Specialists Speaking

It’s time to finalize early season weed control decisions in Missouri rice. These decisions depend on already selected choices of several systems, such as furrow-irrigated, paddy-flooded, water-seeded, Clearfield, Provisia, hybrids or conventional rice. Then there’s weed history, soil types, soil...

While front-loading expenses at the beginning of the season can be difficult to deal with, it’s a wise investment to protect your overall bottom line. Beyond seed selection, the use of seed treatments and residual herbicides are our best...

We know some of you do a lot of fall/winter tillage to control weeds. However, a spring burndown herbicide application or tillage just prior to seeding can help achieve a clean seedbed. Practicing a stale seedbed can also help...

Early season rice injury due to off-target preemergence soybean herbicides has been a continual issue in the Mississippi Delta over the past several years. In the past, most of the early season issues centered on glyphosate drift, but with...

Weed control in California rice has become more complicated over the past few years, both due to increasing number of herbicide-resistant weeds as well as new weeds, including weedy rice and for some, winged-primrose willow. Just as we were...

Rice growers are focusing on making a profit in 2018, and variety selection is always at the forefront. Thanks to our farmers, industry and universities for our research. According to variety studies at University of Missouri, Portageville, at the...

It’s nice to see rice prices improved over this point last year. With that in mind, an increase in rice acres seems guaranteed— possibly a large increase. The success seen in 2017 points toward several viable planting options for...

In California, most farmers grow medium-grain varieties. The commercially available medium Calrose rice varieties have been selected to meet the high quality and yield standards for California.  Varietal selection is one of the first and most important decisions a rice...

Choosing the right rice varieties and hybrids to plant is one of the first, and debatably, the most important decisions a farm manager makes each year. Agronomics, economics and field-by-field dynamics all play a large role in the decision-making...

With 2017 in the rearview mirror, we look forward to 2018 coming off the best yielding year we have had in Mississippi in the past few years. One of the first questions to ask is, “Do I plant the...

I was recently talking with a very reputable Texas rice consultant, and he highly recommended spreading your planting date so all your rice does not mature at the same time. I recall in 2016 rice storage capacity in Texas...

Hurricane created numerous hurdles for the Texas rice industry. By M.O. Way The big story for Texas rice in 2017 was Harvey, which dumped 34 trillion gallons of water over Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana from Sunday, Aug. 27, to Thursday,...

The 2017 rice season was anything but normal in Louisiana. By Dustin Harrell Before the beginning of each production season, rice farmers and consultants can feel the excitement and electricity in the air. They are eager to begin the year with...

The Arkansas rice planting season in 2017 went at a near-record pace, lagging behind only 2012. Planted acres were expected to be 25 percent less than in 2016. The positive early season conditions had growers feeling upbeat about the...

Pay attention to avoid drift when applying soybean desiccants around rice fields, even those that are near draining and appear finished. By Bobby Golden Generally, this time of year we discuss midseason to harvest management options for our rice crop. But...