Raingrown cotton is becoming a very important component of the Australian industry: the relative proportion of the crop grown with rain has been increasing over the past ten years. Given good prices and rainfall, the area of the crop grown with rain will exceed 50,000 ha. It is also important to note that during droughts, irrigators are forced to grow cotton semi-raingrown. This article aims to point out principles and results which aid the decision as to which variety to grow under raingrown conditions. Data from raingrown experiments are presented. We also illustrate some primary points for crop water use/supply/response.