• By Jeff Gore and Dan Roach • Read Kelly, a graduate student under the direction of Jeff Gore, has been investigating the relationship and densities of rice water weevils in furrow-irrigated or row rice. During 2017 and 2018, Kelly conducted rice water weevil studies on 11 on-farm sites across the Mississippi Delta. Each location had a furrow-irrigated field compared ... Read More »

New ground sprayer design allows for wider boom, less rutting and improved efficiency • By Vicky Boyd, Editor • Randy Chrisman had an “aha” moment during the 2016-17 winter when he came up with the idea for a rubber-tracked sprayer with a wide boom that would be more efficient than traditional steel-wheeled rigs. A Williams, California, rice producer who also ... Read More »

The value of Arkansas’ No. 1 crop fell by 15 percent in 2018 as the effects of an ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China took hold through the summer. A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture examining crop values from August through December 2018 shows the overall value of Arkansas soybeans in the marketplace dropped from ... Read More »

The hot, dry conditions of 2018 were the poster child for difficulty establishing a timely flood to incorporate nitrogen (N) fertilizer. To achieve consistently high yields, timely application and incorporation of preflood N is the most critical input in rice. Luck always helps, of course. The DD50 Rice Management Program (http://DD50.uaex.edu) is critical for timing preflood N. Originally developed to ... Read More »

My brother, Jon, and I got our start in the late 1980s when the farm economy was in a decade-long slump. Commodity prices were below cost of production, interest rates on capital were in the double digits, land prices had hit rock bottom and farm foreclosures were skyrocketing. These unfortunate factors created the opportunity for the two of us to ... Read More »

In the summer of my junior year in high school, I started working with Arkansas crop consultant Eddy Cates. He kept me around while I was in college and even guaranteed me work in the winter pulling soil samples. After graduating from Arkansas State University, I worked for him full-time for a couple years and then set up Dean Crop ... Read More »

The Arkansas Legislature recently passed a measure that sets strict definitions for a host of agricultural products, including rice, and requires food companies to accurately label their products. Gov. Asa Hutchison subsequently signed it into law, creating Act 501. The state legislation is an offshoot of efforts by USA Rice federally to have the Food and Drug Administration establish a ... Read More »

For the past several years, we have been taking on rice pretenders — that’s food marketed as some new-fangled rice that contains no rice at all. And last month, pretenders were dealt a heavy blow, thanks to a common-sense bill passed by the Arkansas Legislature that promotes truth in labeling of agricultural products. The bill establishes a standard of identity ... Read More »

Solar systems help growers cut electric bills while raising their environmental stature. • By Vicky Boyd, Editor • Chris Isbell, a partner in a family-owned farming operation near Humnoke, Arkansas, looks at his 300-kilowatt solar-generation system as just another crop. “Essentially, we’re farming the sun anyway,” he says. “Any crop you raise is just a power plant for the sun. ... Read More »

Heavy rainfall has been a challenge as rice farmers strive to get their 2019 crop planted. Farmers were able to get much of their crop planted during almost three weeks of dry weather, but rainfall during the first week of April has created an obstacle for farmers who needed to complete the rest of their planting. Todd Fontenot, Louisiana State ... Read More »