Texas
The Texas Gulf Coast rice crop is pushing 97% planted with 95% emerged at this time, with a majority of the acres left to plant being organic. There have been a number of organic fields planted this past week, but most of the drills are sitting again waiting to see what the weekend rain chances deliver.
Warmer night time temperatures and a few hours of sunlight have the crop finally growing. There have been quite a few fields treated with herbicide, fertilized, and flooded since last week, and those fields are looking good. Following the weekend rain chances, I expect the remainder of the organic crop to be planted as soon as ground conditions are right.
Derrol Grymes
Louisiana
The rice crop in Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana has improved since the weekend with about 25% of the crop going into permanent flood. The majority of remaining acres are being flushed with shots of ammonium sulfate to speed up tillering.
The area is about 98% planted and 95% emerged with only crawfish ponds remaining to be planted. Warm, dry temps are forecast over the next 10 days which should allow for optimum application conditions into next week.
With another good week of warm weather and sunshine, south Louisiana is 98% planted and 95% emerged. Over the past week, rice has greatly improved in appearance growing out of Newpath, Command, and/or cold weather side effects. With the large amount of acres going into permanent flood, applicators have fallen behind, thus delaying flooding. Over the past several weeks while visiting with our customers, we have really stressed the importance of applying 100 to 120 units of nitrogen preflood.
With warmer weather and a stretch of dry weather, planting in northeast Louisiana has really kicked into high gear this week. We estimate that 75% of the crop is in the ground. The earlier planted rice is up and growing, and looking good.
Mike Worthington, Nicky Miller, Craig Hamm, Matt Laird
Mississippi
The North Delta has finally gotten dry enough to make a very solid run on planting. This area has caught just about every rain that has moved through the Delta this spring leaving them lagging behind schedule. The warmer weather pattern this week has helped with emergence of the earlier planted rice, but some replanting was needed with cold, wet soils and bird damage in areas.
With that being said, some rain will be needed to soften up crusts that are forming and to help the fresher planted fields emerge or flushing will be needed. RFYT planting has now been finished in the Delta with two more trials going in earlier this week.
Jay Burchfield
Arkansas
With the warm, dry weather this week growers have made a huge push in finishing up planting this rice crop on the Grand Prairie and in South Arkansas. The earliest planted rice is slowly emerging and some is having to be replanted from the cold, wet weather we experienced. Some fields have taken more than 28 days to emerge.
Other than a few replants, the overall appearance of the crop is starting to look really nice. All of the RFYT’S across the Region have now been planted and a few of the earliest should be emerged by the first of next week. We would like to thank all of the cooperators for their help in working with us this year!
In Central Arkansas growers have made huge planting progress in a short period of time with the drier conditions. We estimate we are 75-80% planted across the area this week. Fields are drying fast with some crusting occurring in places. We could use a shower that is expected for the weekend.
We are making some visits to fields that were planted in late March through early April where stands are thin. It appears that most fields will be fine, however, there are the occasional ones that will need replanting. One major recommendation on thin stands is to not establish an early deep flood as this will limit plant tillering. The addition of DAP or Ammonia Sulfate sometimes helps with increased tillering as well.
If you have questions or are needing additional seed to complete this year’s planting season, give your local RiceTec representative a call. You can find your local DSM contact information on our website. Thank you for your business.
Jeff Branson, Matt Snow, Whitney Jones, Garrison Hardke, Rob Dixon, Kurt Johns
Northeast Arkansas & Missouri
We were able to get a few more days of hard planting in this week only to be slowed again by rain on Thursday. Rainfall amounts ranged from ¼ inch in the Southern parts of Region 1 to 2 inches on the Northern end. The rain was actually needed in some areas due to dry and crusting soils which was making emergence difficult.
We should see more and more rice emerging every day now and for the most part we are in pretty good shape across the region. The areas that received the most rainfall will be delayed for a few days before we can get another good run to finish up planting.
Hunter Jones, Nick Ragsdell, Whitney Blake
