Rice Farming April 2022

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ONE GROWER PUBLISHING, LLC

PROFITABLE PRODUCTION STRATEGIES

APRIL 2022

Wingmead Farms grows the future Seed rice farmer shares strategy for success

Daddy’s Got Dirt: A California Rice Story

Apple snails invade rice and crawfish systems in Louisiana

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March 2018 April 2022

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Vol. 52, 56, No. 4 5 Vol.

v EeRr SSTtOoRrYy Co OV

Fromthe the Editor Editor 4 From

A smorgasbord of bucks rice topics Rice's long history 'what's hot in food' trends

6 USA Rice Update We need talk about input 6 GuesttoColumn costs Rice and sustainability

D p a rRice t mUpdate ents 8 eUSA

Rice industry sets priorities 18 Industry News for the next Farm Bill

Growing the future Here to stay?

Rice business scene

D P A R T M E NSpeaking TS 20 E Specialists The art of irrigation begins 19 nowIndustry News

Rice business scene

A strategy for success complements this Arkansas seed rice operation.

ON THE COVER: Darren Walker is the 20 Specialist Speaking

farm manager at Wingmead Farms in Early herbicide mistakes can Prairie County, Arkansas.

plague you all season long

Photo by Carroll Smith

ON THE COVER: Armyworms once again plagued California rice growers in 2017.

SPhoto u pbypLuis l eEspino, m eUniversity n t of

The California rice industry prepares for what may become annual armyworm infestations.

F e at u r e s

F T U R Esnails S 11 E AApple invade rice and 9 12

market, but increased 2018 planting Mississippi high-performing rice variety projections cloud long-term outlook.

13 14

Weed Seed Destroyer Floods aid expansion

14

Free rainfall data

16 16

Maximize reduce New tools quality, in the tool box energy

19 17

Daddy’s Got Dirt: A California Rice Story The smell of success

LSU shines light onthe resistant GiantAgCenter invasive snail threatens weeds. rice-crawfish rotation in southwest

LSU AgCenter hires soybean agronomist

Research update

Clemson releases MyIPM for Row Crops app

Look Soybean Southe-newsletter supplement Sign upforforthethe monthly following page 12 in the the Arkansas, at ricefarming.com to have exclusive Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and industry news andofcontent delivered Texas versions Rice Farming . directly to your inbox.

Louisiana.

season.

University of Arkansas breeding program releases new jasmine-type long grain. Rice Awards: Since

2022 Rice Awards Nomination Form

1992, the Rice Farmer of the Year, Rice Industry Award and Rice Lifetime Farm & Gin Show recap Achievement Award recdeserving mean leaders any Tight worldognize rice supplies within the ricemarkets industry. higher. disruption could push Nomination form on page 5.

5

recognize those rice leaders who have Award and Rice Lifetime Achievement Award The Rice Farmer of the Year, Rice Industry your help to identify candidates who are and innovation to the industry. We need demonstrated dedication, determination in your area should be recipients of take time to consider which industry members worthy of these prestigious awards. Please and supporting materials. these honors and mail or scan/email this form

Categories:

Please check the box of the appropriate award category:

Rice Farmer of the Year Award

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■ Must farm at least 200 acres. goals in ■ A farmer who has successfully achieved his/her farming operation, rice industry association, community leadership/development, innovative stewardship. production practices and/or environmental

18

Rice Industry Award

five years.

■ Has been in the rice industry for more than ■ A researcher, Extension person, government/association to the leader, etc... who has demonstrated commitment rice industry through innovative practices, industry association, community leadership/development.

Rice Lifetime Achievement Award

10 years.

■ Has been in the rice industry for more than contributions ■ An industry leader who has provided great to the rice industry through industry associations, community leadership/development, innovative industry. practices/projects that have advanced the

Deadline:

June 30, 2022

Follow us on Twitter: @RiceFarming TWITTER: @RICEFARMING @RICEFARMING

13 14

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19 17

Rice Processing Program develops Several new crop-protection products on-farm drying guidelines. are available in time for this year’s rice

GET CONNECTED Stay up-to-date with the latest from Rice Farming.

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resistant to a major disease

APRIL 2022

Planting date, maturity group impact NC soybean yield

9 11

crawfish systems The yin and yang Shorter supplies have shorn up the Presenting ‘Leland’

California Cooperative Extension

ONE GROWER PUBLISHING, LLC

8 10

form, please make a copy before If you are submitting more than one nomination be downloaded or submitted online you fill out the form. Nomination forms can at www.ricefarming.com.

Nominee’s name

Nominee’s address

Nominee’s phone number/email address Nominee’s rice acreage (if applicable)

Number of years involved in the rice industry

(if applicable)

Your name

Your profession Your address

Your phone number/email address

Date

Your signature

materials to: Carroll Smith Please send completed form & supporting 7201 Eastern Ave., Germantown, TN 38138 Scan/Email: csmith@onegrower.com

Include supporting materials to elaborate

on your nomination:

the nominee in terms of the following guidelines: separate piece of paper, please describe In addition to completing this form, on a education. and the rice industry, local community and Dedication to farming and/or agriculture reach goals. hurdles that have emerged while trying to Determination to succeed and overcome manage risk, achieve a higher level of efficiency. for the industry to become more profitable, his/her Innovation to identify new and better ways in the rice industry who are familiar with for the nominee from other individuals It also is helpful to send letters of recommendation of the 2022 Rice Awards. across the Rice Belt will select the recipients accomplishments. A panel of judges from will be made at the awards in Austin, Texas, where an official presentation the USA Rice Outlook Conference, Dec. 7-9 issue.

The award recipients will be honored at Farming magazine in the December 2022 sponsored by Horizon Ag, USA Rice and Rice They also will be featured in a special salute

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F O R M

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and award recognizes the dedication, leadership and Rice Farming magazine, the annual Sponsored by Corteva Agriscience of the Mid-South rice industry. innovation of this crucial segment they The agronomic guidance and support component of the rice farming industry.

“Crop consultants are an indispensable for rice herbicides, Corteva Agriscience. says Clark Smith, product manager provide rice producers is invaluable,” We are honored to recognize the consultants to the Rice Consultant of the Year Award. he says.

“Corteva Agriscience remains committed rice industry for many years to come,” and help ensure the success of the who positively impact their local communities The RCOY Award recipient will:

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Please use a separate page for biographical/professional information.

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Additional recommendation letters from rice farmers, consultants and industry members in support of the nominee are encouraged.

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Submit all materials via: Email: csmith@onegrower.com Mail: Carroll Smith 7201 Eastern Ave. Germantown, TN 38138 Online: ricefarming.com/rcoy

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Submit nominations

by July 15, 2022.

City: Phone:

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of Columbia who the fifty (50) United States and District Nominators must be legal residents of 18 years of age or older (CT). To enter, go to http://www.ricefarming.com/rcoy. residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia who are Contest ends on 7/15/22 at 11:59:59 PM Entrants must be legal Abbreviated Rules. No Purchase Necessary. experience in the rice farming industry.

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Rice Consultant Of The Year: Acknowledge an outstanding consultant for dedication, leadership and innovation of this crucial segment of the Mid-South rice industry.

Nomination form on page 15.

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MARCH APRIL2018 2022 | | RICE RICEFARMING FARMING

33

From The

Editor

A smorgasbord of rice topics to whet your appetite Legend has it that the all-you-can-eat buffet, or smorgasbord, hit its height of popularity in the 1980s. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of this claim, but I do admit that I’ve eaten my share.

Not only the sheer amount but also the variety of food always caught my attention and kept me coming back for more.

