Fertility

Row rice continues to make inroads as growers seek ways to reduce labor and equipment costs. By Vicky Boyd Editor Even after experimenting with furrow-irrigated or row rice for three seasons, Monty Bohanan — who farms with his brother Derek near Stuttgart, Ark. — admits...

Vicky wanted me to talk a little about early season nutrient management. Since this is not my area of expertise, I turned to Toni Spencer with M&J Fertilizer in Winnie, Texas. Virtually all her rice farmers apply products that contain...

University of California Cooperative Extension names top three producers in its 2016 annual rice yield contest. By Bruce Linquist In 2015 University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) initiated the UCCE Rice Yield Contest as a pilot study in Butte County. In...

Easy-to-use Leaf Color Chart helps growers gauge crop’s mid-season nitrogen needs. By Vicky Boyd Editor The University of California, in collaboration with the California Rice Commission and the California Cooperative Rice Research Board, has released the UC Leaf Color Chart, version 2.0. The ruler-like device contains...

Projects seek to demonstrate benefits of cover crops to rice production. By Vicky Boyd, Editor Trent Roberts, a University of Arkansas soil scientist, is out to be a myth-buster when it comes to cover crops and rice. Through a three-year project he’s...

By Bruce Linquist In 2015, the University of California Cooperative Extension kicked off a yield contest with rice growers. The purpose was to provide an opportunity for rice producers and UC scientists to share information about intensive rice production in...

Dr. Jarrod T. Hardke Arkansas Rice Extension Agronomist University of Arkansas, Cooperative Extension Service jradke@uaex.edu If I had told growers in January that they should plant their rice in May to achieve the best yields and that mid-April would be terrible, I’d have been...

Dr. Bruce Linquist California UCCE Rice Specialist balinquist@ucdavis.edu Application of the four Rs (right rate, right source, right timing and right placement) helps ensure high fertilizer use efficiency. Last year we discussed the four Rs of fertilizer N; this year I will touch...

New tool protects against volatilization and nitrogen loss Farmers apply nitrogen to their rice crops to promote optimal plant growth and achieve maximum yields. For nitrogen to meet these goals, it has to be available to the plant. Dr. Nathan Slaton,...

Arkansas farmers share their recipe for success The main ingredients for their operation's success, according to fifth- and sixth-generation Arkansas rice farmers Paul and Gil Dreher, include choosing the right varieties, investing in a grain management system, managing their water...

Dr. Jarrod T. Hardke Arkansas Rice Extension Agronomist University of Arkansas, Cooperative Extension Service jradke@uaex.edu Strange is the New Normal Arkansas rice farming in 2014 was a lot like a line heard often about playing cards: it wasn't necessarily a matter of holding good cards,...

Fertilizer -- not too much, not too little DR. M.O. “MO” WAY TEXAS Rice Research Entomologist moway@aesrg.tamu.edu This month’s topic is fertility management. As you know, I’m a bug fella, so I’m no expert on fertility management, although I do know N, P and...

Rusty Elston Elston Crop Management, Inc. Cheneyville, La. Something inside always excited me about agriculture. I worked for Dr. Grady Coburn, who has a consulting business in Cheneyville, for 21 years. I am extremely thankful for the training that I received. He...

Focus On Weeds & Fertility Greg Pylman Pest Control Adviser, Wilbur-Ellis Company Willows, California I grew up on a small farm in the Delta. After graduating from Chico State, I had an opportunity to enter the fertilizer industry. I took the required proficiency...

DR. JOHN SAICHUK LOUISIANA jsaichuk@agcenter.lsu.edu Fertility research is one of the oldest areas of agricultural research, which might insinuate there is little left to investigate. If that were true, we would not get so many questions from growers each year about rice...