Owen Taylor, Editor (601-992-9488)

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Owen Taylor, Editor (888-327-6329)

OVERVIEW

More rain. Any hope in the Midsouth for a break in the weather was pretty much washed away Tuesday – twice. Rain developed across parts of central and south Arkansas, west Mississippi and north Louisiana in the morning. By Tuesday night, thunderstorms had moved across a wider area.

Planting progress, sort of. A little more rice has been planted in the last week, but mostly in fits and spurts. Much of Arkansas and northwest Mississippi continue to get one rain on top of another.

Tornadoes. Farm buildings and equipment were damaged or destroyed by tornadoes in parts of Arkansas and Mississippi over the weekend. We heard reports of ag-related losses in or near Stuttgart, Ark., and Clarksdale, Miss. The Arkansas Rice Research Station in Stuttgart lost a Quonset building and equipment stored in it. (Photo: University of Arkansas Extension Service)

CROP REPORTS

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

“Most of the calls lately have to do with herbicide drift or related herbicide or weed control issues. More herbicide drift is showing up than I would like to see, both Roundup and Newpath. Some calls relate to Command where it was applied early. Once the permanent flood was put on, the rice turned white. I think this was due to cool, dry conditions earlier that kept plants from taking it up when we might normally expect to see this.

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"The other weird thing is that we’re not finding rice water weevils to any extent. We want to make sure that we’re not missing them, which is a more difficult job than if they’re obvious. In some fields they are apparent, mainly where insecticides weren’t used or maybe not applied correctly. In those cases, we’re finding larvae in the roots. So, they’re out there, but maybe not the big populations we’ve seen in the past.”

Nathan Buehring, Mississippi Extension Rice Specialist

“Rain in the middle of last week shut down planting again across must of our production area. People started planting again in spots on Sunday, mainly on the east side of U.S. 61. Probably 65% to 70% of the crop has been planted, so we’ve still got a good bit to go. Those poor folks around Tunica get hammered every time a rain comes through, and they got more rain Saturday. Overall, the rice that’s up has been slow to grow. We’ve got some planted in the first part of April that’s just in the 2- to 3-leaf stage.

“Where Command was under it, rice looks good. Where it wasn’t used, we’ve had trouble getting something on it for control now. Propanil hasn’t worked that well in these cool conditions. We’ve only had 3 days with temperatures above 85, and DD50s continue running behind. Everything that’s up looks good, but there are spots here and there where rice drowned out, and we’ll just have to live with those.”

Lance Honeycutt, Craighead Farmers Co-op, Jonesboro, Ark.:

“We’ve hit a dry spell and hope to make more progress. My growers have planted about 90% of their rice (as of Monday afternoon), and 75% to 80% has probably been planted over the county. About half of what’s been planted is up. We’re still doing some Roundup and Command applications on later-planted fields. Command worked pretty good on early fields. The rains every few days have at least kept herbicides activated.”

Scott Gifford, Gifford Crop Consulting, Manila, Ark.

 “We’ve probably planted 65% to 70% of the rice. A lot of our farmers with 1,000 acres of rice are waiting for dry conditions so they can wrap up that last 300 to 400 acres. Some growers are as much as 4 weeks behind where they were this time last year. In 2007, we already were flooding fields at this point. We’re a long ways from that now. We’re still planting, and my earliest fields won’t go to flood before the end of the month. We’re doing the best we can to start clean and make sure we have a residual down, mainly Command.

“We absolutely can’t get a break from the rain. Saturday night, it rained from 3 to 4 tenths as far north as I go on I-55, to about Wardell.. From Manila south, it rained from 7 tenths to over an inch. Growers have tried to air out some rice and soybean fields 3 to 4 times. That’s a lot of diesel. So far, I don’t have anyone turning back rice seed and switching to soybeans. Some have booked a lot of rice and have to fill contracts, so we’re going to keep planting rice until we finish.”

Scott Holder, Helena Chemical Co., Cleveland, Miss.

 “We’re 65% to 70% planted, and we’ve had enough rain that what we’ve planted has pretty much come up. Our first shot of Newpath has gone out on the Clearfield rice. Ammonium sulfate has been applied in places. Command is really holding good because of all the moisture. Some rice did have a hard time getting up. It’s moved slowly with all the rain and cool weather. It’s 69 right now (Tuesday afternoon) and cloudy, and a little shower came through today and made folks get out of the field. We need warm, dry weather to finish planting and get the crop moving.”

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

“We’re getting calls about water-seeding options because it’s late and fields are still wet. We’ve also had questions about flying seed onto mud. In some cases, farmers are calling. But consultants also are calling to say some clients have decided to try aerial seeding, and they (the consultants) want to know how to make it work. Typically, 4% to 5% of our crop is water seeded, but this year it could be more. Some folks are feeling pressured. One grower, I’m told, has yet to plant 1,500 acres of rice because fields have had water on them all this time.

“People are looking for ways to fly on the seed, let the water off and then treat the field as if it was conventionally seeded There are a lot of factors to consider. How soon can you actually get water off once you do fly on the seed? For guys with zero-grade fields, aerial seeding would be a little more straightforward since putting up levees won’t be an issue. If someone wanted to try aerial seeding on fields that aren’t zero grade, they’ll have to get the water off once they seed it, then put up levees.

“We’re being asked about switching to shorter-season varieties as planting is further delayed. We’re also getting a few reports about lespedeza worms and a little salt injury.”

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

“Rain is in the forecast, and it’s raining lightly around Houston now (Tuesday afternoon). But the heavier amounts seem to be 40 to 50 miles north of Beaumont, which is above our rice production area. Some places need rain and some don’t. At both Beaumont and here at Eagle Lake we’ll probably start flushing Wednesday if we don’t get rain.

“We’re getting calls about stand problems. With all these fronts and cool weather, a lot of rice didn’t develop fast enough. Plants exhausted their seeds’ storage supply before they could start extracting soil nutrients on their own and get photosynthesis going. If a plant in that 3- to 4-leaf stage doesn’t get the nutrient and photosynthetic processes in gear, it’s vulnerable to diseases, plus the seed treatments would have played out. So, we’re seeing damping off and some other problems right at the soil line.

“Mo Way (Extension Entomologist) says aphids are causing problems in rice on the east side of Houston. In the western production areas, we’re finding some South American rice miner and chinch bug damage.

“The crop is actually running a little ahead of last year. At this point in 2007, 16% of our rice had gone to flood. This year, it’s at 22%. I was surprised. It didn’t seem like we would be ahead. We’ve still got some little rice out there that’s just coming up.”

AT CLOSING

Rice followed corn and wheat lower but remains within recent trading range 5/13

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