In reviewing the table of contents in the April issue of Rice Farming, I was reminded of this tasty fare. We have quite the smorgasbord of rice topics to whet your appetite this month and encourage you to devour them all. Here is a sneak peek.  The cover story on page 8 features Darren Carroll Smith Walker, farm manager for Wingmead Farms, in Editor Prairie County, Arkansas. He is a sharp-minded operator who has some interesting strategies to keep the business successful and sustainable.  On page 11, see how the pesky apple snail is trying to set up residence in Louisiana rice and crawfish fields. Not a welcome guest by any means!  Good news is announced on page 12 with the introduction of “Leland.” This Mississippi variety is resistant to one of the most troublesome rice diseases in the world. Can Leland be construed as an insurance policy of sorts for Mississippi rice farmers?  Everyone despises resistant weeds. Turn to page 13 to see how one Louisiana weed scientist is experimenting with blue LED light and mild warming to kill the weed seeds at harvest.  Want to have access to free rainfall data? CHIRPS (page 14) may be something you want to take advantage of.  And on page 16, scientists in Arkansas have developed a Rice Processing Program to maximize quality and reduce energy in grain bins.  Daddy’s Got Dirt: A California Rice Story shares the tale of a rice farmer, father and author, all in one on page 19.

And don’t forget to check out our Columns and Departments. USA Rice Update, Specialists Speaking and Industry News are chock full of good information as well.

If you have an appetite for rice, we’ve got all you can read. Enjoy!

Carroll

EDITORIAL/PRODUCTION Editor-In-Chief Carroll Smith csmith@onegrower.com Copy Editor Amanda Huber ahuber@onegrower.com Assistant Editor Cassidy Nemec cnemec@onegrower.com Digital Content Editor Katie Guthrie kguthrie@onegrower.com Art Director Ashley Kumpe akumpe@onegrower.com

ADMINISTRATION Publisher/Vice President Lia Guthrie 901-497-3689 lguthrie@onegrower.com Associate Publisher/Editor-In-Chief Carroll Smith 901-326-4443 csmith@onegrower.com Associate Publisher/Sales Manager Scott Emerson 386-462-1532 semerson@onegrower.com Production Manager David Boyd dboyd@onegrower.com Audience Services Kate Thomas 847-559-7514 For subscription changes or change of address, call 847-559-7578 or email ricefarming@omeda.com.

ONE GROWER PUBLISHING, LLC Mike Lamensdorf President/Treasurer Lia Guthrie Publisher/Vice President ASSOCIATED PUBLICATIONS — One Grower Publishing LLC also publishes COTTON FARMING, THE PEANUT GROWER, SOYBEAN SOUTH and CORN SOUTH magazines.

RICE FARMING (ISSN 0194-0929) is published monthly January through May, and December, by One Grower Publishing LLC, 875 W. Poplar Ave., Suite 23, Box 305, Collierville, TN 38017. Periodicals postage paid at Memphis, Tennesee, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to OMEDA COMMUNICATIONS, CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT, P.O. BOX 1388, NORTHBROOK, IL 60065-1388. Annual subscriptions are $25.00. International rates are $55.00 Canada/Mexico, $90.00 all other countries for Air-Speeded Delivery. (Surface delivery not available due to problems in reliability.) $5.00 single copy.

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Send comments to: Editor, Rice Farming Magazine, 875 W. Poplar Ave., Suite 23, Box 305, Collierville, TN 38017 or email csmith@onegrower.com.

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One Grower Publishing, LLC 875 W. Poplar Ave., Suite 23, Box 305 Collierville, TN 38017

RICEFARMING.COM

2022 Rice Awards Nomination Form The Rice Farmer of the Year, Rice Industry Award and Rice Lifetime Achievement Award recognize those rice leaders who have demonstrated dedication, determination and innovation to the industry. We need your help to identify candidates who are worthy of these prestigious awards. Please take time to consider which industry members in your area should be recipients of these honors and mail or scan/email this form and supporting materials.

Categories: Please check the box of the appropriate award category:

Rice Farmer of the Year Award ■ Must farm at least 200 acres.

■ A farmer who has successfully achieved goals in his/her farming operation, rice industry association, community leadership/development, innovative production practices and/or environmental stewardship.

Rice Industry Award ■ Has been in the rice industry for more than five years.

■ A researcher, Extension person, government/association leader, etc... who has demonstrated commitment to the rice industry through innovative practices, industry association, community leadership/development.

Rice Lifetime Achievement Award ■ Has been in the rice industry for more than 10 years.

■ An industry leader who has provided great contributions to the rice industry through industry associations, community leadership/development, innovative practices/projects that have advanced the industry.

Deadline:

June 30, 2022

If you are submitting more than one nomination form, please make a copy before you fill out the form. Nomination forms can be downloaded or submitted online at www.ricefarming.com.

Nominee’s name Nominee’s address Nominee’s phone number/email address Nominee’s rice acreage (if applicable) Number of years involved in the rice industry (if applicable)

Your name Your profession Your address Your phone number/email address Your signature

Date

Please send completed form & supporting materials to: Carroll Smith 7201 Eastern Ave., Germantown, TN 38138 Scan/Email: csmith@onegrower.com

Include supporting materials to elaborate on your nomination: In addition to completing this form, on a separate piece of paper, please describe the nominee in terms of the following guidelines: Dedication to farming and/or agriculture and the rice industry, local community and education.

Determination to succeed and overcome hurdles that have emerged while trying to reach goals.

Innovation to identify new and better ways for the industry to become more profitable, manage risk, achieve a higher level of efficiency.

It also is helpful to send letters of recommendation for the nominee from other individuals in the rice industry who are familiar with his/her accomplishments. A panel of judges from across the Rice Belt will select the recipients of the 2022 Rice Awards.

The award recipients will be honored at the USA Rice Outlook Conference, Dec. 7-9 in Austin, Texas, where an official presentation will be made at the awards luncheon.

They also will be featured in a special salute sponsored by Horizon Ag, USA Rice and Rice Farming magazine in the December 2022 issue.

SPONSORS

USA Rice

Update

We need to talk about input costs

I

By Betsy Ward

President and CEO USA Rice

nput costs have risen alarmingly in recent months. The causes are many, complex and unsustainable. The supply chain issues of the past two years continue to plague commodity industries. The conflict in Ukraine has worsened supply chain disruption, and Russia has suspended fertilizer exports. Energy costs have increased, and we’re also contending with historically high inflation. The cost of everything, it seems, is going up and up. Meanwhile, rice prices have stagnated, giving U.S. rice farmers no relief.

Why? India.

They aren’t alone in over subsidizing their rice industry — covering input costs for their growers in violation of their World Trade Organization commitments — but they are able to dump more than triple the annual U.S. rice production on the world market. These and other factors have placed an unacceptable burden on U.S. rice producers. The problem is, as I see it, existential.

USA Rice in initiating efforts to provide relief to rice farmers as the cost of everything continues to rise.

Look at the numbers Our rice farmers need a lifeline, and they need it now. In fact, for some, it may already be too late with planting underway. Compounding the issue is the fact that reference prices for rice, set by the 2014 Farm Bill and based on data from a decade ago, are woefully out of date. These reference prices are a key factor that determines Price Loss Coverage assistance, and the PLC program is not designed to take into account the steep rise in input costs

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rice farmers are currently contending with.

Make no mistake, rice is taking the biggest hit. Other crops are benefitting from rising prices that help offset their heavy input costs, but rice is not. According to a February study from the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University, the average per-acre cost of production for rice is up $174.20 over 2021, much higher than any other commodity. Prices aren’t keeping pace, and it could result in a $504.9 million loss to rice farmers. And as numbers get worse day by day, rice farmers stand to lose even more than the study suggests.

The Price Loss Coverage program has offered some assistance in the past, but it isn’t keeping up with rising foreign subsidization and skyrocketing costs at home.

But you know this. What you may not know is what USA Rice is doing about it.

USA Rice steps up We are in near constant contact with our allies in Congress, and they are asking the right questions and inviting us to testify before their committees. Representatives Rick Crawford, Julia Letlow, House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member GT Thompson and others have all brought attention to the issue at recent hearings, as has Senator John Boozman, Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

We’ve formally reached out to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, as well as Under Secretary Robert Bonnie, urging them to take action immediately and use all resources available to provide relief to rice farmers. We are working on a new economic study that will provide more current and accurate data and help us sharpen our ask to the Administration. We have launched a campaign in traditional and social media to call attention to the issue, and we are keeping pressure on the Biden Administration to hold India and other bad actors accountable at the WTO. The current situation is untenable. We’re doing what we can to make sure Washington understands what it would mean to do nothing.

