Horizon Ag Field Reports

Texas/Louisiana

I said in my last report that we were 10 days away from applying a lot of postemergence herbicides. We did get some of that done early last week but not as much as everyone would have liked. Now, it is wet just about everywhere, and we have had winds that aren’t very favorable for spraying when you have a mix of Clearfield, Provisia and conventional rice out there.
 
We do have a few fields that are starting to have a lot of weed pressure, and farmers are doing their best to get those sprayed as soon as possible. More and more farmers are using Command® + Sharpen® herbicides, which I love, at planting and those fields are pretty clean and not in desperate need of being sprayed. This is a great pre-emergence combination, especially in a year like this when it has taken so long to get complete stands.
 
We are finally getting 100% stands on the fields that were planted a month ago. I have talked to some of the guys that have been in this business a long time, and they tell me they have never seen spotty stands like we have had this year. The vast majority of these fields took multiple weeks to emerge, but they ended up being fine. There were a handful of fields that ended up having to be replanted.
 
We are still planting rice in Louisiana and Texas, but things are winding down. Every year we plant about 75% to 80% of our crop in a short period of time and the other 20% to 25% takes until June for one reason or another. Actually, I finally got my last CLL15 demo planted April 22. This demo is east of Houston, and it has been very difficult for those guys to get planted because of all the rain. It has been a very challenging year, and it’s only April. Hopefully, that means we will be blessed with a great harvest in the end.
 
If you have any questions or problems, please give me a call.

Michael Fruge 
District Field Representative
(832) 260-6193

Mississippi, Northeast Louisiana and Southeast Arkansas

Progress has been significantly hindered the past two weeks due to rain in my territory, especially in North Louisiana. We did catch a break and get some decent drying days over Easter weekend into the week of April 21.
 
Farmers were getting back in the fields wherever conditions allowed at the start of the week. There is some rice planting going on, but a lot of folks are trying to get caught up replanting corn, or getting levees pulled, or rice sprayed in fields planted earlier this month. The forecast is calling for more rain for Wednesday night into Thursday (April 24 and 25).
 
Our earliest-planted rice is finally coming to a stand and should start to progress pretty quickly toward flood with what looks to be average to above-average temperatures over the next two weeks. It will be critical to be timely and efficient with fertilizer and herbicide applications as the rice moves toward flood.
 
Please feel free to call with any questions, or let me know if I can help you in any way.

Tim Jett 
District Field Representative
(901) 687-6362