Fred Bourland, cotton breeder and researcher at the Northeast Research and Extension Center at Keiser, examines cotton varieties being tested in research plots at the Lon Mann Cotton Research Station at Marianna. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Fred Miller) KEISER, Ark. — When Fred Bourland left the family cotton farm in Mississippi County for the University of Arkansas, clear across the state in Fayetteville, he had anything but farming on his mind. “I grew up around cotton,” Bourland said. “When I went to college, I was planning to get as far away from cotton as I could.”