Not all cotton grown is the same. The longer its fibers, the more valuable it is. For growers like Jerry Mimms, the ability to grow cotton with longer fiber was for many years thought to be unachievable. Cotton grew on his fields in Lubbock, Texas, but “only the kind with much shorter fibers.”
Higher-quality cotton with longer fibers is bought at a higher price than short staple. Also, in today's global textile market demand for longer-fiber cotton has steadily increased.
This is now a thing of the past. “Since we started planting seed from Bayer CropScience, we've been harvesting high-quality cotton,” says Mimms.