The toll on rural communities, on families, on the environment and on a hungry world is too great. You cannot fail, so we can’t either.

RICEFARMING.COM

Postemergence Sprays Are Key To Success Blain Pearce Pearce Consulting LLC McGehee, Arkansas

Growing up, I always wanted to work for a man named Steven Walls who scouted cotton and soybeans. When I was 12 years old, he picked me up at 5:30 one morning and let me work with him until dark. After that, I continued working with Steven and scouted rice while he looked at the other crops. Years later, I opened my own consulting business but still credit him as the person who gave me a chance.

In 2021, I started out with about 6,000 acres of rice in southeast Arkansas. On June 10, we received a 24-inch rain in 14 hours in Desha County. The rice was under water for two months. I lost every bit of it except for one 300-acre plot. This spring has been wet, too, so no rice was planted the first week of April.

Barnyardgrass is the weed that gives us the most trouble. We also have some pockets of sprangletop and are beginning to see more flatsedge on the low-lying ground, which has been in continuous rice for a long time. Where I have bad sedge problems in levee rice, I apply Loyant® herbicide with Newpath herbicide on fields that are in a Newpath system. I scout row rice and levee rice, but most of the fields in this area are row rice now because of the soybean rotation. We typically don’t have sedge problems in row rice, but baryardgrass and pigweed are always a challenge. Loyant is a great fit for controlling pigweed in row rice.

My standard weed control program includes applying Command and Sharpen herbicides behind the planter. When the row rice emerges, I come in with a Newpath, Loyant and Prowl herbicide tankmix. Newpath helps with the grass, Prowl gives me another pre-emergence herbicide and Loyant knocks out the broadleaf weeds.

If I am in a non-Newpath system, I apply Prowl and Facet in the first postemergence shot, wait two weeks and then come back with Loyant to clean up the broadleaf weeds. If any barnyardgrass comes back, I apply Clincher® SF or RebelEX® herbicides. If I have a big wad of barnyardgrass on levee rice, I use Clincher in the first postemergence shot. Clincher is one of the best grass killers we have if used early on small grass.

Weed pressure is so bad in some of my fields that if I didn’t make a postemergence application because of being behind or not getting a good rain, we would never be able to cut the rice.

That’s one reason I like row rice. As soon as we pull the sprayer out of the field, we can turn on the water. In 12 to 14 hours, the field is wet enough to activate the herbicides.

Blain Pearce with his son, Fletcher (left) and his daughter, Aida.

• B.S. degree in plant and soil science, University of Arkansas at Monticello.

• Consults on rice, soybeans, corn, cotton and wheat in southeast Arkansas.

• Member, Green Hill United Methodist Church in Monticello, Arkansas.

• Wife Sarah. Daughter Aida, 7. Son Fletcher, 2.

• Enjoys deer, turkey and hog hunting. Raises and trains hog dogs.

• Spends time at the deer camp with his family in the winter.

Recap: Postemergence Sprays Are Key 1. When the row rice emerges, I come in with a Newpath, Loyant® herbicide and Prowl tankmix. Newpath helps with the grass, Prowl gives me another pre-emergence herbicide and Loyant knocks out the broadleaf weeds.

2. In a non-Newpath system, I apply Prowl and Facet in the first postemergence shot, wait two weeks and come back with Loyant to clean up the broadleaf weeds. If barnyardgrass comes back, I apply Clincher® SF or RebelEX® herbicides.

3. If I have a big wad of barnyardgrass on levee rice, I use Clincher in the first postemergence shot.

Sponsored by

™® Trademarks of Corteva Agriscience and its affiliated companies. Clincher® SF, Loyant® and RebelEX® are not registered for sale or use in all states. Contact your state pesticide regulatory agency to determine if a product is registered for sale or use in your state. Always read and follow label directions. © 2022 Corteva.

TWITTER: @RICEFARMING APRIL 2022 | RICE FARMING

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Wingmead Farms grows the future Seed rice farmer shares strategy for success.

By Carroll Smith Editor

W

ingmead is a large farm where rice, soybeans and corn are grown in Prairie County, Arkansas. It’s also a seed rice operation that prides itself on clean fields and quality production.

Farm manager Darren Walker, who was born and raised here, worked on the farm as a teenager, went to college, came back to Wingmead as a consultant for 2 ½ years and then moved into a managerial role. He is a sharp-minded strategist whose goal is to keep the business successful.

“We try to grow all of our rice as seed rice and use Clearfield varieties as a tool to clean up the ground for the seed rice,” he said. “We grow, process and sell the university varieties. In 2021, we grew Diamond, Jewel and some Cheniere — an older, longgrain rice that was requested. This year, we will grow Diamond, Cheniere and Ozark — a long-grain variety with improved yield potential over Diamond — depending on its availability.

“We like to keep our fields clean, so we rotate with Clearfield varieties to make sure the ground is red rice free or as close to zero as possible. In 2019, we grew CLL15 for the first time and had excellent results. It went in around April 20 and was our last planted cultivar that year. We dried out at 195 bu/ac across 140 acres. In 2020 and 2021, we planted CLL16, and it was our top-yielding variety both years — 202 dry average. This year, we will plant CLL16, CLL15, CLHAO2 — a high amylose variety — and PVL03 to see how it does.”

Outstanding resiliency Walker said he likes CLL16’s resiliency and vigor. He described a particular field that had a place his dad referred to as a “buffalo wallow” — a low spot that is slow to drain. He said they really struggled to get a stand of rice there.

“In 2021, we planted CLL16 and had a gorgeous stand of rice across the whole field,” he said. “The vigor in CLL16 is amazing.

It even pushed through the buffalo wallow. Then last June, just as we established permanent flood, we got about 11 inches of rain in 48 hours. I had a field of CLL16 that went under water and stayed submerged for two to three days. At first, I thought that was going to kill the rice, but it didn’t. Then I thought it would lay down, but it didn’t. When the water receded, the rice was alive and didn’t look too worse for the wear.”

However, now Walker had another problem. The excessive rain destroyed the levees, which they had to repair with a small track

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Farm manager Darren Walker is committed to growing a quality product in a sustainable fashion in Prairie County, Arkansas.

hoe. They lost the water and were delayed in getting the flood back on. By the time the levees were back up, the rice was stressed from being too dry.

“I thought if the initial water stress didn’t get it, the lack of water might,” Walker said. “In this field of CLL16, there was a maturity difference in the bottom levee and maybe half of the next.

Although it headed a little later, the joint moved a little later and it matured later, we saw no shortheads and no blanks. When we cut it with a yield monitor at harvest, there was no difference in yield.

“I can’t drive home enough the resiliency of CLL16, and it also has good quality. Horizon Ag has never sacrificed quality, and now they have products with a low-end input position, quantity and quality.”

RICEFARMING.COM

CLL16 is gaining a reputation for its vigor, resiliency, yield and quality.

“We like to keep our fields clean, so we rotate with Clearfield varieties to make sure the ground is red rice free or as close to zero as possible.”

TWITTER: @RICEFARMING

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On March 25, Darren Walker checks one of his fields to determine when it will be ready to plant.

Agronomic considerations Regarding seeding rate, Walker plans to thin it down a bit this year.

“I believe with the stooling capability of CLL15, I can get the seeding rate down to 55 lbs/ac and be good,” he said.

“I’ve been planting CLL16 at 65 lbs/ac, but I’m going to try 60 pounds this year. That’s also where we are on Diamond and Titan. We’ll drill 60 pounds and seed the levees as needed. We up the medium grains to the 70-pound range because there are fewer seeds in a pound of medium grain.”

