 (Where your crop comes first) Owen Taylor, Editor (601-992-9488) Hello, !*FIRSTNAME*! !*LASTNAME*!... Here this week's RiceFax. Our thanks to the Southern field staff of Dow AgroSciences for once again sponsoring our early and mid season issues. If you do not wish to receive RiceFax, please reply with "remove" in the subject line. Subscriptions can be requested at agfax.com/subs. - Owen Taylor, Editor (888-327-6329) owen@agfax.com |
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OVERVIEW Hot, sunny weather in the Midsouth has allowed growers to return to most fields in the last several days. This break from persistent rain gives them a desperately needed chance to finish planting and replanting, plus apply fertilizer and herbicides before they can move older rice to flood. Insects deserve attention. Rice water weevil adults are turning up in numbers in parts of our coverage area. Chinch bugs continue to be a problem in Texas. Rice is starting to head in southwest Louisiana. Frequent showers in coastal some coastal areas are further prompting concerns about diseases and the need to apply fungicides. Herbicide drift is pretty much a universal issue this week. With all the late-planted soybeans in the Delta states, this raises prospects of more potential drift as rice moves into reproductive stages. CROP REPORTS Johnny Saichuk, Louisiana Extension Rice Specialist, Crowley, La.: "We’re dealing with some cases where rice sustained damage from adult rice water weevils (RWW). We were called to one farm where plants appeared from a distance to have been damaged by wind or were dehydrated. They were spindly, with dead leaves. But we started finding RWW adult feeding signs. Leaves were losing moisture through the wounded areas. The field was dry when we saw it, but the farmer flushed it the week before, which probably attracted RWW, then draining aggravated the dehydration. Nearly every plant had an adult RWW on it, most of them hiding in the whorl. This isn’t a common problem in a field at this point, but it does happen. If you see feeding scars but can’t find RWW adults on the plants, look on the soil around plants. Sometimes they ‘play possum’ as a defense mechanism. But if you stand there and watch you’ll begin seeing them crawl around. "Also, we’re getting a lot of calls about what sounds like herbicide drift from soybeans, mostly in northeast Louisiana. Plus, a lot of guys up there have been trying to pull levees, but they keep getting rain on those heavy soils, and that delays the levees that much more. We actually have a few guys up there still trying to plant rice. Some Trenasse is just starting to head in Jeff Davis Parish in southwest Louisiana. Fungicides are going out in south Louisiana, and more heading will start next week down here." Chuck Wilson, Arkansas Extension Rice Agronomist, Stuttgart, Ark.: "We may have 10% of the crop left to plant, but a lot of the places where we could finish are either under water or still too wet. And as the water comes off, decisions are being made about what to keep or replant. I left a field this morning (6/2) that hasn’t been dry since it was planted, then drove 5 miles to a field being flushed because it’s so dry. The condition of your crop right now partly depends on how close fields are to rivers and bottoms. We do have a lot of guys trying to go to flood. They’re getting preflood N out. But we’ve also got places where it’s still too wet to apply fertilizer. Once we fertilize and flood, most of this rice looks pretty good. "Rice water weevil has been a problem around tree lines and in some of the first flooded fields in an area." David Hydrick, Hydrick’s Crop Consulting, Inc., Jonesboro, Ark.: "We have a flood on some rice now (6/1) and we’re trying to move a lot of the rest to flood." Steve Schutz, Ind. Consultant, Coushatta, La.: "Our crop ranges from some really late rice that’s probably at the 3-leaf stage to some just beginning to tiller. We’ve got part of the crop at the 4- to 5-leaf stage, and we hope now that we’re finished with herbicide work on it. We’ll fertilize it today (6/1) and, hopefully, start flooding it by the end of the week." John Raymond Bassie, Ind. Consultant, Bassie’s Agri Service, Cleveland, Miss.: "We’ve been dealing with a lot of replanting in the rice – both whole fields and spots. Probably more rice replanting has been necessary this year than in the last 20 years combined. None of mine is to flood yet. We’re pumping on 20% to 25%. It’s a foot tall, well tillered and looks beautiful. Our only treatments right now are preflood weed control." Charles Denver, Denver Crop Consulting, Watson, Ark.: "Some rice is still being planted. We’re doing cleanup sprays, applying fertilizer and just now starting to get a little of the earliest rice to flood. We should have 15% to flood by the end of this week. We’re doing a little treating as we go to flood for rice water weevils. I’ve only treated one field, so far, but will be evaluating the other rice as it goes to flood to see how they disperse. We’ve been going with 4 oz/acre of Mustang Max." Brent Lassiter, ProAg Services, LLC, Newport, Ark.: "Just about everybody is back in the field. We’re going to finish planting a couple of fields today, and that should finish us. I haven’t added it all up yet, but we’ll probably be short about 5% of the rice acreage our growers expected to plant. My first fields have been at flood for 7 to 10 days, and a big percentage of rice will be fertilized and go to flood this week and next week – if we can get enough airplane time to put out the fertilizer." Garry N. McCauley, Extension Rice Production Specialist, Eagle Lake, Texas: "Planting is nearly complete. I did observe a few fields still being planted this past week. Our current major problems include weed escapes and herbicide injury. Chinch bug problems have been rather severe, especially as the flood concentrated populations on the levees. The environmental conditions over the past few weeks have made weed control difficult prior to flood establishment. About 13% of our crop is now at PD. The weather patterns are resulting in high humidity and rain every 5 to 7 days. The potential for foliar disease should be fairly high, and the first fungicide applications should have started this week." Nathan Buehring, Mississippi Extension Rice Specialist: "Herbicide drift is still the big issue. It’s probably not occurring to the extent we saw it in 2006, but we’re dealing with more problem acreage this year than we did in 2007 or 2008. In 2006 the problems turned up earlier. We’ve got drift from herbicide applications on soybeans and other crops, but we’re also working situations where Newpath drifted onto conventional rice. Some of the worst fields have been replanted, but in a lot of cases we’re working with the stand. That means added expenses for fertilizer and maybe an extra herbicide application while we wait for the stand to recover before we can take it to flood. "One concern is how much overlapping we’ll have with herbicide applications on these later soybeans as more rice moves into the reproductive phase. Even micro rates of drift can cause problems at that point, and you don’t know that it happened until seed don’t fill or heads are standing up because there’s nothing in them. "Overall, we’re still trying to wrap up the last of the planting, plus replanting. We still had to wait through the weekend (5/30-31) for things to dry up enough in places. Some of our oldest fields may go to midseason next week, and we’re trying to fertilize a lot of other rice and move it to flood." AT CLOSING Arkansas: 2009 Recommended Nitrogen Rates and Distribution for Rice Varieties, 5-29. Louisiana Rice Field Notes, 6-1. Photos: herbicide injury, phosphorus deficiency symptoms, heavy adult rice water weevil feeding signs. Ag Report (E-Central La.), 5-30. Stink bugs getting more active across crops; common rust developing across most corn varieties; wheat yields variable. Mississippi Crop Situation – Rice, 5-29, Herbicide drift. The Rice Advocate, 6-3, Louisiana Independent Rice Producers Association; Vilsak calls for Ag Carbon credit. See today's closing rice commentary in the news section at agfax.com 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 |
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