Record grain yields were last achieved in Louisiana during the 2014 growing season when we were blessed with very favorable weather conditions. Until 2018, each crop since 2014 had been successively lower yielding than the year before. Louisiana saw constant rainfall and cloudy conditions nearly the entire rice growth period in 2015. In 2016, record flooding occurred when more than ... Read More »
Louisiana festival mixes rice farming’s conservation story with birding Read More »
South Louisiana rice farmers are finishing up their ratoon or second harvest. The yields have been good and are needed because of lower rice prices. Read More »
• By Vicky Boyd, Editor • Rice delphacid, a planthopper native to Central and South America, has been found in several South Texas counties after a three-year absence. “It’s a very, very similar infestation as three years ago,” says Dr. Mo Way, a Texas A&M entomology professor who has visited the field. The first report came from Galveston County in a ... Read More »
Texas rice farmers are seeing near-record yields of good quality grain, and many are considering a second harvest, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Research experts. Dr. Lee Tarpley, AgriLife Research crop physiologist, Beaumont, says despite a few problems for some growers, a near-record yield is expected for producers who planted their fields early in spring. Producers in the state’s rice-growing ... Read More »
The 2018 rice harvest in southwest Louisiana is past the halfway point, and Louisiana State University AgCenter agents say farmers are pleased. “Yields have been good, and it seems overall to be a very good crop,” says Jeremy Hebert, LSU AgCenter agent in Acadia Parish. “Overall, it seems like the yields have been very good.” Dry weather allowed most farmers ... Read More »
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 laughed out of every room. But I would’ve been right. Against long-term trends that say “the ... Read More »
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 on how they apply to phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) management in conventional water-seeded rice systems. The ... Read More »
No cash bids being offered throughout the year can definitely be described as a “tight spot.” And when rice farmers find themselves in a tight spot, they don’t give up. That’s not their nature. Instead, they look for another alternative to sell their rice. Several years ago, a small group of rice farmers in southwest Louisiana, who were faced with this situation, came up with an idea to send their rice to Mexico via rail. The inspiration for this thought was a rail facility located at the Lacassine Agri-Industrial Park that originally had been intended to carry sugar. Although that venture did not pan out, the property, infrastructure, spur and truck scales were all still there. Mark Pousson, who is the manager of what is now the South Louisiana Rail Facility (SLRF) in Lacasinne, explains how Mike Strain – the Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry in Louisiana – and Governor Jindal’s administration worked with them to “make something happen.” Read More »
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, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well. Luck also played a large role. 2014 was ... Read More »
Rice Farming A One Grower Publication