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Farwell, Texas, family earns High Cotton Award. Ryan Williams credits his dad Mark for the award.

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

February 21, 2023

13 Slides

Farm Press and The Cotton Foundation has named Williams Family Farms as the 2023 High Cotton Award winner for the Southwest. This family operation includes parents Mark and Joyce and their three sons and spouses, Ryan and Annie and Russell and Julia, and Reagan, all serving in various roles to make the farm successful.

Take a look at this gallery to learn more about cotton production on their Farwell, Texas, farm, where no-till and a transition to 40-inch row cotton, along with variety trials and water management are helping them produce high-quality, sustainable cotton.

While this award is being presented to the family, Ryan says the High Cotton award is about one man, their father Mark. “He's put more time and effort into the cotton industry than any farmer I know. He’s intelligent and he took the cotton fight to Washington. He was a big part of a lot of things we accomplished in the cotton industry over the last 15, 20 years."

Alongside Williams Family Farms, the following cotton producers from across the Cotton Belt also are being recognized:

Follow the links to learn more about the secret to their production success.

About the Author(s)

Shelley E. Huguley

Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

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