Walker describes himself as a “seed treatment guy.” He applies CruiserMaxx and a full rate of gibberellic acid.

“I want the rice to come out growing and not have to worry about grape colaspis or water weevil larvae,” he said. “I believe you are better off planting 60 pounds treated than planting extra seed and not treating it. We blanket treat with fungicide at early to mid-boot with a shot of Quadris and propiconazole to knock back the smut and sheath blight.”

In his weed control program, the Arkansas farmer likes to include pre-emergence herbicides.

“I grow both Clearfield and non-Clearfield varieties,” he said. “The cleanest fields I have are the Clearfield fields. I like to run Newpath and glyphosate and come back with Clearpath, Permit and 2,4-D at midseason. That’s it, and the field is clean.”

Marketing and risk mitigation High commodity prices have stimulated a lot of conversation and theories about marketing this year.

Walker said it reminds him of a couple things he heard in one of his college marketing classes. First, your goal price should be where you make a decent profit although it may not be the top of the market. Secondly, the professor said bears make money, bulls make money and hogs get slaughtered.

Bears play the downside of the market, and bulls play the upside of the market. Hogs are greedy. They try to play the upside and downside of the market, and they get slaughtered.

“The highest price is always the most unattainable price because when we get there, nobody thinks that’s it,” Walker says.

“We’re looking for that extra dime, extra quarter, extra 50 cents. My marketing strategy is to consider the upside potential that is left and the downside potential if the market turns.

“For example, we’re looking at $16 soybeans. Let’s say beans may go to $18. So that’s a $2 upside potential. But I have sold $7 beans, so that’s a $9 downside potential. Do I want to chase $2 and risk a $9 fall? Risk versus reward says sell the beans.

I will sell what I think we can realistically produce for $16. I know I am going to make a good profit and have been blessed to get this price. I say sell them and don’t look back.

“For rice, I tie this back to yield and use CLL16 as an example. What if I show you a variety with a low entry level cost and good vigor and resiliency that you can plant from March 15 to May 15. It is going to yield, not go down and is resistant to blast. Would you plant it? I would. I think it’s a good option this year to take care of you. That’s sustainability on several levels.

“Arkansas is the largest rice producing state, so I think it’s important for us to grow a good quality product — something we can hang our hat on.”

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Apple snails invade rice and crawfish systems

By Julian M. Lucero and Blake E. Wilson

T

BLAKE WILSON

he apple snail, Pomacea maculata, is a global invasive rice pest. Within the past decade, the apple snail has established itself in Louisiana but has only recently begun infesting rice farms in the southwestern region.

Adult snails have large, brown-green or gold shells and lay large, pink egg masses. Their fast reproductive rate and voracious appetite allow the snails to reach high population densities in natural bodies of water, as well as in rice and crawfish ponds. The snails are so disruptive to crawfish trapping that some ponds have been drained early and fishing terminated.

Initial observation suggested impacts to rice production in Louisiana would be minimal, but more recent evidence suggests water-seeded rice, approximately 15% of the state’s acreage, can be devastated if high snail populations are present at planting.

Because of the potential for apple snails to become pests, it is important to determine the locality of apple snails in Louisiana and study their expansion into rice and crawfish production systems.

Rice and crawfish ponds surrounding natural waterways — including the Mermentau River, Vermilion River and Bayou Lacassine in Iberia, Vermilion, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Cameron and Acadia parishes — are known to harbor Apple snails have a fast apple snails. These ponds have been reproductive rate. monitored for the presence of apple snails since 2018.

Spatial analysis with ArcGIS mapping software is being used to map current data. This data is then used to extrapolate future expansion. To date, expansion into new farms has only been detected at 11 sites across the study area, a relatively low rate of expansion for invasive species.

Irrigation with well water rather than surface water is thought to be the primary factor preventing introduction into new ponds.

Severe weather events, such as floods and hurricanes, can create opportunities for the snails to expand into new areas. Some of the newly invaded farms were discovered following Hurricane Laura in 2020.

Fortunately, for now, it appears that establishment of the snails across the rice and crawfish production region will be a relatively gradual process. Once the snails become established, getting them under control poses another challenge.

Exploring chemical controls Toxicity assays investigating potential chemical controls are beTWITTER: @RICEFARMING

ing conducted on the LSU Baton Rouge campus as well as at the crawfish laboratory at the Rice Research Station South Farm in Crowley, Louisiana. The aim of these studies is to identify chemicals that are highly toxic to snails, but safe for crawfish.

Insecticides are frequently highly toxic to crawfish because insects and crustaceans are both arthropods and closely related. Apple snails, however, are mollusks and can be targeted with different chemicals (known as molluscicides), which may be less toxic to crawfish.

One chemical that has been identified as a potential solution is copper sulfate. Laboratory assays reveal that rates that cause high mortality of snails did not have any effect on adult crawfish. However, research into nonle- A large apple snail was found in the enthal effects on craw- trance of a crawfish trap. Adult snails fish, such as reduced have brown-green or gold shells. growth or feeding, is needed before the product can be used commercially.

Other research is examining chemical control of apple snail eggs. Preliminary results suggest solutions of inexpensive and widely available crop oil can greatly reduce egg hatch rates. However, heavily infested ponds may see thousands of new egg masses laid nightly, so spraying for eggs on a large scale may not be practical.

Report snail sightings As rice and crawfish producers continue to struggle to manage this invasive pest, LSU AgCenter researchers are looking for solutions. It is unlikely any silver bullet that can stop the snails in their tracks will be identified, but preliminary findings suggest some relief may be coming.

Slowing the spread of these snails is critical to mitigating their impact. Farmers and boaters are encouraged to check equipment for apple snails and snail eggs before moving between locations.

It is important to contact the local LSU AgCenter Extension office to report expansion of apple snails into new rice and crawfish ponds to assist with this research.

Julian M. Lucero is a graduate research assistant in the Department of Entomology. Blake E. Wilson is an assistant professor and field crops entomologist at the Sugar Research Station, St. Gabriel, Louisiana.

This article appeared in the winter 2022 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.

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MARK SHIRLEY

Louisiana State University AgCenter

Presenting ‘Leland’ Mississippi high-performing rice variety resistant to a major disease.

M

Blast resistance The early maturing, lodging-resistant variety, with high-yield potential in the Mississippi Delta, also has a broad-spectrum gene for resisting blast disease caused by a fungus. Blast is considered the most prevalent rice disease not only in the United States but worldwide and has become increasingly important.

“Mid-South rice growers are increasingly adopting furrow irrigation, which creates Blast is considered the the perfect environment for blast disease,” Remost prevalent rice doña said. “The advandisease not only in tage of Leland over oththe United States but er MAFES-developed worldwide and has varieties is its resistance to blast. It’s like having become increasingly an insurance policy for important. maintaining high yield potential in case of blast disease occurrence, at no additional cost to the grower.”

He also noted that the cultivar’s milling and grain quality traits make it a favorable upgrade to earlier MAFES conventional type varieties, “Rex” and “Thad.”

“Its outstanding overall grain quality meets the preferences of millers, exporters and consumers alike, both in the United States and abroad,” he said.

Leland’s milled grain is long, slender and translucent. It has very low chalk, which consumers typically prefer.

“In a double-blind grain quality evaluation test conducted by 10 major U.S. rice millers and exporters, and coordinated by the USA Rice Federation, Leland was one of only two among 17 upcoming or released varieties evaluated that garnered near-universal acceptance (9 of 10 participating millers/exporters) for domestic use,

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ED REDOÑA

ississippi State researchers announce the development of a high-performing rice variety that may be an “insurance policy” for growers.

Scientists in the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station recently unveiled a new rice variety, Oryza sativa L., named “Leland.” The MAFES rice breeding program, made possible through funding from the Mississippi Rice Promotion Board, develops distinctive varieties for the southern United States to assist Mississippi farmers.

“Seed of conventional type varieties are typically sold at a significantly lower price compared to hybrid or other proprietary seeds and, therefore, provide rice growers a sure alternative to lower their production costs,” said Ed Redoña, MAFES research professor.

