REGIONAL REPORT

Planting Progress Continues Despite Rain Delays

April 18, 2024

As the 2024 season gains momentum, we look forward to bringing you bi-weekly Regional Crop Reports on fieldwork status, crop conditions, pests and upcoming events like our Horizon Ag Field Days in Louisiana and Arkansas.

We also want to hear from you! Let us know what you like about the Horizon Ag e-newsletter and what we can do to make it an even more valuable tool for your operation. It’s part of our commitment to supporting our growers and industry partners. Our email is Scott.McClure@Brightonagency.com.

Also, feel free to share our Regional Reports with your rice grower friends.

 

CLL18 demo in Prairie County, Arkansas, planted on April 4 and just starting to emerge.

Grand Prairie And South Arkansas

My territory has had a good run at planting the past couple of weeks and the counties from along I-40 down to about Pine Bluff made pretty decent progress.

I have spoken with growers, consultants, and retailers on the prairie who believe rice planting progress is about 50-60% at this point, with a handful of growers who possibly could be done. Rain total amounts as of April 11 were around 5 inches in this region.

South Central and Southeast Arkansas just cannot catch a break. These areas have received every rain that has gone through the state. Growers, consultants, and retailers there believe rice planting progress is 15-30% at best, and as of April 11, rain totals ranged from 5-10 inches. We are now waiting for the ground to dry to get back to planting. Once that happens, growers will try to make up for lost time and quickly get the crop into the ground.

The Arkansas River Valley is around 10-15% planted. Most growers had delayed planting due to heavy rain in the forecast but only ended up with about 2 inches.

The high rain chances we had this past week had growers slowing planting over the weekend to get some levees up in the fields they had already planted, as well as making some pre-emerge herbicide applications. Having the rain to activate the chemicals can definitely help with weed control.

As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

William “Hutch” Hutchens District Field Representative 870-273-9291

 
 
 

CLL18 demo in Prairie County, Arkansas, planted on April 4 and just starting to emerge.

Louisiana And Texas

The rice west of Houston is 75-80% finished being planted and the majority of the crop is at a growth stage where farmers are putting out the permanent flood. East of Houston is about 60-65% planted. While some growers have finished, others haven’t started planting yet. Still, I expect we will be close to finished planting in the region by the end of the month.

As far as our varieties, both PVL03 and CLL19 are on a roll and, overall, appear to have outgrown everything else. I’m excited to see how they perform this season.

North Louisiana growers are around 50% finished with rice planting, with most of the progress being made in the southernmost part of my territory. Further north, many growers are just getting started planting. Parts of North Louisiana had terrible weather last week, with a storm that came through dumping 14 inches of rain in some areas.

In addition, my counterpart in South Louisiana reports that rice is 80-85% planted in that region. The oldest rice is advancing to a stage where a permanent flood can be applied. The crop has perked up with favorable weather conditions the past week or so.

Hunter Brown District Field Representative 337-546-7288

 
 
 

Provisia Best Management

As a supporter of stewardship and best management for the Provisia technology, we’re committed to providing timely, valuable management recommendations that have come from our collaboration as a member of the Provisia Working Group and with university weed scientists like Dr. Jason Norsworthy in Arkansas and Dr. Connor Webster in Louisiana.

During a recent panel presentation on the topic of minimizing the risk of accase-tolerant rice crossing with weedy rice, Dr. Norsworthy recommended growers consider applying Rogue SC® herbicide, a new HPPD-inhibiting herbicide that has a fit in some environments to provide chemical control of weedy rice that germinated between the time of the pre-flood Provisia spray application and the actual time the field reaches permanent flood. We recommend consulting your crop advisor or Gowan representative for further details.

 
 
 

Up-To-Date Production Info

The Horizon Ag Productivity App is an easy way to access critical management recommendations and tools. The app has been updated to make it even more valuable for rice farmers seeking information about Provisia and Clearfield varieties for 2024.

The Horizon Ag Productivity App is available in the App Store or Google Play.