Rice farmers hear latest advice from crop experts

Rice farmers across southern Louisiana heard the latest recommendations from LSU AgCenter experts for growing the 2015 crop at a series of LSU AgCenter meetings held during the week of Jan. 5.
The meetings were held in Avoyelles, Jefferson Davis, Evangeline, Acadia and Vermilion parishes. A meeting for north Louisiana farmers will be held Feb. 12 at the Delhi Civic Center, 232 Denver St., Delhi, from 9 a.m. until noon.
Farmers could start planting their crop in early March.
At the sessions, LSU AgCenter rice specialist Dustin Harrell said fertilizer applications have a direct effect on yields.
Agronomy studies at the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station near Crowley have shown that the best results are obtained from applying fertilizer on dry ground along with a urease inhibitor, like Agrotain, that prevents nitrogen from decomposing rapidly, Harrell said.
Two-thirds of a crop’s nitrogen fertilizer should be applied preflood, with the remainder at midseason, he said. Applying phosphorus fertilizer when the crop needs it is also important, and waiting until the pre-flood stage to apply phosphorus fertilizer can reduce yields by 12 percent.
AgCenter rice breeder Steve Linscombe said two new long-grain Clearfield lines are being grown now in Puerto Rico and will be grown as foundation seed in 2015 at the Rice Research Station. He said both lines have good yields with improved blast resistance and lower chalk than CL151.
A new Clearfield medium-grain line being grown in Puerto Rico has improved yield, grain appearance and lodging resistance over CL271, he said.
Linscombe said checkoff money provided by farmers is essential to funding the winter nursery in Puerto Rico. “If we didn’t have the checkoff funds, we wouldn’t have Puerto Rico.”
At the Acadia Parish meeting, Jerry Leonards, a farmer and chairman of the Acadia Parish Rice Growers Association, said studies done at the Rice Research Station are critical to rice farmers. “If it weren’t for these people, we’d probably be out of business by now,” he said.
Linscombe said work on hybrids continues, with the possibility of a seed increase for a hybrid line in the next year or two.
The work on the new Provisia herbicide-resistant rice is making progress with yield testing being conducted in Argentina on 13 lines. “We are looking at getting one of these lines out as quickly as possible,” Linscombe said.
AgCenter weed scientist Eric Webster said the Provisia herbicide will extend the life of the Clearfield system by offering an alternative technology to control red rice.
Webster said farmers should be starting their burndown of weeds in preparation for planting. He urged farmers to be aggressive early against small weeds and use the full rate of herbicides.
Nealley’s sprangletop weed is becoming more of a problem for farmers after midseason. “It grows about an inch a day,” Webster said. RiceStar is effective against the weed.
Farmers who know they have weeds resistant to herbicides should use alternative chemistry to control the problem, he said.
AgCenter plant pathologist Don Groth said farmers should consider whether they need to use a fungicide. “If you don’t have disease, you’re not going to get any benefit from using a fungicide,” he said.
Groth cautioned farmers against using excessive amounts of fertilizer that could result in increased diseases problems of bacterial panicle blight and smut.
AgCenter entomologist Mike Stout said the Mexican rice borer continues its spread eastward after it was found in Calcasieu Parish in 2008.
Seed treatments offer the best control for rice water weevils, and the Dermacor option provides some control against armyworms and stem borers, Stout said.
He said using Cruiser and Nipsit seed treatments help early planted rice deal with cold stress.
AgCenter reproductive physiologist Glen Gentry said research on controlling wild pigs is being conducted at the Dean Lee and Idlewild research stations. One system involves the use of sodium nitrite mixed with a bait, but it’s unknown if the chemical will threaten the Louisiana black bear.
AgCenter soybean specialist Ron Levy said Louisiana farmers have shown in the past few years that Louisiana can produce soybean yields comparable with those grown in the Midwest. He said a new fungicide will be released this year to control aerial blight disease.
AgCenter economist Mike Salassi said long-grain rice prices are low because of a 12 percent increase in the amount of rice on the market. He said much of that can be attributed to the 400,000 -acre increase in Arkansas last year for a total of 1.4 million acres that produced roughly half of the rice grown in the U.S.
Salassi said long-range projections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture don’t offer much hope for a price increase in the coming months.
John Morgan, of the Louisiana Rice Mill, told farmers at the Vermilion Parish meeting that international buyers are demanding better quality. He said Central American buyers who once preferred American rice are turning to Uruguay for long-grain rice because they are not pleased with the quality of some of the rice they are getting from the U.S.
“They are paying more for South American rice than our rice,” Morgan said.
He said the large number of varieties being grown now has resulted in inconsistent quality, and Central American buyers have complained about large amounts of chalky rice.
The quality problem appears to originate from the Arkansas rice industry. “I think our guys do a pretty good job of growing for demand and segregating their rice,” Morgan said.
He said the quality issue may even be a reason why more U.S. rice isn’t being purchased by Iraq.
Louisiana Rice Mill has started separating rice varieties in its storage system to make it easier to meet customer demand. Morgan said higher-quality rice sold to the mill last year brought 75 cents more per barrel.