Australian cotton fibre is exported into a dynamic and competitive market and we need to ensure an ever-improving product to meet the demand from spinners. Periods of insufficient soil water not only reduce the amount of lint produced but also impact on fibre characteristics. The use of skip row configurations provide some insurance against poor fibre quality by increasing soil water reserves available to the crop, delaying water stress. This paper presents some recent research in dryland situations that aim to optimise the balance between yield and fibre quality. Specific issues include comparing Bollgard II and non Bollgard II crops in different row configurations and including premium fibre varieties. Results show that high fruit retention Bollgard II cotton did not perform any differently to conventional cotton when grown in skip configurations. Fibre length was improved using the skip configurations compared with solid. The yield of a premium fibre variety was less but fibre length was significantly improved, so this variety would only be beneficial if there was a significant likelihood in attaining large discounts for fibre length. Further research is being done with a range of different row configurations to further develop guidelines that will help growers select the best option for each situation.