In 1949, Missouri Ruralist magazine featured Lester Cook Jr. on its cover. He and his father, Lester Cook Sr., were harvesting their rice with a new piece of equipment- a big-tired, self-propelled combine. The Cooks grew rice in the Mississippi River bottomlands of Marion County in northeast Missouri from the late 1930s to the mid-1970s. Today, University of Missouri agronomists are leading a new cooperative research project that may return rice production to north Missouri. Image used with permission, Farm Progress Companies, Carol Stream, IL.

It's been about 30 years since Lester Cook grew rice in the Mississippi River bottomlands of Marion County in northeast Missouri, but his memories of those days working the land with his father, Lester Cook Sr., are nonetheless vivid.

Now 84 years old and still living in Marion County, Cook remembers experimenting with four acres of rice in 1938, then expanding to 40 acres in 1939.

"Everyone thought we were nuts and said it couldn't be done, but we had a successful crop every year except 1947 when we ended up irrigating with 17 feet of water," Cook joked during a recent telephone interview, referring to a levee-breaking flood on the Mississippi that year.

In 1949, the father and son caught the attention of Missouri Ruralist magazine, which published a story in the Nov. 12 issue about the Cooks, who were harvesting their rice with a new piece of equipment- a big-tired, self-propelled combine.

"The Cooks are veteran rice producers and they've had their share of troubles with the crop," wrote Ruralist editor Cordell Tindall. "But the big yields they can get, along with high quality, have encouraged them to work out the kinks in producing rice in their area. It is said the Cooks are the most northerly rice growers in the nation."

After a 30-year hiatus, rice may soon return to northern Missouri. University of Missouri (MU) agronomists are leading a new cooperative research project to evaluate the growth, development and yield potential of different modern varieties - research that could lead to pharmaceutical rice production in the north. Like the Cooks before them, the scientists hope to work out the kinks of producing rice.

This spring, MU agronomists, in cooperation with Ventria BioScience and Premium Ag Products, planted test plots of 14 rice varieties in four locations in northeast and northwest Missouri.

Coincidentally, in the 1940s, researchers from the University of Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station, including agronomist Lloyd Cavanah, planted test plots on the Cook farm. The work eventually led to the development of a new short-grain rice variety, MO R-500.

The new trials include long, medium and short-grain rice varieties, including some hybrids. One of the test plots, at the Greenley Memorial Research Center in Knox County, was on display during the center's Aug. 4 field day.

"Rice evolved in the foothills of the Himalayas in Asia," MU rice agronomist Brian Ottis said. "It grows very similar to wheat in that it produces tillers (reproductive culms, or stems, that sprout from the base of plants.)"

Ottis explained that rice generally is planted after soil temperatures reach 60 degrees. The crop can be conventionally seeded and then flooded, or it can be water-seeded, a process where seed is pre-germinated then cast over a flooded field, usually from an airplane.

"Rice is an aquatic plant," he said. "The flood produces an anaerobic environment that helps suppress weeds, and it dissolves nutrients in solution for easy uptake."

A typical rice crop requires 120 to 180 pounds of nitrogen, which is "typically put out in a two-way split," Ottis said. Two-thirds of the nitrogen is applied pre-flood, and the remaining third is applied when the panicle, the shoot on which grain is produced, begins to differentiate.

University of Missouri agronomists, in cooperation with Ventria BioScience and Premium Ag Products, planted test plots of 14 rice varieties in four locations in northeast and northwest Missouri this spring. The project is intended to evaluate the growth, development and yield potential of different modern varieties that may lead to the return of rice production to northern Missouri. MU photo by Jason L. Jenkins.

About 10 days before harvest as the crop reaches maturity, the rice is drained so that equipment can enter the field. "You harvest when the rice at about 18 to 20 percent moisture," he said. "Around 150 bushels per acre is a good average yield."

Because rice is grown under a highly controlled environment, it typically produces, and pays, consistently, Ottis said.

"The further you go north, the less heat stress there will be on crop, and the cooler nighttime temperatures give the rice a chance to catch up," he said. "The potential here is fantastic."

"Our north Missouri claypan soils also are an advantage because once you flood a field and saturate the clay, it stays saturated," said Randall Smoot, Greenley Center superintendent.

Throughout the season, researchers have monitored the rice plots for weeds, insects and diseases that could negatively impact the crop. Sheath blight and leaf blast are the major rice diseases in Missouri, Ottis said.

Growth rates, days to 50 and 100 percent heading, days to maturity, plant height, lodging and grain yield also are being documented.

If suitable varieties are found, Smoot said they could lead to the development of genetically modified rice variety - grown in north Missouri and geographically distanced from the state's rice production region in the Bootheel.

Somen Nandi, director of molecular breeding for Ventria Bioscience, a project sponsor, attended the field day. Ventria has modified rice that produces lactoferrin and lysozyme, proteins that occur naturally in human breast milk, tears and other bodily fluids that are used in pharmaceuticals. The company has been producing since 1999 under U.S. Department of Agriculture permits for plant-made pharmaceuticals.

"Anything you do, it's all new the first time in this location, so you have to learn the system that is best for northern Missouri," Nandi said. "We'll see how this year goes, and then next year, maybe expand and be a little more elaborate. This is all very preliminary, but very encouraging."

Nandi said they'll be examining yield, pest management and water requirements. "Frost also is a concern in northern Missouri," he said.

In addition to the variety trial at the Greenley Center, northern Missouri rice plots are located at the MU Ross Jones Farm in Shelby County, the MU Hundley-Whaley Center in Gentry County and a private producer field near Watson, Mo., affiliated with Northwest Missouri State University.

Ventria is producing its rice containing lactoferrin and lysozyme in North Carolina during 2005 and hopes to bring part of this production to northern Missouri in 2006, Nandi said.