Mississippi Crop Situation – Rice
June 26, 2009
Dr. Nathan Buehring
Conditions for the last couple of weeks have been hot and dry, especially in the southern portion of the delta. Very little rain has been received and very little is in the forecast. With the 95 F plus temperatures this crop is growing at very good pace. Some rice that was planted in March should begin to head at the first of next week. The early April planted rice is past midseason and the late April rice will be approaching midseason within a week or so. With no rice being planted the first two weeks in May, the late May planted rice is flooded or will be shortly.
My acreage estimate for 2009 would be close to 230,000 acres which is the same as last year. The southern delta increased in acres, but the northern delta decreased in acres. I would estimate that at least 10,000 acres of rice in the northern delta did not get planted due to the excessive rains.
USDA estimates our crop condition as 3% Very Poor, 7% Poor, 19% Fair, 68% Poor, and 3% Excellent. As it does every time this year, the crop appears to look fairly good. I would argue though sometimes things often look better from the turnrow than out in the field. This year, rice stands are thinner and there are holes where there is no rice. From the turnrow, this cannot often be seen due to the height and vegetative growth surrounding those areas. As you can tell I am still a little leery about this year’s rice crop. This is because of two main reasons: thin rice stands and a 1/4th to 1/3rd of our rice was planted after May 15th.
On the insect forefront, there are no major issues. Rice Water Weevils have not been a major problem this year. Most of our rice gets a preventative pyrethroid application at flooding though. Rice stinkbugs will be on wait see program. With the recent dry weather, the grass along ditches and turnrows has not been actively growing, which may help keep the populations at a lower level.
Diseases such as sheath blight have been relatively low. The hot and dry conditions have not been very conducive for pathogens. If the conditions persist for the next 2 to 4 weeks, a lot of the rice will receive 0 to 1 application of a fungicide. This will mainly depend on the variety. The Clearfield varieties and Cocodrie will likely need one application. All other varieties and hybrids will receive a fungicide application only if presence and severity warrants for an application. If sheath blight is present, watch for movement up the plant. With the current conditions we are under, sheath blight will likely be present but movement up the plant will be very minimal. If the sheath blight is not moving up the plant, a single fungicide application at late boot will only be necessary. This will help protect the plant through heading from sheath blight and kernel smut.
State rice crop attempts recovery from weather
By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications
MISSISSIPPI STATE – An unusually wet May is causing some farmers to plant rice late, but the crop still has time to develop into a good one for the Delta. read more...
Field Notes
Johnny Saichuk
Louisiana State University
April 24, 2009 -I did not publish any Field Notes the last couple of weeks because everything had stopped as cold weather and rain moved into the state. That was the lull before the storm. In spite of from 3.5 to 7 inches of rain last weekend I had to use the “F” word in two of our verification fields. I had to recommend flushing. In both instances it was to soften the crust that formed after the heavy rain then subsequent high winds that dried the surface into a hard crust. I might be acting over cautiously, but if we do not start out with a decent stand we have to start over or live with reduced yield potential from day one. read more...
Arkansas Rice
Dr. Chuck Wilson, Dr. Gus Lorenz, Dr. Bob Scott, and Dr. Rick Cartwright
April 27, 2009 - Crop Condition and Status -- The weather this spring has allowed some rice to be planted, although there has been enough rainfall to limit planting in some areas. There were several days last week that allowed a lot of rice to be planted. As of April 20, farmers had planted an estimated 45% of the rice acreage. This compares to 24% last week and only 34% this time last year. However, it is still below the 5-year average of 60% for this week. read more...
September, 2008 - The Mississippi's Rice Grower's Guide provides an overview of Mississippi rice production practices. This publication includes the most recent research findings from Mississippi State University and other rice-growing states. The Mississippi Rice Promotion Board funded much of this information through grower check-off funds.
