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The Wrangler Rooted Connection uses traceable-to-the farm cotton from five states for new jean and t-shirt line.

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

May 3, 2019

9 Slides

Family farms across the Cotton Belt are supplying their sustainably grown cotton to Wrangler for it's Rooted Collection. The line includes state-specific jeans and t-shirts. The cotton for the Texas Jean and for all of the t-shirts in the line is from Vance and Mandie Smith's farm near Big Spring, Texas. 

From the farm to the fabric to the cut and sew operations, the Rooted Collection is 100 percent American-made. The following families are participating in Wrangler's Science and Conservation program and have provided the cotton for each state-specific collection:

•     The Texas Jean - Vance and Mandie Smith of Big Spring, Texas (see video)

·      The Alabama Jean - Newby Family Farms of Athens, Alabama (see video)

•      The Georgia Jean - McLendon Acres of Leary, Georgia (available summer 2019)

•      The North Carolina Jean - Lassiter Family \Farms of Conway, North Carolina (available summer 2019)

•      The Tennessee Jean - Pugh Farms of Halls, Tennessee (available summer 2019)

To read more about the Smith's partnership with Wrangler see, Farm wife: growing cotton is personal, not just a commodity. Or to read more about the impact subsurface irrigation has had on the Smith's farm, read Drip irrigation increases farm efficiency.

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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