Room to grow

Wes Mueller steered his pickup truck along the rutted, weedy gravel road, gazing at fields of corn, wheat and soybeans on a 252-acre farm south of Gordonville. A broad smile creased his face. "This is one of our classrooms," he said.

As chairman of Southeast Missouri State University's agriculture department, over the next few years Mueller will help relocate the university farm to this site along Highway 25.

The Southeast Missouri University Foundation bought the row-crop farm last week to replace its current 410-acre farm north of Cape Girardeau. Southeast plans to turn its current farm along Interstate 55 into a site for a business research park.

The price of the farm, bought from the Clarence Quade family, wasn't disclosed.

The family has been leasing the farm to M&S Aufdenberg Farms, whose principal owner is Steve Aufdenberg.

Mueller said the university plans to relocate its beef cattle and launch a row-crop operation at the farm. The university doesn't have row crops at the existing demonstration farm.

On Monday, the new farm was quiet but for the chirping of birds. Mueller knows that will change when the land becomes a full-fledged university farm where agriculture students get hands-on training.

The transition is expected to take several years, university officials said.

The university will have to construct a livestock barn and procure farm equipment. The property also includes a three-bedroom brick home built in the mid-1960s, a machine shed and shop, grain bins and several storage buildings.

The Gordonville farm will replace one the university has operated since 1976, when the foundation bought the dairy farm of Fred and Edith Ristig. It was later converted to a beef cattle operation.

The purchase agreement spelled out that the land had to be used as a farm while the Ristigs were alive. Fred Ristig died in 1998, and his widow died in 1999.

Since her death, school officials said, they have been free to sell or develop the land as they see fit.

When it comes to farming, their focus now is on the Gordonville acreage.

As he stood beside his pickup truck Monday, Mueller appreciatively eyed a flat section of land where corn was just beginning to grow.

The 110 acres of flat land on the farm are perfect for cultivating row crops, he said, while the remainder of the farm consists of rolling hills ideal for grazing cattle.

Dr. Randy Shaw, dean of the School of Polytechnic Studies and assistant provost of extending learning, said students will be able to work with fertilizers and herbicides and experiment with cultivation techniques.

Shaw said school officials couldn't be happier with the site.

"All in all, the lay of the land is perfect," Shaw said. "It should be able to serve the needs of the university for many, many years to come."

Southeast had 216 agriculture majors in 2004.

Foundation officials said the organization over the past two years evaluated about a half-dozen farms as possible replacements for the current university farm.

Wayne Smith, executive director of the foundation, said the foundation liked that this farm is along a main highway.

"We wanted the right mix of land and proximity to the university," he said. "It was hard to find that balance."

The farm is only a 19-minute drive from the campus. "It's so convenient. We just couldn't ask for a better place," Mueller said.

Weldon Macke of Gordonville, who served on the foundation board's farm development committee, said he hopes the new university farm will become an agricultural "showplace."

"The future is whatever the department of agriculture wants to make it," Macke said. "It's a step into the future."

Dennis Roedemeier sees it that way, too, but for a different reason. As chief executive officer of the Southeast-affiliated Missouri Research Corp., his job is to direct the development of the research park.

The relocation of the farm operation will clear the way for development of the research park, he said.

When the research park will be developed depends to a great degree on when a planned East Main Street interchange is built on I-55, Roedemeier said. The park is to be located on the east side of the interchange.

The Missouri Department of Transportation could begin construction of the interchange within the next two years.

Roedemeier said the university hopes to develop 60 to 80 acres initially and then gradually expand.

The research park is designed to serve life-science, agriculture-related businesses. Roedemeier expects the park also will house advanced-manufacturing firms and medical companies.

Plans include development of residential housing in the research park, making it more of a community than simply a business location, he said.

"It becomes a research village," Roedemeier said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123