Calculating New Options For Shrinking Rice Fields
George Tibbitts, a third-generation farmer in Arbuckle, CA, has been growing rice on his 1,200-acre farm for three decades. His Sacramento Valley irrigation district, one of the oldest in the state, has long benefitted from senior water rights, which date back to 1914. The rights allow farmers such as Tibbitts to keep their fields flush with water, even in arid conditions.
But last year, with much of the state in extreme drought, he faced a career first: His district slashed water allocations by an unprecedented 90 percent, leaving him with little choice but to fallow all of his rice fields.
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Louisiana Rice Parish Estimates
This report contains the results from the 2022 December Agricultural and Row Crops County Agricultural Production surveys.
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USA Rice Outlines Trade and Transportation Priorities in Washington
A group of rice millers and merchants spent time visiting with officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs mission area, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), and the Surface Transportation Board (STB) as part of USA Rice’s fly-in this week.
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USDA Encourages Rice Farmers To Prepare For New Rice Production Program
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today previewed plans to provide up to $250 million in assistance to rice farmers and what steps they can take to be prepared to sign up when the program is released later this spring. USDA is sharing information early so producers can prepare for program signup, which will include a pre-filled application in an effort to simplify and streamline the application process.
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Louisiana Annual Rice Meetings Return to Crowley
After more than a decade of meeting up the road in Jennings, the Louisiana Rice Council (LARC) and the Louisiana Rice Growers Association (LARGA) returned here to the International Rice Festival Building to hold their annual business meetings, talk about the coming year, and hear industry reports.
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Yield Potential and Fertilizer N Management in Rice
If we have a “normal” planting year in terms of acreage, about half of the fields being planted to rice will have been fallowed the previous year. We have been studying yield potential and nitrogen (N) management in fallowed vs. continuous rice for the past couple of years. Here is some of what we have found.
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LSU AgCenter Awarded $10M USDA Grant for Louisiana Rice Industry Sustainability
An LSU AgCenter scientist has been awarded a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture to improve sustainability and profitability of rice farming through research innovations that advance climate-resilient crops.
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Historic Louisiana Rice Farm Makes History Again
Conservation and rice farming have always gone together, especially here at Live Oak Farm in Vermilion Parish. The farm’s owners, the Godchaux family, have been an integral part of the Louisiana and U.S. rice industries for multiple generations as original founders of Riviana Foods. The family continues to produce rice on this picturesque property of mossy covered oaks and prairie marshland south of Abbeville, located along the Vermilion River, just north of the Intracoastal Waterway.
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Iraq Buys 88,000 Tons Of US Rice
Al Awees, the private company that took over much of the food purchasing for the government of Iraq in 2021, made two purchases of 44,000 metric tons each of U.S. rice as the 2022 calendar year ended.
The total of 88,000 metric tons may not seem like much given that U.S. rice exports are expected to total around 3 million metric tons in the 2022-23 marketing year, but the symbolism may be more important than the actual amount.
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Con-Till Conference Provides An Abundance Of Information
The 26th Annual Conservation Systems Cotton & Rice Conference (Con-Till) was held here this week. The conference first convened in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1998. Initially the meeting focused on conservation related to rice and cotton production but has expanded to include varied production topics while adding corn, soybeans, irrigation, precision ag, and regenerative ag presentations.
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AgCenter Researchers Offer Rice Growers Tips Ahead Of Planting
It’s decision-making time for Louisiana rice producers, and researchers at the LSU AgCenter offer a bevy of tools to help them figure out what, when and where to plant.
AgCenter extension agents and faculty members hosted rice production meetings throughout the state’s southwest region including Welsh on Jan. 3, Vidrine on Jan. 4, Crowley on Jan. 5 and Abbeville on Jan. 10.
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J.T. Meleck To Sell Its Louisiana Rice Whiskey Year-Round
Louisiana’s J.T. Meleck Distillers now offers its brand of rice whiskey throughout the year, including a single-barrel cask strength option for select retailers in its home state.
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Kellogg Helping Rice Farmers Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Kellogg ‘s InGrained™, a five-year partnership with Lower Mississippi River Basin rice farmers to help reduce their climate impact, is reporting early positive results. During the pilot year of the program, InGrained helped farmers implement climate-smart irrigation practices that achieved a reduction of more than 1,600 metric tons of greenhouse gases1 – the equivalent of taking more than 345 gasoline-powered cars off the road for one year.2
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USA Rice Leaders Meet With Congressional Staff On Cuba Trade
USDA’s Economic Research Service has reduced its forecast of U.S. rice exports for the 2022-2023 marketing year by 2.0 million hundredweight to 69.0 million hundredweight, the lowest since 1991-92.
The revision, which was announced during the USA Rice Outlook Conference in Austin, Texas, is expected to add to the economic woes faced by U.S. rice producers due to the ongoing low rice prices and high input costs that occurred in 2022.
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Goodyear's Sustainable Tire Is Made With Rice, Soy & Pine
Goodyear unveiled a tire with 90 percent sustainable materials at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week.
The new tire, which has passed all regulatory and internal tests for road use, makes use of sustainable products such as soybean oil, rice husks, and pine resin, in place of standard compounds.
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