Others leading the multiyear breeding effort to develop the conventional, long-grain rice include Tim Walker, former research and Extension professor, and Dwight Kanter, retired research professor.

“Leland” is a new conventional, long-grain rice variety released by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.

processing and export,” Redoña added.

High performance And Leland performs, yielding an average of 226 bushels or 9,962 pounds per acre during the three years of official variety testing. Redoña reported a maximum yield of 275 bushels per acre in a Cleveland rice grower’s field.

“Even with a slightly taller stature, Leland has the same excellent level of straw strength as the established conventional varieties, Rex and Thad, with all three having similar levels of lodging resistance. In terms of maturity, Leland heads or flowers two days later than both Rex and Thad, which is 91 days versus 89 days, making it an early maturing rice type like them,” Redoña added.

“CLHA02,” or the Clearfield rice variety counterpart to Leland, will be maintained by the MAFES rice breeding program at the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville. Mississippi State University has applied for plant variety protection for Leland, and it will be sold by variety name as a class of certified seed.

Mississippi State University provided this information.

RICEFARMING.COM

Weed Seed Destroyer LSU AgCenter shines light on resistant weeds.

By Johnny Morgan

Impressive kill rates Lazaro purchased a stationary, tabletop unit and has been using it to do some basic weed ecology research. While she points out that results from the tabletop model may differ from those from the on-combine unit, Lazaro has gathered some promising data.

She has examined different temperature ranges and exposure to blue light in rice and soybean weeds to determine weed seed kill rates and how morphological and physiological characteristics of emerging weeds are affected. Lazaro said she further plans to test various chaff moisture levels to see how that may affect the Weed Seed Destroyer.

The unit is not ready for commercial application yet, she said, but her early studies are showing a 70%-to-90% kill rate on a number of weed seeds.

TWITTER: @RICEFARMING

JOHNNY MORGAN/LSU AGCENTER

W

ith the increase in herbicide-resistant weed varieties, researchers are examining new methods of control — including using blue light to target stubborn weed species.

LSU AgCenter weed scientist Lauren Lazaro is leading a study looking at the possibility of using blue LED light and mild warming to kill weed seeds at harvest. Lazaro said she was contacted by Global Neighbor Inc., an Ohio-based company that is studying the use of different blue light levels and temperatures to kill weed seeds.

The Weed Seed Destroyer is a unit that bolts to the back of combines and saturates weed seeds with light and heat as it passes with the chaff flow during harvest. The blue light technology is a non-chemical approach to stunting the growth of herbicide-resistant weed seeds, Lazaro said.

“The goal for the company is that this equipment will be bolted onto the combine at harvest and merge blue light and temperature to make weed seeds unable to germinate,” she said.

LSU AgCenter weed scientist Lauren Lazaro pours rice chaff into the hopper of her tabletop model of the Weed Seed Destroyer. The unit is a prototype of a model that will be attached to the rear of a combine to use blue LED light and heat to kill weed seeds.

“We tested barnyardgrass, Palmer amaranth, morningglory, hemp sesbania, prickly sida and johnsongrass,” she said. “We saw higher kill rates — around the 93% range — on the smaller seeds like barnyardgrass, prickly sida and Palmer amaranth.”

She said there were mixed results for larger-seeded weeds, with johnsongrass showing a 90% kill rate and morningglory and hemp sesbania showing about 70% control.

Warming the seed not only can kill weed seeds, but at lower levels, heat can also stimulate crop seed growth.

“This is a much smaller model than the one that will be integrated into the combine, but it has already allowed us to do some studies in rice and soybean chaff,” she said.

Cell structure mayhem The technology was developed through a grant from the U.S. Air Force, which was looking for ways to make tumbleweed seeds nonviable.

Jon Jackson, the innovator behind the Weed Seed Destroyer, said blue LED light

could become a regular tool for weed control in farming.

“This unit utilizes mild warming and intense LED rays to saturate weed seed as it passes with the chaff flow during harvest, and the seed-killing device is ready for spring cutting trials in Tennessee wheat and Ohio barley,” he said. “This type of agriculture technology is developing faster than people know.”

Jackson said the Destroyer warms the seed to more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit and applies a blue LED light for several seconds at an intensity 20 times that of sunlight, which causes mayhem within the cell structures.

Lazaro said this technology is not expected to be a cure for all weed problems, but it is another tool for the toolbox.

“The use of directed energy at harvest should be integrated into an existing management plan and used as an additional tool for weed control,” Lazaro said.

Johnny Morgan is a communications specialist with LSU AgCenter.

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Submit a nomination for the 2022 Rice Consultant of the Year Award.

Recognize an outstanding consultant for his or her dedication, leadership and innovation in the Mid-South rice industry.

For more information, go to ricefarming.com/rcoy or go to Page 15 in this issue of Rice Farming.

Submit nominations by July 15, 2022.

S P O N S O R E D

B Y

Abbreviated Rules. No Purchase Necessary. Contest ends on 7/15/22 at 11:59:59 PM (CT). To enter, go to http://www.ricefarming.com/rcoy.

Nominators must be legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry and possess knowledge and/or experience in the rice farming industry. Entrants must be legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry and serve as a rice consultant in the rice farming industry. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: Corteva Agriscience, 9330 Zionsville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46268.

Trademark of Corteva Agriscience and its respective owners. ©2022 Corteva.

™

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Free rainfall data

R

ainfall data is essential information for farmers to help manage their fields. However, one of the main challenges is to have good coverage in areas where there are only a few weather stations close by. In addition to that, the cost for farmers to acquire weather stations is still significant. Therefore, is there any other way to acquire public weather data in areas with few weather stations?

Currently, remote sensing allows you to obtain data from different platform levels, such as terrestrial, aerial or orbital. Satellite images are used to supervise crop development, area delimitation and climate assessment. Thus, it is possible through remote sensing to measure rainfall data.

Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data (CHIRPS) is a near-global precipitation dataset. It is an efficient alternative for farm management support, especially where weather stations are scarce. Next, we will explain how to download the CHIRPS rainfall data, using a delimited (marked) area or boundary.

Three easy steps The first step is to know the exact location of your field of interest. You can build a delimited area or boundary in any GIS software, such as Qgis or Arcgis. (Figure 1) This step is essential to create a polygon of the field of interest in a shapefile format and then compress or zip the file necessary in the second phase.

After creating the zipped file, create a Google Earth Engine account (https://

earthengine.google.com). A sharing link, which will be used in the third step, will be generated on this site.

With the link generated in the previous step, you will open a new web page called Climate Engine (https://climateengine. com). On this site, you will see the area of interest delimited in the first phase. According to the selected input mechanisms, we will have the precipitation graph plotted for visualization and the availability to download the raw data in CSV format.

If you have problems loading a boundary, the other option is to check the box “Region Point.” Then move the point to a certain location in the climate engine map.

But this is data for just a specific location, not an area of interest, such as a basin/farm.

It is necessary to create an account to use the site in both the second and third phases. You will need your existing Gmail account to log in and explain the reasons for using the sites.

With CHIRPS data, you can have a historical series of the rainfall pattern in a region or production field to help effectively manage mechanized operations. It can be used to select tractor power and number of farm machinery needed to cover dry days to plant, spray and harvest. Furthermore, farmers will have more support in choosing the ideal planting window to match all operations with rainfall events.

LSU AgCenter’s Armando Lopes de Brito Filho, Franciele Morlin Carneiro and Luciano Shiratsuchi, contributed this article previously published in LA Crops Newsletter March 22.

RICEFARMING.COM

N O M I N A T I O N

F O R M

Nominate an outstanding consultant for the Rice Consultant of the Year Award.

Sponsored by Corteva Agriscience and Rice Farming magazine, the annual award recognizes the dedication, leadership and innovation of this crucial segment of the Mid-South rice industry.

