 (Where your crop comes first) Owen Taylor, Editor (601-992-9488) |
||||
|
||||
|
OVERVIEW Intense heat continues to push this year’s rice crop. More rice is going to flood across the Midsouth, finally, and midseason applications are being applied more widely on earlier planted fields. Disease is present, despite the heat, but no large outbreaks are being reported. Rice water weevils remain a problem in parts of Arkansas. CROP REPORTS Johnny Saichuk, Louisiana Extension Rice Specialist, Crowley, La.: "It hit 101 yesterday (6/29), but we got rain over parts of south Louisiana yesterday afternoon, from a half to 2 inches. If it hadn’t rained, that would have been the 26th straight day without a rain in this area on top of record high temperatures. Despite the heat and lack of rain, we’re finding disease out there and have had to spray. Even in fields short on water, you can step into them and feel the humidity rising up around you. We found blast yesterday that was new, plus some sheath blight. In our verification fields down here we have found disease in all but one and recommended fungicides on all of them. Where no disease was present, we recommended a preventive because of cercospora, which can sneak up on you. A lot of rice came through the winter in crawfish ponds, plus we had volunteer rice from seed knocked out by hurricanes, and all that provides a place for cercospora inoculum to build. So, we’re simply trying to be cautious. "Even as you move up the state, we’re finding disease. In a verification field just across the river from Natchez, Mississippi, we found sheath blight building last week, and we will probably call for a treatment on it when we go back tomorrow. One positive point: stink bugs have not shown up to any extent. Maybe the heat is disrupting reproduction." Nathan Buehring, Mississippi Extension Rice Specialist: "Just a smidge of rice might be heading this week in the south Delta. That’s our very earliest rice, and the rest of it runs the gamut behind that. The main thing right now is that we still have a large part of the crop that doesn’t have a flood yet, and people are trying to finish up fertilizer and get fields pumped up. We’ll apply preventive fungicides on varieties that normally receive treatments, maybe a single application, but nothing heavy seems to be developing in the way of diseases. Nothing bad is being reported in terms of rice water weevils, either. How much rice stink bug pressure we’ll have is an open question. With these dry, hot conditions, there isn’t a lot of grass on field edges to act as a host, and bug issues in soybeans are limited, too." Gus Lorenz, Arkansas Extension IPM Specialist: "We’re still looking at rice water weevils. A lot of fields are 2 to 3 weeks into permanent flood, and we’re encouraging growers and scouts to pull cores and look for larvae 3 weeks after permanent flood. Besides finding high numbers, ourselves, we’re hearing about damage. People are walking through rice, then look behind them and see plants floating because roots have been eaten away. These probably are the highest rice water weevil numbers we’ve seen since 2006." Brent Lassiter, ProAg Services, LLC, Newport, Ark.: "Quite a bit of my rice is going to midseason right now (6/29), and we’re putting the flood on the last little bit of rice planted at the end of May. It’s been a struggle to clean things up. Weeds haven’t responded real well to treatments because it’s so dry. We’re also dealing with a lot of sprangletop due to the overflow that resulted from all the rain this spring. We’ve been trying to go with tank mixes, when possible, but some grass herbicides don’t tank mix well, so we’ve ended up with a couple of applications." Steve Schutz, Ind. Consultant, Coushatta, La.: "This hot weather is making rice move fast. We’ve made our second shot of fertilizer. We’ve had too many barnyardgrass escapes. The last preflood herbicide treatment was delayed while we waited for fertilizer, and that gave it an opening. Some of this rice was on ground that turned into a 90-acre barnyardgrass patch last year. The land had intense pressure before my grower picked it up last year, and the ground was new to him and me. On individual paddies we went with Clincher at 15 oz/acre, then came back 4 to 7 days later with another 10 oz/acre. On 300 acres we maybe treated 60 acres like that. Most of what we’re doing now is coming back post-flood with Regiment and Permit where we had broadleaf escapes and some small populations of grass. We’re right at green ring on our most advanced rice and we’re coming in with the second shot of fertilizer a little early because rice is going so fast and it may be a little past green ring by the time we get to it." David Hydrick, Hydrick’s Crop Consulting, Inc., Jonesboro, Ark.: "For the most part, we’re right in the middle of midseason. Some rice has gotten it, some is receiving the application now, and we’re lining up a lot of the rest. We’re just getting the flood on some messes. These fields are right at midseason. It was a nightmare cleaning up that rice. At one time, it was perfectly clean, but all the rain delayed things, and it grew up a lot more than anyone likes to see." Charles Denver, Denver Crop Consulting, Watson, Ark.: "My last rice was planted on June 20, and if we have a late fall there’s still potential to make a crop in those fields. But some planting is still going on here and there. My oldest rice is now past midseason, and some of the last we planted went to flood last week. We’re mostly cleaning up a little bit of weed messes, and Beyond is going out on some Newpath rice. Sheath blight is starting to show up on some rice that went to midseason last week. If it keeps coming the way it is now, we’ll do something next week. Since the last front came through the humidity has gone down some, and the weather isn’t nearly as oppressive as it was yesterday (6/28). We got scattered rain, maybe 2 to 3 tenths on about 10% of my coverage area." John Raymond Bassie, Bassie’s Agri-Service, Cleveland, Miss.: "Rice is either flooded or being flooded. About half of it has had midseason herbicides and fertilizer. No indication of disease, and I looked real hard for it yesterday (6/30) without turning up anything." Chuck Wilson, Arkansas Extension Rice Agronomist, Stuttgart, Ark.: "Rice now ranges from just planted last Friday to at least a little that’s 2 weeks past midseason and in early boot. The biggest challenge right now is how to fertilize on some of these fields at midseason that had delayed applications earlier because it was too wet or growers didn’t wait until fields completely dried. They’re now trying to straighten out their fertilizer programs and get them somewhat on track again. We’re seeing a little zinc deficiency in some areas and are still dealing with herbicide injury. "The crop is progressing, and fields that are at or past midseason look pretty good. Now is when we see grass escapes poking up, so rice looks a little ragged in places. I’m not hearing much about disease. It’s been hot, both during the day and at night. Sheath blight can still be active, but not quite like it would be in more normal conditions. Over the next week or two, though, I expect to hear something about it. A little leaf blast is scattered around. But, again, the weather is so hot and dry that it shouldn’t be much an immediate issue in the earlier rice if fields are holding water okay. What I am concerned about is the later rice. As that part of the crop progresses into the later part of the summer, conditions could be more favorable for blast." AT CLOSING Closing Rice: Continued To Move Higher 7-1 Rice Inventories Down 9% on Year 6-30 Texas Rice Newsletter, 6-29, Response of Rice and Other Crops to Global Warming; Rice Breeding Program Based on Phenotype. USA Rice Federation Daily, 7-1, New Logo Marks Activities Funded by Promotion Dollars. The Rice Advocate, 6-26, Climate Change Bill to Pass in House; Peterson Champions Cause of Agriculture; Crop Update. Louisiana Ports Daily Gulf Grain Mississippi Daily Grain Prices RiceFax: Midsouth/Texas is published by: AgFax Media 142 Westlake Drive Brandon, MS 39047-9020 Telephone: 601-992-9488 (Fax: 601-992-3503).
Owen Taylor, Editor. owen@agfax.com ©2009 AgFax Media |
