• By Bruce Schultz • Rice planting is wrapping up in south Louisiana, but wet weather has kept farmers out of the fields in the north. “It’s moving along pretty fast,” said Todd Fontenot, Louisiana State University AgCenter agent in Evangeline Parish. “A lot of rice has been planted in a short period of time.” He estimated 80% to 85% ... Read More »
Take an integrated approach to disease management and consider several factors before making an application. • By Vicky Boyd, Editor • No two farming seasons are alike, and that also goes for variations in plant disease severity from year to year. Nevertheless, plant pathologists say some recommendations ring true every season. Start by choosing varieties with tolerance to your most ... Read More »
In the song “Big Yellow Taxi,” Joni Mitchell sings, “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” The COVID pandemic has reinforced this notion. Many things we used to take for granted, like in-person grower meetings and field days, disappeared overnight. As social creatures, most humans need personal interactions. We tried to ... Read More »
• By Bruce Schultz • Short-grain rice developed by the Louisiana State University AgCenter has been planted for a New Orleans company to make sake, a traditional Japanese beverage that is becoming more popular in the United States. The Pirogue variety was planted on 31 acres at the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station on April 6 by Rick Zaunbrecher, ... Read More »
• By Herry Utomo, Ida Wenefrida and Bob Butcher • Diabetes is a worldwide problem affecting more than 463 million people (9.3% of world population). In the United States alone, more than 34.2 million people have diabetes (10.5% of the U.S. population), and 88 million people aged 18 years or older have prediabetes (34.5% of the adult U.S. population). Worldwide, ... Read More »
• Kenneth Gautreaux • Feral pigs are a nuisance in many areas of the country, causing billions of dollars in damage. Scientists with the LSU AgCenter and the LSU Department of Chemistry are working on a bait and delivery system to help reduce the population of feral hogs. Glen Gentry, LSU AgCenter feral hog specialist, and John Pojman, a chemistry ... Read More »
• By Blake Wilson, Julian Lucero and Mark Shirley • Invasive apple snails — sometimes called giant, golden or channeled apple snails — are native to South America but have been introduced into many regions. Several species of apple snails are invasive pests in many parts of Europe, Asia, and North and South America. But the species that has been ... Read More »
For effective weed control, treat row rice as you would any other row crop. • By Vicky Boyd, Editor • To successfully control weeds in furrow-irrigated rice — also known as row rice — growers will need to change from treating it like a flooded crop to managing it like they would any other row crop. That means overlapping residual ... Read More »
• By Bruce Schultz • A Louisiana State University AgCenter plant pathologist will use a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pinpoint the location of a gene in rice that could help farmers control a potentially devastating plant disease. “Our goal is to characterize the resistance to narrow brown leaf spot at the genetic and functional level,” ... Read More »
• By Kurt Guidry • As we head into planting season for the 2021 rice crop, the current cash rice market in Louisiana has remained supported in the $20 to $21 per-barrel range ($12.35 to $12.96 per hundredweight). A 500,000 acre increase in 2020 plantings resulted in a nearly 23% increase in total rice production. But tight stocks to start ... Read More »
Rice Farming A One Grower Publication