“Crop consultants are an indispensable component of the rice farming industry. The agronomic guidance and support they provide rice producers is invaluable,” says Clark Smith, product manager for rice herbicides, Corteva Agriscience.

“Corteva Agriscience remains committed to the Rice Consultant of the Year Award. We are honored to recognize the consultants who positively impact their local communities and help ensure the success of the rice industry for many years to come,” he says.

The RCOY Award recipient will:  Be featured in a four-page salute in the February 2023 Rice Farming magazine and honored at a special recognition event Feb. 23, 2023.  Receive a personalized Rice Consultant of the Year jacket.

The award recipient and nominator each will receive one night’s hotel stay and round-trip travel to the event.

SUBMIT SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

Consultant’s Name:

Please use a separate page for biographical/professional information.

Mailing Address:

Additional recommendation letters from rice farmers, consultants and industry members in support of the nominee are encouraged.

Company Name: City:

State:

Phone:

Email:

ZIP:

Please describe the dedication, leadership and innovation that makes this person a good candidate for the 2022 Rice Consultant of the Year Award. (Be as specific as possible, and use a separate sheet, if needed.)

Submit all materials via: Email: csmith@onegrower.com Mail: Carroll Smith 7201 Eastern Ave. Germantown, TN 38138 Online: ricefarming.com/rcoy

Your Name:

Submit nominations

by July 15, 2022.

Address: City:

State:

Phone:

Email:

S P O N S O R E D

ZIP:

B Y

Abbreviated Rules. No Purchase Necessary. Contest ends on 7/15/22 at 11:59:59 PM (CT). To enter, go to http://www.ricefarming.com/rcoy. Nominators must be legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry and possess knowledge and/or experience in the rice farming industry. Entrants must be legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry and serve as a rice consultant in the rice farming industry. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: Corteva Agriscience, 9330 Zionsville Road, Indianapolis, IN 46268. ™

Trademark of Corteva Agriscience and its affiliated companies. ©2022 Corteva.

TWITTER: @RICEFARMING

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Maximize quality, reduce energy Rice Processing Program develops on-farm drying guidelines.

By John Lovett

University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

T

he Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station’s Rice Processing Program has released new recommendations to guide on-farm, in-bin rice drying in Arkansas to maximize quality and energy savings.

Griffiths Atungulu, interim director of the Rice Processing Program and associate professor of grain processing and post-harvest system engineering for the Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said the new guidelines are intended to balance rice quality, energy use and weather considerations.

“The real problem is that the weather may not allow complete drying of the rice, particularly the upper layers, in a timely manner,” said Atungulu. “When this happens, there is a great possibility for mold growth in the grain mass, with potential mycotoxin development and quality deterioration including staining, milling yield reduction and sensory and functional problems.”

Using data compiled over nearly a decade, Atungulu’s team created an easy-to-read chart that offers guidelines for “suitable” and “unsuitable” drying operation ranges for Arkansas rice farmers during the harvesting months of August to October. Armed with this decision tool, producers will be in a better position to evaluate their rice drying needs, Atungulu said.

Moisture content Rice growers commonly harvest rice once it reaches 20% moisture content. Rice producers store the rice in bins and begin the drying process to further reduce moisture content, Atungulu said.

The optimum storage level of 12.5% moisture content wards off mold growth and helps maintain the rice’s structural quality for improved head yield.

Storing grain with too much moisture can lead to the formation of mycotoxins, especially aflatoxin. These are known carcinogens that pose a severe health hazard to humans and animals, Atungulu said. Conversely, over-drying the grain can make it brittle and lead to decreased head yield from broken kernels.

Most on-farm systems in Arkansas use fans to blow either natural or slightly heated air to dry freshly harvested rice, Atungulu said. However, weather conditions come into play when determining the duration required to achieve that 12.5% optimum moisture content.

Based on this research, Atungulu said a moisture content of 18% to 19% at harvest is now recommended for on-farm, in-bin drying systems. Harvesting at a lower moisture content can save energy to dry the grain to that optimum storage level.

UA SYSTEM DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE

Arkansas rice farmers are adopting technologies that allow more efficient drying of rice on the farm.

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RICEFARMING.COM

The Moisture Content Guideline chart In 2013, the Rice Processing Program began working with manufacturing companies to collect data for properly calibrating rice-bin moisture control sensors.

Atungulu said his team has been able to get the margin of error down to less than 1% for computer simulations using data collected in the field. Atungulu noted that the program cannot account for some variables like the amount of dust and chaff in the bin.

Atungulu used this data to develop a suitability chart, which addresses traditional systems that use continuous natural air without moisture monitors and the computer-assisted systems based on moisture content sensors.

The chart accounts for rice initial moisture content, typical airflow rates of 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 cubic feet of air per minute per bushel (cfm/bu), fan control strategy and TWITTER: @RICEFARMING

UA SYSTEM DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE

Adopting technology Arkansas rice farmers are steadily adopting moisture content monitoring technology, Atungulu said. The system is comprised of moisture content sensors buried vertically in the grain on cables, an on-site weather station and a controller that turns the drying fan on and off.

Algorithms based on the Equilibrium Moisture Content (EMC) principle, which determines the moisture content that a single grain will attain if exposed to air with a given relative humidity and temperature for a specific duration, determine if the external air is too humid to dry the rice, Atungulu said. Alternatively, if the system has a heater, it can control the humidity of the pushed air.

Atungulu said the cost to set up a new on-farm, in-bin drying system with moisture-sensing technology, a weather station and a fan controller is about $14,000 for the first 48,000-bushel bin.

It becomes more cost-effective as more bins get linked to the system because only one weather station is needed. The cost reduces to about $10,000 for each subsequent bin. Atungulu said most Arkansas rice farmers do not opt for the air heaters, but they are not a significant expense to add to a system.

Since remote control of the drying operation is possible through the internet, some businesses have sprung up that provide remote moisture control of on-farm, in-bin systems, Atungulu said.

The On-Farm In-Bin Drying Suitability Chart was created by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station's Rice Processing Program using field data and computer modeling simulations for Arkansas rice growers.

Fast facts •

Nearly a decade of data compiled to create new guidelines.

•

Farmers steadily adopt new “cabling technology” to monitor moisture content.

•

Cost reduces as more bins added into the monitoring system.

drying start date. Fan control strategies include the traditional continuous natural air system (CNA), along with computer-assisted Equilibrium Moisture Content systems with both natural air (EMC-NA) and heated air (EMC-H).

The chart states that “suitability” does not factor in “quality” issues but rather focuses on “attaining safe storage,” which is 12.5% moisture content, drying duration of fewer than 30 days, maximum dry matter loss (DML) of less than 0.5% and an over-drying rate of less than 10%.

The chart shows sensory technology systems with heated air capabilities offer the broadest range of optimum drying periods. A low-energy fan can also do the job when used with a heater. However, farmers do not like to introduce heat into the rough rice because the heat uses more

energy and can compromise quality, Atungulu said. Optimum drying periods can be achieved without heated air if a more robust fan is used.

Rice producers can use the chart by finding the intersection of their system’s airflow rate, fan control strategy, harvest date and initial moisture content. Suitable drying operation ranges in the chart are represented by boxes with diagonal lines in green and should provide enough time to safely reduce moisture content to 12.5%.

This University of Arkansas Rice Processing Program research expands the knowledge of a burgeoning practice of on-farm, in-bin rice drying for the nation’s No. 1 rice-producing state, Atungulu said.

Information gathered by the program with industry partners can lower energy usage in drying the rice by knowing when to shut fans down when the air is too humid and maintain the rough rice's structural integrity for maximum head yield after milling.

Support for this research was provided by rice check-off funding administered by the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board and through contributions from the Rice Processing Program’s corporate sponsors.

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News

OLIVIA MCCLURE/LSU AGCENTER

Industry

Former LSU AgCenter weed scientist Eric Webster speaks about rice weed research at the 2021 LSU AgCenter Rice Field Day. This year’s event will be held June 29.

