Thursday, USA Rice released the 2019-20 U.S. Rice Domestic Usage Report, an annual publication that tracks categorized domestic shipments and consumption of U.S.-grown milled rice. The report covers the 2019-20 marketing year, which ran from August 1, 2019 through July 31, 2020.
Read MoreSeptember rice futures continued higher this week along with the rest of the CBOT grains. The graphs below illustrate the price trends for the major grains since March 30, 2021. New crop corn, wheat, and soybeans have all added over $1/bu following the NASS Prospective Plantings report released on March 31.
Recall the findings from the survey resulted in limit moves higher in corn and soybeans. Corn futures have caught fire this month as estimates of Brazil’s production continue to fall. From a relative price standpoint, soybeans are losing the acreage battle to corn.
Read MoreNominations are being accepted for the 2021 Rice Awards, sponsored each year by USA Rice, Horizon Ag and Rice Farming Magazine.
Read MoreCool weather is taking its toll on young rice plants in south Louisiana while north Louisiana farmers are still waiting for fields to be dry enough for planting.
Dustin Harrell, LSU AgCenter agronomist, said rice plant health will improve with warmer weather. He said a seedling blight fungus has been found in some fields.
“The cool, wet soils have caused it to be more prolific,” said Harrell. “We have some stands that have been thinned. Typically, the rice will grow out of it.”
Harrell said the cool weather has stressed plants that have zinc deficiency. He said the problem can be remedied with applying zinc to the fields.
Read MoreRice shipments, like many other food exports, are becoming increasingly subject to inappropriately low, precautionary maximum residue limits (MRLs) set by overseas markets. Among the shipments most impacted are those bound for the European Union (EU) which considers only the potential hazards associated with the use of inputs and ignores the various risk mitigations required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that ensure those inputs can be used safely.
On February 9, 2021, the EU Commission quietly issued Regulation 2021/155, a move that makes detection of the chemical propiconazole in any food or imported food into the European Union illegal, beginning on September 2, 2021.
Read MoreA member of a New Orleans restaurant family is brewing the Japanese rice wine called sake from grain grown at Louisiana State University, the LSU AgCenter says.
Brennan family member Lindsay Beard and business partner Nan Wallis say they want to change the image of sake (SAH-kee) from that of an exotic drink paired with Asian food, they said in an LSU AgCenter news release.
Read MoreFor quite some time, the USA Rice Marketability and Competitiveness Task Force has been investigating quality concerns raised by Central American importers of U.S.-origin rice. And last week, those concerns were addressed in a tangible manner with the debut of LA 2126, a new long grain experimental line, developed especially for Latin American consumers at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Rice Research Station.
Read MoreRice planting is wrapping up in south Louisiana, but wet weather has kept farmers out of the fields in the north.
Ronnie Levy, LSU AgCenter rice specialist, estimated that 90 percent of the south Louisiana crop has been planted compared to 20 percent of the north Louisiana crop.
More than thirty years ago the U.S. rice industry decided to invest in itself by creating the Rice Leadership Development Program to identify future leaders and help them hone their skills. Few industry programs are as widely and universally respected, and on episode 19 of The Rice Stuff podcast the program steps into the spotlight.
Read MoreHunter Lepretre, a junior at McNeese State University, has been chosen as the first student selected for a research internship with the LSU AgCenter through an endowment established by the family of Charles and Rose Broussard.
Lepretre will begin the paid internship in May at the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station, working in the agronomy research project under Dustin Harrell, LSU AgCenter agronomist and resident coordinator of the Rice Research Station.
Read MoreRice 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, LSU AgCenter agent in Evangeline Parish. “A lot of rice has been planted in a short period of time.”
Read MoreNew row crop varieties — soybeans, wheat, rice, corn, cotton, grain sorghum, sweet potatoes and sugarcane — are released annually by private companies and university breeding programs. Each variety can vary dramatically in yield potential, agronomic traits such as maturity, and resistance to insects, diseases and environmental stress factors. It is important to note a variety with high yield potential at one location may not be competitive in another location because of a lack of adaptability to different environments, including weather patterns, soil characteristics, disease pressure and cropping systems. Furthermore, a variety achieving a high yield or quality one year may not perform as well the next year at the same location because of yearly changes in the environment, such as rainfall or disease patterns.
Read MoreAn LSU 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,” said Jonathan Richards.
Narrow brown leaf spot is also known as Cercospora.
Read MoreShort-grain rice developed by the LSU AgCenter has been planted for a New Orleans company to make sake, a traditional Japanese beverage that is becoming more popular in the U.S.
The Pirogue variety was planted on 31 acres at the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station on April 6 by Rick Zaunbrecher, the station’s foundation seed manager.
After harvest in August, the rice will be sold to Wetlands Sake, and the field of remaining stubble will be used for crawfish.
Read MoreThe People’s Republic of China is the world largest producer and consumer of rice and has been exporting rice to neighboring countries until recently, according to Milo Hamilton, co-founder and senior agricultural economist for Firstgrain, Inc.
That is changing because of the need for more feed for the country’s growing livestock sector, and the strengthening of the yuan, China’s currency, Hamilton told viewers of the Rice Marketing Educational Seminar at this year’s virtual Mid-South Farm and Gin Show.
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