Specialists
2021 proved to be one of the most challenging seasons yet DR. RONNIE LEVY
LOUISIANA Extension Rice Specialist Louisiana State University RLevy@agcenter.lsu.edu Many rice farmers have told me that 2021 will go down as one of the most agronomically challenging seasons they ever witnessed in their careers. The simple answer is rain. It started before planting and did not consistently slow down until well after heading. The frequent rainfall caused many early season problems. First and foremost was stand establishment. There was a very short window where the soil was dry enough to plant, which occurred during the early part of March. Most producers in south Louisiana scrambled to plant as much as they could during this brief window. North Louisiana was not as lucky because the rain fell continuously. Many producers water planted not knowing if the rain
2021 California rice in the rearview DR. BRUCE LINQUIST CALIFORNIA UCCE Rice Specialist balinquist@ucdavis.edu
The severe drought that California is experiencing left its mark on most of the major areas discussed below. Foremost, due to the drought and limited water supplies, rice acreage was down roughly 20% below normal. On average, California grows about 500,000 acres of rice; this year it was around 400,000. Due to the dry winter and spring, rice planting was a bit earlier, with 50% planted by May 9. Planting may have been even earlier. There were problems early in the season with water delivery, thus some fields were ready to flood but had to wait. Water supply problems and increased groundwater use resulted in it taking longer than normal to flood a number of fields, leading to weed issues — particularly grass weeds. While weeds were a problem, pressure from other pests and diseases were low (diseases including blast and armyworm) to average (tadpole shrimp). One exception was the rice seed midge, which was a bigger problem this year than we have previously seen. Wildfires during grain-fill did result in reduced solar radiation and unpleasant outdoor working conditions; however, we have not seen this to negatively impact rice yields. As I write this in late October, 95% of the rice has been harvested and overall the season was dry, allowing growers to cut in a timely manner. TWITTER: @RICEFARMING
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would ever stop. The frequent rainfall continued, causing many of the newly emerged seedlings to become submerged. We felt confident that in most situations, seedlings could survive for eight to 10 days. Another problem with the early season rainfall was with preflood nitrogen (N) fertilization. Preflood N should be applied on dry ground, and then the field should be flooded as quickly as possible to maximize fertilizer efficiency. In Louisiana, we saw an early and very high leaf blast incidence in several varieties. The blast pressure was so great that many producers opted to make two fungicide applications for the disease. If you couple nitrogen fertilizer deficiencies and excessively cloudy weather during the first three to fourth months of the season, the result suggested a lower-than-normal yield. Fortunately, the rains started to slow during the beginning of harvest. Dry conditions during harvest reduced rutted fields and aided establishment of a ratoon crop. The state average yield has not been determined, but it is expected to be about 6,900 pounds per acre, slightly lower than the record yields that we saw in 2020. Not too bad considering it was one of the most challenging seasons ever! The ratoon crop in south Louisiana is well underway, and most of it looks good! Ratoon yields may give our overall yield a boost this year.
Yields have generally been good to very good. In the yield contest we have been running for the past seven years, we are expecting to see some record yields. This is born out by anecdotal evidence from a number of growers reporting full field yields in excess of 115 hundredweight per acre. Along this line, the new variety, M-211, has shown very high yield potential in previous years’ varietal tests and this year in farmers’ fields. Information on grain quality is not yet in, but I am guessing it is going to be on the low side for a number of reasons. They include periods of strong and warm north winds during harvest and that fields were not able to hold water as long this year, resulting in parts drying up early. Northern California received record rainfall in late October. California rice growers rely on winter flooding to decompose rice straw, so it is not a problem for land preparation or nutrient management the following season. However, they have been told that there is going to be limited water available over the winter for straw decomposition due to limited storage in the reservoirs.
Slow start, big finish! DR. JARROD T. HARDKE
ARKANSAS Assoc. Professor/Rice Extension Agronomist University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture jhardke@uada.edu The 2021 season was met with yet another wet spring. Regular, intermittent rainfall characterized the early part of the season as it did in 2019 and 2020. Field work occurred in short bursts but did DECEMBER 2021
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