RICE OPENS DOORS TO WORLD: BAHN TRAVELS TO FIELDS IN THAILAND, JAPAN, CAMBODIA AND PHILLIPINES

Missouri rice opened doors to the world for Cape Girardeau resident Leta Bahn.

Bahn, who added rice to her list of farm crops a half-dozen years ago, said the ancient grain has "certainly led to some interesting sights for me."

Bahn, who has been farming since the death of her husband, E. Lawrence Bahn, 14 years ago, has visited rice fields in Japan, the Philippines, and Cambodia.

After seeing the methods of rice production in far east countries, Bahn added she's "glad to be a rice farmer in the U.S."

Bahn, who has land north of Cape Girardeau and along the St. Francis River in Stoddard County, near Puxico, first became acquainted with rice farming about six years ago when she attended a special University of Missouri Extension seminar for women farmers.

"They talked about flooding fields, planting by airplane and using rice on a rotation basis with other crops," said Bahn. "I knew a lot of rice was being raised in Stoddard County, and I was interested."

But preparing to grow rice is not easy.

"The soil has to be scraped level and smooth," said Bahn. "Small levees and canals must be installed to maintain a uniform depth of water in the field. All this has to be done before you think about planting."

Bahn has a share-lease agreement with a Stoddard County farmer -- Jim Clark, who farms about 600 acres of rice in Stoddard County.

"He does the work, but with my interest in agriculture, I watch a lot," said Bahn, who has about 54 acres in rice. "I'm just a small rice farmer," she added.

Planting the rice crop, by either grain drills or airplanes, starts in early spring, noted Bahn. "What is interesting is that aerial seeding can be done over either flooded or dry fields. And many acres can be sown very quickly," said Bahn.

She recalled one year when her fields were really flooded.

"The rice was up about three or four inches," she said. "Normally, we'll have two to three inches of water on the field, just below the height of the plants. That year, we had a real flood, and the rice field was covered with four feet of water."

When water receded, the plants were all flat on the ground, and preparations were made to replant.

"But as we watched it day by day, the plants started reviving," said Bahn. "We didn't replant, and at harvest time we harvested about 130 bushels an acre. That was above the state average of 115 bushels."

Bahn said water is drained from the fields about two or three weeks before harvesting. Depending on the variety, rice requires 100 to 180 days from planting to harvest.

The crop is harvested while at about 13 percent moisture, said Bahn. It is then taken to a Riceland facility at Dudley, where it is weighed, graded and dried before being shipped to a Riceland processing plant in Stuttgart, Ark.

Farmers also can keep up with the progress of their crops through a University of Arkansas Extension program called "DD40," said Bahn. Farmers send in the rice variety and planting date. In return, they receive a computer printout of forecasts for the season -- dates to fertilize, dates for draining the land and probable dates for harvesting.

The forecasts are "pretty accurate," Bahn said.

Computerized rice farming is a far cry from the primitive methods still employed in many Far East countries.

"They still do a lot of things by hand in countries I have visited," said Bahn, who during a week's visit to Japan observed workers wading barefoot through flooded fields to set plants in the mud. Fields are flooded first, and plants are set out later.

"One man boasted he could set out 92 plants in 72 seconds," said Bahn.

In one area of Japan, Hakkaido, farmers used a motorized plant-setter that can place plants in two rows at a time. But the crops mostly are harvested by hand.

"Workers cut the crop and stack it in large piles," said Bahn. "Then a small portable threshing machine is brought into the area. The seeds are often piled in roads and streets to dry."

In the United States, threshing rice is a simple matter. "A special header is installed on a combine, and the rice is picked like wheat and soybeans," she said.

While in Japan, Bahn also visited a rice research center. She visited similar facilities and rice fields in Cambodia, Thailand, and The Philippines.

"I thought I knew a little about rice," said Bahn. "But in the Philippines they have a seed bank of more than 80,000 varieties of rice that have been stored as long as 100 years.

"There are varieties of rice for hilly land, flat land, any kind of land," said Bahn. "As many as 150,000 varieties have been identified, with information stored in the International Rice Research Institute computer system.

"Our system here is so much more modern," she said. "Here we plant then flood the fields. There, they flood the fields, then set out plants. I'm glad I farm in the U.S."