“Horizon Ag continues to be committed to improving rice quality, working with our public breeding partners as well as rice buyers to develop better-quality varieties that bring value not only to the end buyers and end users, but to the farmer as well.”
– Tim Walker
Since 2011, Horizon Ag has helped drive an industry-wide discussion and effort to improve rice quality grown in the United States.
With more than 50 percent of U.S. rice being sold on the export market, improving the quality of U.S.-grown rice is imperative for maintaining and growing our export business, as well as competing domestically with an increasing population of consumers who appreciate rice quality. Horizon Ag continues to be committed to improving rice quality, working with our public breeding partners as well as rice buyers to develop better-quality varieties that bring value not only to the end buyers and end users, but to the farmer as well. Three new high-yielding Clearfield varieties capable of producing the appearance and cooking properties desired by important domestic buyers and expor
t markets are being introduced this season.
CL163 is a semi-dwarf line with “Dixiebelle-type” cooking properties, which makes this variety an excellent fit for the domestic parboil market. It also has the potential to be a preferred variety in the Central American export market. According to a major domestic food company that has tested this variety extensively, CL163 has cooking and processing properties that aresubstantial improvements over most varieties and hybrids grown today.
CL172 is a semi-dwarf variety that produces a bold, translucent grain and demonstrates excellent milling quality. It contains multiple genes that confer broad-spectrum blast resistance in the southern United States. In an effort to demonstrate how quality improvements can be achieved in the industry, Horizon Ag partnered with a major mill and a select group of farmers in Arkansas to showcase the overall performance of identity-preserved CL172. Grain yields and preliminary milling reports were very positive.
The latest long-grain offering from Horizon Ag is CL153. It also provides excellent blast resistance and good grain quality with yield potential that rivals the highest-yielding cultivars currently being produced.
While we are proud to bring these three new high-yielding, excellent quality varieties to market in an effort to show the world that U.S. rice farmers can and do produce quality, we also strive to see that farmers who grow high-quality rice are rewarded. Horizon Ag is connected with the many rice buyers in Latin America who are searching for reliable quantities of quality rice grown in the United States. Some of our valuable contacts with rice buyers have resulted in action on the ground to identify large quantities of desirable-quality rice in the United States and get that rice shipped to its destination.
We expect these opportunities to occur more and more and look forward to supporting those initiatives.
Tim Walker
General Manager
Horizon Ag, LLC