4 minute read
Industry News
A new high-yielding, Clearfield rice variety developed by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station will be available to rice growers from Horizon Ag in 2023.
The new rice is called CLL18 and averaged 221 bushels per acre over two years in the 2020-21 Arkansas Rice Performance Trials conducted by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Beginning in 2022, the ARPT will be known as the Arkansas Rice Variety Advancement Trials.
“This was the highest yielding nonhybrid Clearfield rice in the ARPT for those two years,” said Karen Moldenhauer, professor emeritus and rice breeder for the experiment station. “It has looked very good in all of the tests it has been in.
“CLL18 is an excellent long-grain Clearfield line derived from the cross of Roy J and CL142-AR, made at the Rice Research and Extension Center at Stuttgart in 2011. It has excellent rough rice yields. CLL18 yielded a two-year mean of 221 bushels per acre in the 2020-21 ARPT, compared to CLL16 at 210 bushels per acre and Diamond at 209 bushels per acre.”
Frank Hardimon, rice licensing account manager for BASF Agricultural Solutions, said, “BASF views CLL18 as a high performing new Clearfield variety that will greatly benefit Arkansas rice growers, as well as rice growers in the Mid-South down to the coastal states. Tim Walker, Horizon Ag general manager, said, “We’re excited about the fit that new CLL18 will have in our elite Clearfield rice variety portfolio and the outstanding performance potential it offers farmers.
“CLL18 has shown it has yield potential equal to or greater than CLL16, which has proven it can yield with or better than top-performing varietals and even hybrids. In addition, because CLL18 is earlier in maturity than CLL16 and appears to be well adapted to the coastal region of Louisiana and Texas, it may have a better fit in second crop situations.”
CLL18 will be in seed production in 2022, Walker said. He encourages farmers to look at how it performs and where it will fit on their farms, along with other Horizon Ag Clearfield performers like CLL16, CLL15 and CLL17.
“Since CLL18 doesn’t have the pi-ta gene, it doesn’t have as broad a spectrum for blast as CLL16,” Walker said. “But it will be a great addition to the top-performing Clearfield varieties that are helping farmers improve production potential and profitability.”
Moldenhauer said CLL18 has a plant height of 37 inches with grain weight and kernel size like Diamond, and early maturity similar to CLL15. It has a lodging resistance similar to Diamond and CLL16.
“CLL18 is moderately susceptible to common rice blast, to sheath blight, bacterial panicle blight and false smut,” Moldenhauer said. “It is moderately resistant to narrow brown leaf spot.” CLL18 has typical southern U.S. long-grain cooking quality.
Fertilizer and other management recommendations are available from county Extension offices or Horizon Ag.
The new Clearfield variety has been named CLL18.
Korean wholesaler sucessfully promotes U.S. rice online
In cooperation with Daesang Bestco, a large food wholesaler here, USA Rice conducted a series of online promotions of U.S. rice during December 2021, according to The USA Rice Daily.
“Daesang Bestco has been a USA Rice promotional partner many times over the last two years,” said Jim Guinn, USA Rice director of Asia promotion programs.
“They purchase U.S. rice in weekly table rice auctions held by the Korea Agro-Fisheries Food Trade Corporation and their main customer base varies from small foodservice operators to individual consumers. Until recently, Daesang concentrated on in-store sales but the COVID pandemic has pushed their sales efforts online.”
Last December, Daesang redesigned their website’s primary online banner to highlight U.S. rice, one of their key sellers, and kept it posted on the front page of both their online store and the mobile application for the whole month.
The banner featured the ThinkRice logo and listed the advantages of U.S. medium grain rice. Daesang also added U.S. rice to their premium item category, called “M.D.’s Pick.”
“Daesang recently reported that, as a result of the December online advertising campaign, U.S. medium grain rice sales increased on the online store from 50 tons to 70 tons, about 40% higher than sales in December 2020,” Guinn said.
“Mobile application sales were 10 tons or half the sales increase, which is considered a very good start for a mobile channel. USA Rice Korea believes promotion efforts with Daesang will continue to boost U.S. rice sales in the future.”
South Korea is the second largest market for U.S. rice in Asia, and the seventh largest export destination for U.S. rice, importing more than 156,000 MT in the first 11 months of 2021.
Where to learn more about California wild rice production
To provide key information for growers and researchers on cultivated wild rice production (Zizania palustris), the UCCE Sutter-Yuba team and the Agronomy Research and Information Center built a wild rice database in 2020.
It is hosted at https://wildrice.ucanr.edu/ under “Wild Rice Database.”
Article topics include varieties and varietal development, processing and marketing. The database also includes publications on pest management, seeds and water management. For more information, email Whitney Brim-DeForest at wbrimdeforest@ucanr.edu.
