Time, as they say, is money when it comes to planting a rice crop. Although reduced tillage and fall stale seedbed may help you reduce fuel and equipment costs, the savings may be offset by higher herbicide costs

But the practices typically improve your chances of planting the crop at the optimal time, says Texas A&M University Associate Professor Garry McCauley.

"An early season planting is especially beneficial where a ratoon crop is grown," says McCauley, who is based at the Eagle Lake Agricultural Experiment Station. "If you can’t plant on time in Texas, you can’t get a second crop. For us, the absolute key advantage to minimum tillage is ensuring a timely planting of the main crop, which will increase the potential of the ratoon crop.

"The earlier you get in, the better your ratoon crop potential. Reduced tillage sometimes enables you to move planting back two or more weeks. That extra time increases the yield potential of your main crop and your second crop."

Many growers consider the ratoon crop their profit. In Texas, for example, the second crop will represent from 25 percent to 40 percent of their main crop, averaging 15 barrels or more. (A barrel is 162 pounds.) Most Texas growers cut anywhere from 40 to 50 barrels on their main crop.

Whether rice farmers grow a ratoon crop, a major advantage of reduced tillage is that it ensures optimum early planting, particularly in a wet year when conventional mechanical spring field preparation is delayed because of wet field conditions. Equipment and labor costs can be reduced, since fields are not cultivated as often with minimum tillage. However, the use of burndown herbicides can increase total herbicide cost.

"Reduced tillage can be an economic advantage, but it depends on how many winter herbicide applications you have to make to prevent a lot of growth from building up in the field," McCauley says. "Too many of those applications can offset the savings you gain from less fuel and equipment cost."

Dennis Leonards, who farms near Crowley,La., has been a staunch advocate of reduced tillage for more than two decades.

As Leonards says, "I was no-tilling rice when no-tilling wasn’t cool."

Depending on the season and the weather, Leonards uses true no-till, reduced tillage or fall stale seedbed.

Fall stale seedbed involves preparing the ground in the fall. In the spring, growers use a burn-down herbicide on any weeds that had grown during the winter and plant into the remaining stubble using a no-till drill.

"I was looking for a better way from what we had been doing and was trying to put in a crop with less expense," Leonards says.

Leonards says it costs at least $5 to run a tractor over an acre. And if he can eliminate three to four tractor passes, that’s a substantial savings.

The jury is still out

The effect of reduced tillage on rice yields has not been fully determined. However, since reduced tillage allows planting at optimum dates in wet years, it should increase yield potential under these conditions. After the flood is established, cultural practices for reduced tillage are the same as for conventional tillage rice production.

Firm ground at harvest

Another benefit of reduced tillage is firm ground at harvest. The less a field is rutted, the less time and expense a grower spends on getting it back in shape. Minimizing ruts is critical where growers plan to second crop.

"We want that ground to hold up as well as it can when we harvest that main crop so that we don’t rut the field," McCauley explains. "A rutted field reduces the ratoon crop’s yield. If you haven’t worked the ground since the previous fall, it has firmed a lot more than if you had worked it deep in the spring."

McCauley says Roundup Ultra, Touchdown and Gramoxone Extra are labeled for postemergence control of most weed species in a reduced tillage situation. These materials can be applied in combination with Bolero, Facet and/or Prowl to provide residual control of specific weeds.

Seed bed concerns

One concern associated with reduced tillage is stand establishment since the seedbed may not be ideal for planting. The seedbed could have excessive weed residue and be too hard for optimum planting. Additionally, non-uniform seed depth could occur if a conventional drill is used.

Leonards also has found stand establishment a challenge, especially with true no-till, because of the leftover organic matter.

Planting methods are limited to drill or water seeding because broadcast seeding requires incorporating seed with tillage equipment. Since the use of a no-till drill is suggested, additional investment in equipment may be necessary.

"You can’t just take an old planter and use it in reduced till," McCauley says. "You need a suitable drill that will penetrate the vegetation and will put the seed down in the ground. You need to lay the seed in the bottom of the trench and cover the seed so that you get good seed/soil contact for germination."

Using a bean-rice rotation, Leonards no-till plants his rice into the previous years’ soybean stubble. Following a rice crop, he uses the fall stale seedbed method.

He once tried no-tilling soybeans into the previous years’ rice stubble and had trouble establishing a stand.

Patrick Shepard is a freelance writer in Germantown, Tenn. For questions about this story, contact Rice Farming editor Vicky Boyd at 800-888-9784, ext. 224, or by e-mail at vlboyd@worldnet.att.net.