Wed, Oct 15 2008
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Published July 14, 2008 12:08 pm - Farmers in Southeast Missouri have 200,000 acres of rice, up 11 percent from 2007, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service office at Columbia. Farm: Rice is nice ... But wet year doesn’t mean it’s time to plant, according to agronomist By Mike Surbrugg
msurbrugg@joplinglobe.com NEVADA, Mo. — Farmers in Southeast Missouri have 200,000 acres of rice, up 11 percent from 2007, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service office at Columbia. A wet year is not bad for rice and a few Southwest Missouri farmers may have wondered if this is a signal to plant rice. Not so, said Pat Miller, a University of Missouri Extension agronomist at Nevada. She was raised in a rice-growing area in Arkansas and passes along some thoughts about rice. More than 10 years ago she was involved in looking at what could grow in pecan bottomland in Vernon County. Rice was planted and none came up, she said. Rice paddies need to be flat and each surrounded by a low dike. The rice grows in water that is pumped into the paddies. The water serves two useful purposes: Plants need water and the water is weed control, she said. During the growing season, the water is circulated by opening and closing gates. A lot of standing water can be home to water moccasin snakes and mosquitoes, she said. Residential lawns near rice fields have snakes and the mosquito population soars over a much larger area. “Growing up, I never wore shorts or short sleeves in the summer,” she said. “You could see your legs turn black with mosquitoes. We would build a smoky fire to help protect horses from mosquitoes at night and towns often used foggers for mosquito control.” Effects of rain Closer to home, the excess rain has had a major impact on Missouri corn, soybeans and milo acres, according to the statistics service. As of July 1, Missouri had 2.9 million acres of corn in fields. That is down 16 percent from last year and 6 percent below expectations as recently as March 2008. 
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