MID-SOUTH RICE COUNTRY -- Rice harvest is well underway in the northern rice production area of the mid-south where a high percentage of U.S. rice is grown. In general, yields have been good to excellent while head rice milling yields are off-somewhat.

More than 50 percent of Arkansas rice is harvested at this point, according to Dr. Jarrod Hardke, University of Arkansas rice extension specialist, as harvest completion ranges between 30-75 percent for individual producers. “Yields have mostly been exceptional with occasional poor fields as outliers,” said Hardke. “Milling quality has been below average and extremely erratic with some good and above average milling out there but they are the exceptions. Peck levels are notably higher than last year.”

MERIGOLD, MS -- Yesterday Delta Rice Promotions, the rice promotion board representing Mississippi, held its annual National Rice Month (NRM) celebration here. After a downsizing of the event due to COVID-19 in 2020, the historic event returned stronger than ever in a brand-new format transitioning from the traditional Delta Rice Tasting Luncheon to the Delta Rice Festival. The festival format allowed for a larger outdoor celebration of NRM while also increasing the event offerings for the public.

Today, Ralston Family Farms announced a 9-metric ton (MT) commercial sale of long grain rice to China that arrived in July, the first U.S. rice shipment grown and sold there out of the mid-south. The shipment is just the second commercial U.S. shipment to be sold and unloaded in China since a phytosanitary protocol was signed in 2017. The first was 20 MT of California medium grain, shipped by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Rice last fall.

The use of certified seed, equipment sanitation and crop rotation are among the tools California growers are using to curb instances of weedy rice, university crop advisors say.

Most growers are scouting at least monthly for weedy rice and finding that other weed species are more prevalent even for those who have it, according to a University of California survey.

Rice production in southwest Louisiana began in earnest during the early 1880s. The rice industry rapidly increased in the region in the years that followed. From 1896 to 1909, rice acreage in southwest Louisiana expanded from 148,000 to 370,000 acres with average rice yields ranging from a low of 855 pounds per acre in 1896 to a high of 1,642 pounds per acre in 1908. Rice industry leaders in the region recognized the importance of rice to southwest Louisiana and began to take measures to ensure the sustainability of the rice industry. The leaders knew that if the rice industry was to maintain a foothold in the region, experimentation and incorporation of improved rice cultivars and agriculture practices would be essential.

Severe outbreaks of rice kernel smut, caused by the Tilletia horrida fungus, occurred across Texas. Smutted rice, which is characterized by replacement of rice grains with a black, sooth mass of smut spores, was observed in each of the rice fields surveyed in early August. Kernel smut widely occurred in the east and west areas of Houston, two major rice production areas in Texas.

More than thirty years ago, an act of Congress designated September as National Rice Month (NRM), and ever since the U.S. rice industry has capitalized on the annual month-long celebration to raise awareness of U.S.-grown rice and recognize the contributions the U.S. rice industry makes to America’s economy.

Last week, freshman Representative Julia Letlow (R-LA), who represents Louisiana’s 5th District, toured the area to meet with the state’s rice industry leaders.

Letlow and her staff started the day in Lake Charles where they met with Mayor Nik Hunter for an update on the progress of recovery efforts there in the wake of last year’s Hurricanes Laura and Delta.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a spike in global rice prices in the second quarter of 2020, according to a new University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture report. Since then, rice prices have remained higher than expected despite ample rice stocks and a record 2020 global rice production.

“Most commodity prices went down during the pandemic because of lower demand,” said Alvaro Durand-Morat, assistant professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the Division of Agriculture’s research arm. “But rice went the other way.”

If you’re thinking about how to pay for college next year -- Think Rice -- because the National Rice Month (NRM) Scholarship video contest is here. And it’s easy to participate!

Open to graduating high school students from Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, or Texas, the contest asks students to create a video that in three minutes or less, shines a light on this versatile, tasty, home-grown grain. “Educate, entertain, and tell us why you think rice is special – to you, to your state, or to the world,” says the contest website, ReelRiceContest.com.