Dr. Nick Bateman says billbugs are not a new pest in rice. Growers have seen them in levee rice for years and on the levees or in rice patties they can’t keep enough water on to keep them from drying out during the growing season.
What’s new is that many growers are trying furrow-irrigated or row rice where portions of the field may remain dry as water moves across the field or out the end of the field if a levee isn’t in place to retain the water.
Read MoreU.S. Department of Agriculture/Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) recently announced the 2022 Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) allocations with USA Rice receiving more than $5.5 million, including a 35 percent increase in MAP funding from last year.
Read MoreThe South Louisiana Rail Facility broke ground Thursday on a new $21 million rice mill, adding value to locally grown rice and opening up more markets for rice farmers in South Louisiana and Southeast Texas.
Local and state officials gathered to celebrate construction of the state-of-the-art rice milling facility which will be built on a three acre site adjacent to the South Louisiana Rail Facility (SLRF) at the Lacassine Industrial Park in Jeff Davis Parish.
Read MoreThe ratoon, or second, harvest of rice across south Louisiana is just about wrapped up. Growing conditions for the second crop were much better than the first crop, and yields are proving that. LSU AgCenter correspondent Craig Gautreaux has the story from Acadia Parish.
Read MoreFor the first time since it was enacted in 2012, US exporters did not fill the rice tariff-rate quota with Colombia.
Rice exports to Colombia declined to just $5 million through September, according to the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The significantly lower exports are a result of a larger Colombian crop and lower domestic prices as well as increased competition from South American exporters.
Read MoreIn a world where crop prices are climbing, fanning inflation fears, one crucial food staple has slumped this year in Asia -- rice.
Unlike 2008 when wheat and rice surged to the highest on record, helping spark food riots in some countries, this year they are moving in opposite directions. Wheat futures in Chicago, a global benchmark, have climbed about 30% since the end of December to the strongest in almost a decade, while rice export prices from Thailand, a regional marker, have slumped 25% to a four-year low.
Read MoreRiceland Foods celebrated the farmer-owned cooperative’s 100th anniversary, reported sales of nearly $1 billion and announced a pledge of $100,000 to the Arkansas Future Farmer of America Foundation during the annual meeting held at the Embassy Suites Hotel Thursday.
Read MoreThe outlook for 2021/22 U.S. rice this month is for increased supplies, higher domestic use, lower exports, and larger ending stocks. Supplies are raised as NASS increased rice production by 3.3 million cwt to 193.8 million, all on higher yields. The all rice yield is forecast at a record 7,756 pounds per acre, up 131 pounds from the previous forecast. Record yields are forecast for Arkansas, California, Mississippi, and Missouri.
Read MoreAs with many annual events that were postponed or canceled in 2020, the Yellow Rails and Rice Festival got back on track this year. The festival, in its twelfth year, took place the last weekend in October, and the perfect weather was a bonus as yellow rail enthusiasts gathered to see this elusive little bird in its natural habitat, the rice fields of southwest Louisiana.
Read MoreFor years, showering a newlywed couple with rice was considered a necessary element to the post-ceremony festivities. The practice of showering the bride and groom with rice dates all the way back to Roman times, when the practice was thought to rain abundance and fertility onto the bride and groom (via Our Everyday Life).
Then some misguided bird-lovers got ahold of the notion that raw rice was bad, or even fatal, for our feathered friends.
Read MoreThe in-person 2021 USA Rice Outlook Conference is just over a month away and as always attendees are going to have to prioritize for all the exciting programming being offered.This year’s keynote speaker is award-winning journalist and bestselling author Dan Gardner whose books explore how we think and how we can make better decisions in the face of uncertainty.
Read MoreFabacher Road, which runs west for several miles from La. 91 near Iota is one of the few reminders of the settlement founded in 1871 by the man some claim to be the pioneer of the modern rice industry.
Little remains to mark just where the Fabacher community was, which will make it difficult if you want to look for the fortune supposedly buried there.
Christian Richard is a rice farmer in Vermillion Parish. He says rice farming not only provides Louisiana with a rich economic foundation, but also provides one of the largest habitats for migrating birds every year in fallow rice fields.
“From the southwest Louisiana coastal marshes and prairies, to the central and northeast Louisiana delta, valuable rice fields support an average five million ducks and geese in any given winter. During peak migration events, those numbers can be as much as twice that.
Read MoreLast week, USA Rice formally submitted comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) regarding foreign trade barriers to U.S. rice exports. The industry overview is designed to aid the agency in formulating their 2022 National Trade Estimate Report (NTE), which will be published next spring.
Similar to what was submitted last year, USA Rice accounted for priority barriers to trade in 15 overseas markets.
Read MoreAs world leaders met for the Group of 20 Summit this weekend, U.S. and European Union (EU) negotiators worked on the sidelines to reach a deal that lifts the retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products, including milled and broken rice.
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