. Cottonspec can also be used as a trading tool for merchants to promote the value of a particular growth, or used by cotton researchers and grower collectives to assess and promote new cotton varieties. Cottonspec could prove to be an invaluable tool to promote Australian Long Staple (ALS) cotton to mills for production of high quality yarns. Cottonspec has excellent potential to help create demand pull from high-end mills for ALS cotton. The commercialisation of Cottonspec through an extension project will create stronger partnership with quality mills to enable feedbacks on future fibre quality demands and yarn and fabric trends; and to create demand for ALS cotton.

The impacts of Cottonspec on mill performance are demonstrated by the example of the Chongqing Sanxia No. 1 Mill, a key partner mill in the project. Established in 2005 this mill is one of the most modern mills in China. Through collaboration with the Cottonspec project the quality of yarn produced by this mill has lifted dramatically. Now the mill is among the top five mills in China in terms of quality. All of the yarn this mill produces is exported to Europe and Japan. Moreover, before the project this mill had never used Australian cotton. In 2010-2011 this mill used 3350 tons of Australian cotton, making up about 20% of its lay-downs and its management has made plans to increase this proportion in the next few years.

The successful commercialisation through the extension project ‘Commercial Ready Cottonspec’ will enhance the cotton industry's current drive towards the production of high quality fibre that is differentiated by its inherent quality and the information around its quality. The combination of industry understanding and demand pull from stragegic partner mills in China for high quality Australian cotton will help fulfil the industry's ambitions to develop a high quality product.