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• By Vicky Boyd, Editor • The California Rice Research Board recently honored Randall “Cass” Mutters with its annual Rice Industry Award. The recognition, presented at the California Rice Field Day, recognizes and honors an individual from any segment of the rice industry who has made outstanding contributions. “This is an honor to present this to Cass, who really needs no ... Read More »

• By Vicky Boyd, Editor • The California Rice Experiment Station has found a partner in Albaugh LLC to help bring their ROXY  herbicide-tolerant rice system to market. The agreement with the Ankeny, Iowa-based marketer of post-patent crop protection materials is the culmination of several years of effort to identify a registrant and partner by the California grower-owned organization. It was ... Read More »

Texas rice farmers are seeing near-record yields of good quality grain, and many are considering a second harvest, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Research experts. Dr. Lee Tarpley, AgriLife Research crop physiologist, Beaumont, says despite a few problems for some growers, a near-record yield is expected for producers who planted their fields early in spring. Producers in the state’s rice-growing ... Read More »

Mississippi growers will produce about 20 percent more rice this year, thanks in part to additional acres planted over 2017’s total. Larry Falconer, agricultural economist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, says early forecasts predict national yields near last year’s 7,400 pounds per acre. “National acreage is up about 20 percent. In Mississippi, the increase is slightly more at ... Read More »

The 2018 rice harvest in southwest Louisiana is past the halfway point, and Louisiana State University AgCenter agents say farmers are pleased. “Yields have been good, and it seems overall to be a very good crop,” says Jeremy Hebert, LSU AgCenter agent in Acadia Parish. “Overall, it seems like the yields have been very good.” Dry weather allowed most farmers ... Read More »

• By Vicky Boyd, Editor • More than 1,500 farmers, community leaders and urbanites attending an Aug. 20 rally sent a passionate message to the California State Water Board about their disgust with its proposed unimpaired San Joaquin River flows. The event — organized by Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, and held on the steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento ... Read More »

If you know a grower or entity that has embraced sustainability through innovative practices and leadership, they might be a perfect candidate for the second annual USA Rice Sustainability Award. Now in its second year, the award is designed to highlight rice’s unique environmental qualities and the men and women who improve its sustainability every day, according to a new ... Read More »

The entire fight over what can and can’t be called rice has spilled over into a food that many in South Louisiana consider sacred — boudin. For those not familiar with boudin, it is a sausage made of meat, whether pork, liver or even crawfish, rice and spices. Some boudin also contains blood, kind of like a blood sausage. The ... Read More »

University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor Whitney Brim-Deforest has been to several farm calls in the past few weeks about an unknown grass weed. Between last season and this, she has seen seven fields that appear to have bad infestations of a new watergrass species (Echinochloa spp.). “We are unsure of the exact identification yet, but we know it ... Read More »

Billbugs, once an occasional pest of rice that cannot survive in standing water, are increasing pressure as row-rice acreage grows. Billbugs are weevils whose larvae bore into the side of rice tillers, or stems, and deprive developing grain heads of nutrients. This leads to “blank heads,” or heads that never develop kernels. Billbugs cannot survive aquatic conditions, making row rice, ... Read More »