Rice Harvest Gains Momentum In Coastal Belt, More Midsouth Heading – AgFax

CROP REPORTS

Tyler Hydrick, Hydrick’s Crop Consulting, Inc., Jonesboro, Arkansas

“In rice, we’re starting to see heads in a few of our earliest fields. All the early-planted rice is in early to mid-boot, and our rice ranges from green ring to heading. It’s an interesting year for sure.

“Fungicides are going out for kernel smut. A few cases of sheath blight have been spotted in various places but it’s not overwhelming yet.

“Depending on the location and planting date, most of the soybeans I look at are at R3. Over in Mississippi County, beans are probably closer to R3 to R4. Fungicides are starting to go out on some of the beans.

“Most of the corn is at brown silk. We’ve applied a fungicide on most of it, which we do at white silk. Disease isn’t really a huge problem yet in the corn, but I have seen some diplodia leaf streak in places.”

M.O. Way, Texas A&M Entomologist, Beaumont

“Overall, the crop looks good, and I expect that some harvesting will start this week. It’s been hot and dry in southeast Texas, so rice is maturing quickly.

“I’m hearing reports about heavy rice stink bug populations in Colorado County in organic rice. Also, I observed fields in Jefferson County that had been attacked by the South American rice miner. It’s an exotic species. The larvae ‘mine’ the leaves and cause rice to look ragged. Where I’ve been, damage wasn’t significant but was widespread through the affected fields.”

Hank Jones, RHJ Ag Services, Winnsboro, Louisiana

“Most of my rice is either in the boot stage or very close to entering it, and a third of my rice has started to head. We’ve made fungicide applications on about a third of the crop, as well.

“Row rice is more erratic as it heads. Plants in the water are starting to head, but heading is a little delayed in drier parts of fields.

“We’re not seeing a lot of disease issues yet. The biggest obstacle we faced this year was moving water across fields in row rice production. Water moved down the field fine, but it was a hard task to get it to migrate across the fields. We had to supplement a bunch of streaks where fertilizer wasn’t activated. We worked out some of the kinks, and rains really benefited the row rice in those cases.

“In soybeans, growers are starting to spray a lot of redbanded stink bugs (RBSB). We’re at about 75% threshold (7/13) in places, and we’ve been riding a bunch of sub-threshold RBSB populations for 14 to 17 days. It’s time to clean them up because we are starting to see a few immatures. Small numbers of southern green and a couple of brown stink bugs are in the mix, but we’re mainly spraying RBSB.

“That results in more grains per panicle, more filled grains per panicle, and reduces disease pressure. We’ve seen this increase ratoon yields by as much as five barrels per acre. On one hand, it delays maturity by about two weeks. On the other hand, stubble management evens out maturity, which helps with harvest timing.

“Also related to ratoon cropping, apply nitrogen immediately after you manage stubble and then reestablish a shallow flood as soon as the nitrogen goes out. We find that a nitrogen rate of 90 lbs/acre is optimal for most seasons. That was the outcome in 90% of our studies. In the other 10% of this research, 120 lbs/acre was the better rate when the first crop showed high potential. That seems to be the case this year.”

Jarrod T. Hardke, Arkansas Extension Rice Specialist

“We’re finally into heading on the earliest rice, with some whole fields heading. I’ve been surprised at how uniformly those heads jumped out there. That creates a positive feeling when you look across those fields. This heat is pushing them along. A few fields started heading right before the Fourth of July, and more will begin through the weekend.

“With the earliest heading fields, we’re worried about having a huge influx of rice stink bugs (RSB), although not many people have mentioned RSB yet. We’ll see how numbers look through the end of this week and hopefully gain an idea about potential pressure. In places, they do look pretty thick, and I expect at least some treatments in earlier fields.

“Folks are scouting for sheath blight and finding aggressive situations in certain places. But with most of it, sheath blight is there but hasn’t reached a treatment threshold. With most fields right now, avoid overreacting. Hold back a little and see if you can delay applications or even outrun it.

“Plenty of people are asking about preventive treatments for kernel and false smut. Preventive is a key word because you can’t go back in time once you miss the treatment window. I suspect that people take a conservative approach and spray a little more often than might be necessary since we’re dealing with certain unknowns about how much pressure to expect.

“We did plant a good deal of rice on the late side, and that somewhat predisposes those fields to the smuts. But to make a treatment decision, a couple of other factors need to be considered. Does the field have a history of smut? Did you apply excessive nitrogen rates? How susceptible is the variety? With false smut, that boils down to two classifications – susceptible or very susceptible.

“All that forms a list of check boxes. The more boxes you check, the higher the risk that false smut will develop.

“With kernel smut, some varieties and hybrids are less susceptible. They’re rated moderately susceptible. Again, you also look at those other check boxes – late planting dates and heavy nitrogen rates.

“How much effect either smut has on the bottom line will differ. False smut is showy because it’s often on the outside of the kernel, but it doesn’t really affect milling. Kernel smut, on the other hand, forms inside the kernel, and can be way worse in terms of the hit you take on milling.

“In 2015, heavy rains fell during late grain fill, which caused heavy amounts of sooty mold. People mistook that for kernel smut, and I’m still coming across farmers who make a smut application based on those observations. Faulty diagnosis might still be costing you. Check the field history in recent years to make an educated fungicide-application decision.

“This daytime heat is good, and it’s rice-growing weather, for certain. But the overnight temperatures haven’t been quite as low as we would like. I hope they decline as more rice moves into heading, flowering and grain fill. It’s a real negative when the nightly low remains at or above 75. Up until now, that hasn’t affected us much, but it could become a factor if that nighttime temperature trend stays in place.”

Bobby Golden, Mississippi Extension Rice and Soil Fertility Agronomist

“The crop looks pretty good right now (7/15), and we’re full-0n with flooding, with just a minute amount of acreage where pumps aren’t running. The bulk of our rice ranges from midseason to early heading.

“Two days ago, I received the first picture of a fully headed field. Are we 35% headed like USDA estimates? Probably not, but maybe 15%.

“A few interesting things have been brought to our attention this week, with at least one that we’ve never seen before. In one field, the leaves were completely broken over at a 90-degree angle. No cause seemed apparent, and that’s something new for us. It didn’t happen to the flag leaf, so this shouldn’t be a concern for yields right now. But the cause is a mystery.

“Calls about sheath blight are picking up, and this is about the time when it comes on. However, we’re still not hearing about any blast.

“One of the biggest topics this week has been about crop quality and how USDA rated Mississippi’s rice very low. A number of people asked what accounts for that. The crop looks pretty good and is just into heading, so that was as big a surprise to me as it was to anyone else. A big part of our crop was planted late, so maybe that enters into USDA’s rating.

“It’s odd, too, that we haven’t had nearly the call volume this season as we typically expect. Again, much of the crop was planted late, so everything – including questions – has maybe running behind, too. Where we’ve seen drift this year, it’s also mainly been on edges, not across whole fields. Lower amounts of drift damage also may have cut down on people contacting us.”