Mid South Rice Report
Ag Fax
Rice harvest could start in the coastal belt as early as this weekend, although a limited amount of cutting may already be underway. You never know.
Leaf blast is turning up in Arkansas.
Just when Midsouth rice really needs sunshine, overcast skies have been lingering over a wide part of the region. Rainy conditions account for part of the cloud cover, but dust from Africa's Saharan Desert adds to the effect.
Louisiana held its main rice field day this week, transitioning it to a virtual event with video presentations of the tour stops. Those presentations and related information are now on the web for convenient viewing from your computer, tablet or phone. Connect to the event's website in our Also of Note section.
Dustin Harrell, Louisiana Rice Extension Specialist, LSU Rice Research Station, Crowley
"This week, we'll hold our first-ever virtual rice field day at the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station. All the presentations and other material developed for the event also are online on a special website. So, people can view any of that video content when they want.
"The program includes our normal field day presentations, as well as guest speakers. We'll also have a poster session, which will be in the form of a PowerPoint presentations.
"In our rice crop, disease hasn't developed to any extent and we still have a good-looking crop. Harvest in some of our earliest fields might start this weekend.
"In our youngest rice in southwest Louisiana, people have asked about South American rice miners and leaf miners, which are causing damage in some of our younger rice.
"They tend to be cyclical, and it's been a couple of years since they've been present. These miners will come into rice in heavy numbers, maybe for a couple of years, then go away for another few years before yo see them again. But if rice miners are the worst thing we'll see this year, that's okay.
"We really don't have any management practices for these pests. They're in the mid-tillering to latter-tillering rice now, and you almost have to let the rice outgrow them.
"Stink bugs are mostly quiet."
Steve Schutz, Ind. Consultant, Coushatta, Louisiana
"I haven't had any rice in several years but ended up with 80 acres for 2020. The farmer intended to plant corn but had to go with prevented planting because the weather kept delaying things.
"Considering how much better rice prices have been – compared to everything else – he decided to go with rice, even late like this.
"He planted it about three weeks ago. The rice is now at the five-leaf stage and looks good. We're trying to work around this weather and apply herbicides and fertilizer so he can take it to flood."
Ashley Peters, Peters Crop Consulting, Crowville, Louisiana
"Most of the paddy rice is flooded. In the row rice, we're just trying to keep it wet. We've put out two or three shots of nitrogen and everyone is mostly done applying herbicides. We're waiting on the rice to head and just watching for any disease or pests to pop up. On the row rice, we're just in layby.
"The bulk of our corn is dented or will be by this time next week. We have sprayed a few spots with fungicides, but nothing widespread. It's really just been a field by field basis. We're cleaning up anything that has been continuous corn or a similar situation.
"I have soybeans that have just come out of the ground all the way up to way past R5 stage. We have a lot in the blooming stage – R2 or R3. We've also got a fair amount planted in June. It wasn't planted late due to being double crop, we just got too much rain or other priorities took over.
"We're only spraying a couple fields for redbanded stink bugs (RBSB). A lot of my beans just aren't to the stage of seeing a large number of RBSB yet."