Spend money wisely up front to save on costs later

Jarrod Hardke, University of Arkansas
DR. JARROD HARDKE
ARKANSAS
Asst. Professor/Rice Extension
Agronomist
University of Arkansas Cooperative
Extension Service
jhardke@uaex.edu

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 options for starting the season off right and targeting our highest potential grain yield.

Insecticide and fungicide seed treatments provide the greatest opportunity for us to establish our desired stand. The insecticides in CruiserMaxx Rice and NipsIt INSIDE provide us with the ability to withstand early season problems from grape colaspis and are good against rice water weevil. However, Dermacor is excellent for rice water weevil but is weak against grape colaspis, which is a considerable problem for many of our lighter rice soils in Arkansas.

Fungicide seed treatment packages also help protect the crop from the seedling disease complex, which is always of concern during cooler, wetter springs. CruiserMaxx Rice contains multiple fungicides, and NipsIt Suite, which adds a fungicide package to NipsIt INSIDE, is now available.

Multiple fungicides, such as in those two products, are best to protect us from the range of pathogens that attack seedling rice.

Leading off the season with a strong residual herbicide program provides the best chance to keep overall herbicide costs down. Fortunately in rice, there are a range of options depending on your weeds of greatest concern.

Starting clean with a burndown and residuals allows us to stay in front of early weed competition. Following that application a few weeks later with an additional application of residual herbicides can, in the right years, allow us to get to flood without spending much on more costly post-emergence herbicides.

There are always problems that arise and may need the addition of a post application, but overlapping residuals can help to minimize this on many fields.

Spend your money wisely up front to save on costs later.

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