Robert “Bob” Pearce, a University of Kentucky agronomist who led the state’s industrial hemp research program, has died at age 60.
Pearce was an extension professor and director of hemp programs at the UK’s Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, where he led field-based research into hemp production for grain, fiber and cannabinoids.
After joining the university’s hemp research effort in 2016, Pearce became one of its leading figures, later serving as interim director and ultimately director of hemp programs following the pioneering work of agronomist David Williams, who led the program from its inception in 2014 until his death in 2019.
Pearce also succeeded Williams as the university’s representative on the State of Kentucky’s Industrial Hemp Advisory Board.
KY born and bred
A Kentucky farm native, Pearce grew up raising corn, soybeans, hay and burley tobacco, Kentucky’s traditional cigarette tobacco crop. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agronomy from the University of Kentucky and a doctorate in soil chemistry from the University of Georgia.
His career bridged two defining Kentucky crops: tobacco, long central to the state’s farm economy, and hemp, which re-emerged after decades of prohibition. Before taking on a larger hemp role, Pearce was known as a tobacco specialist whose work focused on conservation tillage, soil fertility and burley tobacco production.
Whole-plant researcher
At UK, Pearce helped make the university one of the leading U.S. centers for industrial hemp agronomy, where all harvestable parts of the crop are studied.
Pearce maintained annual variety trials for grain and fiber hemp at the university’s Robinson Center, evaluating cultivars for Kentucky growing conditions and production systems. That work formed part of a nationwide research collaboration launched in 2020 to improve hemp production, processing and marketing, in which Pearce led grain and fiber variety trials.
“The genetics are really the key. If you don’t have the genetics, then no matter what you do as a producer, you’re not going to be successful,” Pearce wrote in testimony on hemp that he prepared for the U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee in 2022.
His research also reached beyond basic production. Recent work with UK colleagues examined hemp root architecture and its potential relevance to carbon estimates, while other studies looked at THC testing, irrigation and plastic mulch, and possible value-added uses for hemp hurd.
Friend to farmers
Pearce also helped translate research for farmers. In 2024, he led a University of Kentucky project that turned hemp grown at North Farm into flooring, an effort presented as a “field to finished product” demonstration.
“Kentucky ag is not static,” Pearce told UK’s news service in 2024. “It is evolving, and crops are emerging as new enterprises for growers to tap into. It’s fun to be a part of that process on the research farm.”