Innovations featured at 113th LSU AgCenter Rice Field Day LSU AgCenter rice researchers are once again inviting producers and industry professionals to the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station for its annual field day to be held Wednesday, June 29.

“We are proud to present the AgCenter’s latest developments from the state’s nucleus for rice research,” said Kurt Guidry, H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station resident coordinator. “We are continuing a more-than-a-century-old tradition of presenting to rice industry stakeholders the LSU AgCenter’s latest research in the state’s top grain crop.”

As in past years, the program will begin with field tours from 7:15 to 9 a.m., with a poster session and trade show running concurrently.

Topics will include:  Rice agronomy research.  Hybrid rice, specialty rice breeding.  New rice variety developments.  Rice entomology, pathology research.  Weed management.

The indoor program will feature updates from rice industry professionals and government officials and will begin at 10:30 a.m. Speakers will include Richard Fontenot, chairman of the Louisiana Rice Research Board; Jim Harper, president of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation; Dr. Mike Strain, commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry; and Betsy Ward, chief executive officer for the USA Rice Federation.

Other speakers will include Luke Labor-

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de, LSU interim vice president for agriculture and Mike Salassi, LSU AgCenter associate vice president for Plants, Soil, Water and Animal Sciences.

For more information, contact Kurt Guidry at kmguidry@agcenter.lsu.edu.

University of Arkansas 2022 Rice Management Guide The 2022 Rice Management Guide publication is now available. It contains the most requested production recommendations for rice in a single, easy-to-reference PDF. Go to https://bit.ly/36VGFfYm to access the publication.

This information will also be posted to the Extension rice page (http://uaex.uada. edu/rice) and the Arkansas Row Crops blog (http://arkansascrops.uada.edu).

Arkansas Rice now accepting applications for scholarships Current high school juniors graduating in 2023 are eligible to apply for and win up to $18,000 in scholarship funding towards higher education. Arkansas Rice’s “Rice Reps” is a five-month program to help educate students about the rice industry while equipping them to act as advocates in their communities and on social media.

Once accepted into the program, Reps actively participate in activities from May through September designed to teach students about rice farming and the importance of the Arkansas rice industry at home and abroad. They are also asked to attend four different exclusive, on-site experiences during the program to better

understand the reach of rice in Arkansas.

The goal of the Rice Reps program is to encourage interest in rice promotion and to publicize the importance of the Arkansas rice industry to the state’s economy. The program seeks to educate both male and female students across the state of Arkansas with the tools and knowledge to advocate for the Arkansas rice industry.

Students must be in the graduating class of 2023 to apply.

Plant pathologist named to LSU AgCenter professorship Jong Hyun Ham, an LSU AgCenter plant pathologist, has been named to the F. Avalon Daggett Professorship in Rice Research.

The professorship recognizes outstanding research accomplishments in rice production. It supports recipients’ programs by providing salary supplements as well as funding for instruction, research equipment, materials and faculty improvement.

“Dr. Jong Ham has made many important and groundbreaking research findings in pathogen virulence mechanisms, host plant resistance and biological control of rice diseases in Louisiana,” said Lawrence Datnoff, head of the AgCenter Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology.”

Ham, who has been with the AgCenter since 2007, and his team discovered and characterized the qsmR gene — a key regulatory factor of Burkholderia glumae, the bacterial pathogen that causes panicle blight in rice. The group also found additional genes that affect virulence factors and used state-of-the-art DNA technology to further their understanding of these regulatory systems.

Ham’s work has offered new insights into disease management strategies and helped identify disease resistance traits.

These findings have led to more than 10 new disease-resistant rice lines that also have good yield potential.

“I truly feel honored to receive this professorship,” Ham said. “This recognition means a lot to me at this stage of my professional career at the LSU AgCenter.

“This not only fuels my passion to bring my research program to a more competitive level nationally and internationally, but also furthers my commitment to the AgCenter’s mission to contribute to Louisiana agriculture and higher education.”

RICEFARMING.COM

Daddy’s Got Dirt: A California Rice Story

By Cassidy Nemec Assistant Editor

M

atthew Sligar always enjoyed the arts while growing up in a farming community, so it came as no surprise this third-generation rice farmer wrote a children’s book titled Daddy’s Got Dirt: A California Rice Story that published in 2020.

After studying literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, he moved to Prague, the Czech Republic, for six years.

While there, he met Clara, his now wife, before deciding to move back with her to an area where they had at least one other family member to help hopefully raise a family someday.

That place ended up being where Sligar was originally from: Gridley, California. Upon returning to the northern California town, he began farming rice year-round alongside his father, George.

“I like the idea of raising a family in quiet Butte County, a small, rural agricultural town where I had a good upbringing,” Sligar said. “I appreciate the values that come with that.”

Sligar began Rice Farming TV, a vlog, in 2016 as a creative outlet for him to capture the scenery he was seeing every day. He said this medium of rice and agricultural literacy was active and well received by the U.S. rice industry for about four years.

The motivation behind the story His oldest daughter, Elena, now 6, inspired him to write Daddy’s Got Dirt.

“I’ve been reading to her every night since she was born, and I just got inspired by all these different children’s books,” he said.

“I was reading to her about ‘cats and hats’ and ‘grumpy fish’, and there was nothing about rice farming that I found.”

Sligar said he dictated into his phone what he thought would be a fun children’s book during rice harvest one year. He conveyed that during spring planting and fall harvest time, the only quality time he was able to spend with Elena was that nightly, 15-minute children’s book read.

“I think that weighed heavy on my mind, too … to somehow convey to her what I’ve been doing all day while she hasn’t been seeing me for several weeks,” he said.

Sligar says the plot of the book covers how California rice is grown, from planting to harvest, the entire growing process being narrated by a young daughter.

The target audience Sligar said he sees two main audiences for this book: the narrow audience of his fellow rice farmers and the broader audience of any adult with a young child to whom they want to give a general overview of the California and U.S. rice industries.

“It is a very simple, step-by-step depiction of how California rice is grown, so I hope it helps rice farmers to give an example of TWITTER: @RICEFARMING

what they’ve been doing for their children,” he said. “I think that’s important to show our children what we’re doing in a digestible way for a young child.”

Sligar said he wants the broader audience to learn more about the California and U.S. rice industry.

“The best kind of education is the one where you’re not aware that you’re learning.”

When asked about any potential works coming up the pipeline, Sligar admitted there may not be any in the near future — for good reason.

“With Elena being six and starting sports and our youngest daughter, Stella, who is two and a half, running around… and bossing me around, my hands are super full with the girls,” he said.

While he hasn’t had much time to write anything in the last year and a half for another book, vlog or other creative project, Sligar said he looks forward to when some grandiose bit of inspiration hits him one day.

“Right now, I am enjoying spending time with the family,” he said.

Buy the book, read the book, share the book Daddy’s Got Dirt: A California Rice Story can be purchased through Amazon, directly from the Rice Farming TV website at www.ricefarmingtv.com (especially if a note written personally by the author himself is of interest) or even at Sohnrey Family Foods if you’re local to the Gridley area of northern California.

Sligar said writing a children’s book was not easy. But the logistics of all the illustrations and printings would not have been possible without several generous sponsors across the U.S. rice industry that he wanted to acknowledge and thank for making it all possible.

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The art of irrigation begins now DR. JUSTIN CHLAPECKA MISSOURI Assistant Research Professor/ Rice Extension Specialist University of Missouri jchlapecka@missouri.edu The time we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. While I write these comments on March 29, there are already several thousand acres of rice planted across the Missouri bootheel. In fact, we got our first planting date study in the ground 12 days ago on March 17. To no one’s surprise, the seed still looks exactly the same as it did when it came out of the bag.

Regardless, it’s nice to feel like we are making a little progress on the 2022 rice crop.

There’s no better time than now to begin thinking about water management. Last year, about 30% of Missouri rice acres were furrow irrigated. When preparing to plant furrow-irrigated rice, there’s a fine line on bed size. We want to make sure there’s enough of a furrow that we don’t have water breaking over, but at the same time not too deep of a furrow so that water will not adequately wick across the beds. As if any of us didn’t know, it’s hard to move water upward — at least when we want it to!

