Having already classed more than a million samples of the 2021 crop, the USDA’s Lamesa cotton classing office has been recognized for its work with the 2020 crop.The local facility has been designated the top performing office for 2020 among the 10 USDA cotton classing offices scattered across the nation.“Our (cotton classing) system is the gold standard of the world, and if you finish at the top of the 10, that’s significant,” the USDA’s Darryl Earnest said during a visit to the office Monday morning.Earnest is the deputy administrator for the cotton and tobacco program of the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing ...