Owen Taylor, Editor (601-992-9488)

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OVERVIEW  May 21, 2008

Midsouth conditions improving a bit

Warmer temperatures – with highs in the high 80s and low 90s – settled over the region early in the week. More rice is being aerially seeded in Arkansas as farmers try to establish stands on acreage that has seen a spate of flooding rains.

Dry conditions linger in parts of Texas

Major weather systems have mostly pushed north of the state’s rice belt, especially west of Houston. Dry conditions have triggered salt problems just as fields were close to flood.

More rice

We continue to hear about additional acres going into rice. Some rice will be doublecropped behind wheat in Texas.

CROP REPORTS

Hugh Whitby, KC Consulting, Wynne, Ark.

“We’re not through planting. Some growers have hardly even started. Of the acres I’m looking at, probably half have been planted. Nobody is saying yet that they’re going to stop and go to something else. We figure there’s 2 more weeks left before we would have to switch. The biggest rice I have is 3-leaf, and my first rice didn’t emerge until May 1. We’re 3 weeks behind, for sure, and maybe closer to a month.”

DeWayne Dopslauf, Agriliance, Wharton, Texas

“My rice is all over the board. A few fields were planted in the last 7 to 10 days, and I’ve got some all the way to putting into full flood. Most is close to full flood. Later fields are cases where people looked at the market and decided to plant more. Plus, growers on the east side of Houston tend to plant some rice a little later than we do over here. Cool weather really slowed early growth, but everything seems to have straightened out, and fields look good. We’re doing a lot of herbicide spraying. We treated one field east side of Houston for aphids earlier in the month.”

Wayne Dulaney, Dulaney Seed Co., Clarksdale, Miss.

“What has been planted has come along real well. We’ve certainly had plenty of rain to keep Command activated. In the Coahoma County area we’re 70% planted or more. Up in Tunica County I would say only 30% has been planted, based on what I’m hearing. In Quitman County, maybe 50% has been planted. Nobody has really bowed out on rice yet. I did pick up some people last week who shifted fields from cotton to soybeans. Rains have really held everyone back.

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"On our own farm, my brother J.D. and I concentrated on planting rice early and figured we would get right into beans. There were other growers who jumped on soybeans first, with the idea that they would move right into rice. So, everybody is behind on something. We have rice we could take to flood now but don’t have the manpower to do that and keep planting soybeans. You can find other farms where beans are planted and growers are scrambling now to plant rice.”

Johnny Saichuk, Louisiana Extension Rice Specialist, Crowley, La.

“We’ve gotten a lot of rain in the last week that we did not need – from 2 to 10 inches in different areas on Wednesday and Thursday. It flooded some fields. One farmer said he was up well before daylight 2 mornings in a row trying to pump water off his rice. We’re lucky that it stayed cloudy and cool while most of the rice was flooded. Some rice in northeast Louisiana got backwater flooding after the rain. That could be a problem if the water stayed on for multiple days. Unfortunately, it rained just after some farmers applied herbicides and fertilizer, then they had to let water off. We hope they didn’t lose too much fertilizer.

“We continue getting calls about slow moving rice. I have no quick solution. It’s a field-by-field situation. In some verification fields, we flushed several times before flooding and had to hold off herbicides until we felt plants were able to tolerate flooding. It looks like the crop is going to be later than we would have predicted earlier. Our DD50 program is running 5 to 7 days ahead of the crop where we are using it.

“In a couple of verification fields, we’ve picked up chinch bugs, but we think they’ll go away with the rain. We seem to be running into a second wave of rice water weevils and had to treat 2 verification fields, with a third that may need it.”

David Hydrick, Hydrick’s Crop Consulting, Inc., Jonesboro, Ark.

“Armyworms are trying to move from wheat into corn and rice. We’ve trimmed up some areas where they’ve been heading into the rice.”

Curt Johnson, CRC Ag Consulting, LLC, Lake Village, Ark.

“We’ve got rice ranging from some not planted yet to some just about ready to go to flood. From Dumas north, probably 50% has been planted. From Dumas south to Eudora, planting has mostly wrapped up. When rice prices went through the roof, people started planting little corners and putting rice on some land intended for soybeans. One of my growers picked up another farm and planted rice on it.

“Rains are still delaying us in places. One grower who has received flooding rains, one after another, got 3.5 inches last week, then another shower Sunday. Some fields are sticky where I’ve been today (Monday), while I can walk across others without leaving a track. Some rice is ready for a flood, but it got stretched out from the flooding earlier, so we’re holding off a little longer before we start pumping. We’re at least 10 to 14 days behind.

“We’ve done a little herbicide work but would sure like to get more out right away. We’ve had more-than-adequate moisture to keep Command going. Some Clearfield and RiceTec hybrids with the Newpath trait are sitting on go for treatments. With it being so cold and rice growing slowly, we’ve had to wait. It’s warmer today, but 3 mornings ago it was 49 when I hit the field.”

Chuck Wilson, Arkansas Extension Rice Agronomist, Stuttgart, Ark.

“We’re making some progress now and maybe have planted 75% to 80% of the crop. Growers have done a lot of water seeding over the last week, trying to get rice started in fields that aren’t going to dry out anytime soon. We got more rain last week, which pushed things even more. We still might get this big crop planted that everyone predicted. But if we weren’t 2 weeks behind and hadn’t gone through all the cold weather, we would have planted even more than projected. Our most advanced rice is just about ready to fertilize and flood. I think some near the station at Stuttgart was flooded in the last few days. I’ve gotten a couple of calls about seedling disease. I’m not surprised that it’s turning up, but up until now we haven’t had any calls about it. Some lespedeza worm activity is turning up on the Grand Prairie.”

Nathan Buehring, Mississippi Extension Rice Specialist

“Things are picking up again now that the weather has turned warmer. With temperatures into the 90s, rice is finally growing. This is helping with weed control, too. We just need some more dry weather to wrap up planting and move the crop along. That last big rain was an additional interruption. We got 2 to 3 inches around Stoneville last Wednesday and Thursday, and some places got 5 inches or more. On a wide basis, we averaged at least 2 inches. Maybe 20% of the acreage remains to be planted. We can knock that out quickly if it stays like this. In the last 3 weeks, we’ve averaged only 5 good days when we could be in the field.

“Herbicide drift injury has started showing up. I’ve looked at 2 cases this week. That’s a little worrisome, but I knew it was coming. Some rice will have to be replanted. We’ve only had 2 days in the last 2 weeks that were ideal for spraying, and the wind is blowing 20 mph now (Tuesday afternoon). That hasn’t stopped some applications. The thing that’s different now compared to a couple of years ago is that rice prices are way up, so this becomes a high stakes game. If a grower gets hit by drift and loses 20 bu/acre, that’s about $160 an acre. A few years ago, our margin on the crop wasn’t even half that.”

Steve Schutz, Ind. Consultant, Coushatta, La.

“All of my rice this year is in southwest Arkansas, and it ranges from the 1- to 2-leaf stage. We’re waiting to see what kind of impact all the rain had. We got 4 to 13 inches last week. We had some flooding, but water moved off pretty quickly, and I don’t think this will be a problem with the rice. It’s pretty hot now, into the 90s today (Tuesday), and that should help things move.”

Garry N. McCauley, Extension Rice Production Specialist, Eagle Lake, Texas

“We’re trying to get to flood on a big percentage of our crop. A lot of problems are turning up. It’s been so dry that we’re running into salt injury on some later-planted rice, and the only solution is water. This is rice just short of flood, and we’re trying to keep it wet and get it a little taller. Also, we’re seeing some injury on Clearfield hybrid fields from Newpath. I also understand some of this has turned up in Louisiana. It’s hard to say why. We had cold weather early, but we can’t say if that’s a factor. We see some of this every year but not to this extent. It’s not widespread. I’ve looked at 4 fields, so far, and have another one to check. The first application hardly phased the rice. The problem turned up after the second treatment. Everything I’ve seen, so far, has been the 730.

“Planting has not finished yet. Some people are cutting wheat, baling straw and planting rice behind it. Doublecrop rice is rare for us. You’ve got to get the price way up there to make it worth trying. We’re in a heap of hurt for rain west of Houston. Row crops are getting damaged, and wells and water systems are straining to move all the water needed to flush and flood fields. We got all of 4 one-hundredths of an inch of rain last week at Eagle Lake.”

AT CLOSING

Closing Rice Arkansas Farm Bureau: Rice posted solid gains 5/20

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