While beds should be prepared prior to planting on our silt loam soils, the heavier Sharkey clay seems to perform better when planted flat. Shallow water furrows can then be created sometime between emergence and the first irrigation event. It seems like the later the better within that time frame. The reason for this is simple. Heavy clay has plenty of potential to wick across. So even if we have a furrow that doesn’t work out, that can be overcome,

whereas on a silt loam or lighter soil, we don’t have that luxury.

If you have a field where getting the water wicked across for your soybeans is difficult, you’re not going to enjoy furrow-irrigated rice.

We’ve tried it multiple times. Unless you want 100 bu/ac rice, I’d suggest not trying furrow irrigation. Rice, especially hybrids, can take much greater water deficit stress than most of us realize. But ultimately, we’ve still got to get the water to it when summer comes along and those soils that seal over can become a real hassle.

If we set ourselves up good on the front end, we’ll be much happier with a yield map lacking those dreaded red streaks. If you’ve got any questions, don’t hesitate to give me or your local expert a shout. As always, eat Missouri rice!

Efficient rice irrigation DR. JARROD HARDKE ARKANSAS Professor/Rice Extension Agronomist University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service jhardke@uada.edu By flood or by furrow, efficient irrigation will be an important key to rice profitability in 2022. Given the rise in input costs, minimizing our time and energy expenses related to irrigation should be an even bigger priority than usual.

Multiple Inlet Rice Irrigation (MIRI) continues to be an underutilized practice. Many cite the cost of the pipe and the time required to install it as the main limitations to adopting the practice. However, the 2022 season is a prime opportunity to put this practice in place and reap the greatest benefits.

Arkansas rice specialist Dr. Jarrod Hardke said if you are not using sensors, a generalized irrigation approach could be to irrigate every three to five days on silt loams or every five to seven days on clays.

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Specialists Diesel prices this year have the potential to increase irrigation costs by $50 per acre compared to 2021. That kind of increase makes it simple to pencil out the cost of polypipe and installation.

Budget numbers may be closer using electric pumps, but electricity costs have been increasing as well.

While we do have increased labor costs for installation, that effort is balanced out by only needing to set levee gates one time.

There is no longer a need to “close up” fields following the first flooding event. When using MIRI, the aim is to set the gates (rods) high for emergency spill-over and to be able to capture rainfall events.

The goal with MIRI is to flood up each individual paddy and not cascade any water through the gates unless there is an extreme rainfall event. This means less in-season gate management because we don’t want to let water flow through them. Instead, we’re adjusting the water flow going into each paddy from the polypipe — a much simpler adjustment.

Current estimates are that using MIRI can reduce irrigation labor by 30% and pumping by 25% or more, depending on the soil and situation.

To include a few comments on furrow-irrigated rice — avoid overwatering. That may sound strange to many, but we do observe more issues with overwatering furrow-irrigated rice than you would think, especially where cold well water is the irrigation source.

Rice doesn’t require a flood; we just need to avoid water stress.

Most importantly, avoid water stress during reproductive growth from panicle initiation through grain fill. You may also want to irrigate a final time around when you would normally drain a flooded field — just to ensure adequate moisture to carry the rice to maturity.

If using soil moisture sensors, place them approximately onethird of the way down the field in the top of the bed. If not using sensors, a generalized irrigation approach could be to irrigate every three to five days on silt loams or every five to seven days on clays.

Use a computerized hole selection program to help with MIRI or furrow-irrigated rice irrigation setup. Contact your county Extension agent or a specialist if we can help.

Bugs to watch out for in 2022 DR. LUIS ESPINO CALIFORNIA Rice Farming Systems Advisor University of California Cooperative Extension laespino@ucanr.edu The 2022 season is going to be an unprecedented one for rice growers in California. The drought is going to significantly reduce acreage and may affect the crop in other ways, including arthropod control.

Given the reduced availability of water and the dryness of fields, we are set up for slow flood-up in the spring. This may exacerbate problems with tapdole shrimp. Longer flood times allow TWITTER: @RICEFARMING

Speaking

When tadpole shrimp shell size is about the size of a rice seed germinating, rice seeds can be injured.

the shrimp to hatch and grow to a size that can injure rice.

Typically, rice can escape shrimp injury if it gets established (with a well-developed green spike and a 1-inch root in the soil) before the shrimp’s shell reaches the length of a rice seed. Once rice is well established, even large shrimp won’t injure it.

This year, make sure to be extra careful in fields that take a long time to flood. If small shrimp are present before or right at seeding, a treatment is needed. Also, keep in mind that lambda-cyhalothrin, the main insecticide used for tadpole shrimp, is now being monitored at the same drain sites used to monitor for thiobencarb. Growers should be careful when spraying next to drains and observe water-holding times.

The second pest of concern is armyworms. The question I got several times during our winter meetings was if there was any way to predict if armyworms were going to be a problem this year. Unfortunately, I do not know of any way to predict if 2022 will be an armyworm year. The big armyworm outbreak of 2015 happened on a year of reduced acreage and after several years of drought.

We are facing a similar situation in 2022.

I will set up the armyworm trapping network again this year and update the industry when moth counts start to increase. Even though moth counts don’t always correlate with worm populations, we have learned that one or two weeks after we reach the moth peak is when we see peak worm activity in the field.

The network is a great tool to determine when to monitor for worms and defoliation so that we are not caught off guard like we were in 2015.

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Louisiana rice specialist Dr. Ronnie Levy said there is renewed interest in water-seeding in the state to suppress weedy rice.

Water-seeded rice DR. RONNIE LEVY LOUISIANA Extension Rice Specialist Louisiana State University RLevy@agcenter.lsu.edu Most rice is drill-seeded in Louisiana — about 80% — but there is a renewed interest in water-seeding rice for weedy rice suppression.

The most common water-seeding method in Louisiana is the pinpoint flood system. After seeding, the field is drained briefly.

The initial drain period is only long enough to allow the radicle to penetrate the soil (peg down) and anchor the seedling. A three- to five-day drain period is sufficient under normal conditions. The field then is permanently flooded until rice nears maturity (an exception is midseason drainage to alleviate straighthead under certain conditions).

In this system, rice seedlings emerge through the floodwater.

Seedlings must be above the water surface by at least the 3 to 4-leaf rice stage. Before this stage, seedlings normally have sufficient stored food and available oxygen to survive. Atmospheric oxygen and other gases are then necessary for the plant to grow and develop.

The pinpoint flood system is an excellent means of suppressing weedy rice emerging from seeds in the soil because oxygen necessary for weedy rice germination is not available as long as the field is maintained in a flooded (or saturated) condition. A continuous flood system, another water-seed system, is limited in Louisiana.

Although similar to the pinpoint flood system, the field is never drained after seeding.

Regarding the water-seeded systems, a continuous flood system is normally best for red rice suppression, but rice stand es-

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These emerged rice seedlings are ready for pinpoint flood.

tablishment is most difficult. Even the most vigorous variety may have problems becoming established under this system. Inadequate stand establishment is a common problem in both systems.

Fertilization timing is the same for both the pinpoint and continuous flood systems. Phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulfur (S) and zinc (Zn) fertilizers are applied preplant incorporated as in the dry-seeded system. Once the field is flooded, the soil should not be allowed to dry.

If the nitrogen requirement of a particular field is known, all nitrogen fertilizer can be incorporated prior to flooding and seeding. Otherwise, one-half to two-thirds of the estimated nitrogen fertilizer requirement should be incorporated prior to flooding and seeding or applied during the brief drain period in a pinpoint flood system. Additional N fertilizer can be applied at midseason at the beginning of reproductive growth between panicle initiation and panicle differentiation (2 millimeter panicle).

Water-seeding has been used in the past for weed control. Will water-seeding make a comeback to help with weedy rice suppression?

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