Bourland began his work when a class in cotton breeding sparked his interest in 1969. Fred Bourland received the A. L. Vandergriff Cotton Pioneer Award from the Southern Cotton Ginners Association for 2021.
Fred Bourland still hand picks a lot of cotton. He s been at it for a little over 50 years.
As a cotton breeder he has spent a lot of time walking cotton fields, selecting varieties to advance in successful breeding programs. There s a lot of stories about how fast he picks cotton, said Bill Robertson, cotton agronomist at the University of Arkansas. He understands the cotton plant. He understands it agronomically. He understands farming from the farmer s point of view.