Being born and raised in the southwest Louisiana coastal prairie town of Gueydan was an ideal environment for someone who would spend his career in the region’s rice industry. Gueydan is a small community in western Vermilion Parish that came to be because of settlers moving into the area to farm rice or create businesses to support the emerging rice industry. It lies on the southern edge of the coastal prairie, and just a few miles south of the town can be found the northern boundaries of the coastal marshes that extend to the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, some of the rice production is actually in marsh areas that were leveed and pumped off to allow for cultivation.
I had several jobs that educated me in rice production and related enterprises. At a fairly young age, I went to work for my cousin, Keith Hair, who farmed rice east and south of Gueydan. That was when I first learned to plow fields, water level, butt levees, install overflows, soak rice seed in burlap bags to pre-sprout and puddle newly water-seeded rice fields to facilitate pegging and thus stand establishment. This is where I first drove a rice cart (typically behind a John Deere 4020 tractor) and a combine, both a John Deere 95R and an International Harvester 915, and later a JD 4400. I also gained rice drying experience by operating the Hair Brothers rice dryer at Wright. This is the site of the famous sign “If You Lived in Wright, You’d Be Home Now!”
It was common then for nearby rice farmers to join forces to harvest as a group, and we often cut rice with the Hardee brothers (H.G and Burnell). Mr. H.G. was a strong leader in the rice industry and one of the main reasons the Louisiana rice research check off program was created. This program would later be essential during my career as the rice breeder at the LSU AgCenter’s H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station. Of note during this time, I assisted in harvesting several rice demonstration plots under the direction of Mr. Lewis Hill, who was the Louisiana rice specialist. I would later replace Mr. Hill as rice specialist.
I also worked for my uncle, Raleigh Linscombe, who had a farm supply business in Gueydan. Back then, fertilizer came in 80-pound sacks. We would unload the sacks from a box car and store them in the warehouse, later to be loaded onto one of a fleet of bob-tail trucks to be transported to a remote strip to be loaded to crop dusters, which were primarily converted Stearman trainers from World War II. Several times we caught a quicker ride back to town as a passenger in the plane riding in the hopper — probably not FAA approved.
After receiving my B.S. and M.S. degrees from Louisiana State University, I knew I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. degree in plant breeding and genetics but was not sure at which university. I had offers for assistantships from Mississippi State, North Carolina State, and Texas A&M. I chose Mississippi State because I was given the opportunity to choose which scientist I would work under. After spending time with the soybean, cotton, corn, and sorghum breeding programs, I chose to work with Dr. Clarence Watson in his forage grass research efforts. This was a monumental decision for me because Dr. Watson was an outstanding teacher and mentor. After a very successful career at State, he would later lead the statewide ag research programs for both Oklahoma State and the University of Arkansas.
My first full-time job at LSU was as the statewide rice specialist where I spent six years working with farmers, consultants, researchers, other Extension scientists, and many other people in the industry. In 1988, I moved to the Rice Station where I began working in the breeding and genetics program. In hindsight, I could not have picked a better path to become a rice breeder. The six years I spent as the rice specialist were invaluable in preparing me to become the rice breeder at Crowley. My time as rice specialist allowed me to develop a keen understanding of the problems, challenges, and opportunities facing Louisiana rice producers. This would later serve me very well in attempting to develop new varieties to assist our farmers in facing these challenges.
Also in hindsight, I do realize how fortunate I have been to have worked with so many outstanding people during my career.
— Steve Linscombe
Mountain Home, Texas