Arkansas Rice Update 3-22-25

by Jarrod Hardke, Rice Extension Agronomist - March 22, 2025

Arkansas Rice Update 2025-01

March 22, 2025

Jarrod Hardke & Bob Scott

“Blow, blow, Seminole wind, blow like you’re never gonna blow again.”

As the Dirt Turns

We waited all winter for a dry spell just jump back in the field, but we finally got an opportunity for a considerable run.  The 2025 planting season has already kicked off for multiple crops including rice.  The first few fields were actually planted 9-10 days ago.  Several more kicked things off to begin this week and that number has been gradually increasing.  Next week, a much larger number will be mashing the GO button with a favorable forecast.

There has still been a big focus this early on land preparation, especially since the winds have sped up drying even following scattered rains.  I don’t recall seeing this much rice stubble being worked this early in the year in a long time, but that’s how much things are drying out.

We’re about 10 days away from the Prospective Plantings report where we see our first guess at how many rice acres might find their way in the ground.  I said all winter that my Magic 8-ball was undecided and that a range of 1.2-1.4 million rice acres was about as far as I could narrow things down.  That should involve an increase in medium-grain acres and a decrease in long-grain acres compared to 2024.

We’re not going to dig much into the economic situation here at the moment, as that’s a been a major focus for a while now and we all know the score.  Remember “do it right, do it light; do it wrong, do it long.”  To keep costs down and performance up, slow down and try to get it done right, rather than try to do it quickly.

In case you missed it – check out the article by Scott Stiles on 2025 PLC and ARC Decisions.

Let us know if we can help.

Fig. 1.  NOAA 7-day precipitation forecast.

Fig. 2.  Turning and burning.

2025 Rice Management Guide now available

The 2025 Rice Management Guide publication is made possible by the rice growers of Arkansas through the Arkansas Rice Check-Off administered by the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board and support from the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.  It contains the most requested production recommendations for rice in a single, easy-to-reference PDF.  It is now available for download, and copies are now available at local county Extension offices.

Of Seeding Rates and Seed Treatments

Jarrod Hardke

Seeding Rates

Seeding rates are always one of the toughest topics for discussion, especially when most conversations center around how to safely reduce them to save costs.  “How low can I get away with?”  The reason this question is tough is because it’s difficult to put more seed out there if we didn’t put enough to start.  Replant seed doesn’t look like it will be a thing this year, so we’re rolling with what we have.

If you look at the seeding rate table on page 11 of the 2025 Rice Management Guide, we present a range of options (and you can also use the Rice Advisor Seeding Rate Calculator).  For varieties, our base recommendation remains 30 seed/ft² which is around 70 lbs/acre for most varieties.  Under ideal conditions (insecticide + fungicide seed treatments, stale seedbed, etc.) we can have success at 25 seed/ft² or 55-60 lbs/acre.  We have seen some success in small plot work even a little lower than that – but that’s small plot work designed to minimize the impacts and high and low areas that are always there in production fields to rob you of more stand.

A few newer varieties have a slightly different scale such as DG263L, DG563PVL, RTv7231MA, and RTv7303.  These can be planted in the 20-25 seed/ft² range or 45-60 lbs/acre.  Most of the time they’re doing very well at the lower end of that range and are easier to harvest.

For hybrids, we still list the 10-12 seed/ft² range or 22-28 lb/acre depending on the hybrid.  We see plenty of evidence that we can go below this range, perhaps as low as 18 lb/acre but that shouldn’t be a pursuit for everyone because it puts us borderline on having an adequate stand to maximize both yield and net return.  A rate of 9 seed/ft² (about 20 lb/acre) is a much safer reduction if you’re inclined to squeeze it that far.  A general recommendation would be to not reduce your hybrid seeding rate more than 1-2 lb/acre below where you’ve been comfortably running.

Regardless of the seeding rate you choose – your goal should revolve around the stand count we need to achieve our performance goal.

For varieties (Ozark, CLL18, etc.) – 12-18 plants/ft².

For ‘other’ varieties (DG263L, RTv7303, etc.) – 7-10 plants/ft².

For hybrids (RT7302, RT7521FP) – 5-8 plants/ft².

Seed Treatments

Several years ago we received questions around the need for seed treatments and whether or not we could save money by getting rid of the seed treatments and just planting more seed to compensate.  Remember that’s where we were in the past before seed treatments – we just tried to plant enough to get by which inevitably leads to inconsistent stands of thick and thin areas.

We continue to see the best yields where we utilize full seed treatment packages including an insecticide.  Even when seeding rates are increased for ‘naked’ seed or fungicide only, they don’t produce the same yields as those with a full fungicide and insecticide package.

Dealing with Low Germ Rates

Jarrod Hardke

There are seed lots out there this year that fall below the standard 80% germination rate.  While no year, and no seed lots, are the same, there are some general ideas we can follow to handle this situation.

Most of the time, seed that meets the minimum 80% germ really has a germ rate of 85-90% (sometimes even better).  If you’re planting seed that has a 70% germ rate, just increase your seeding rate by 10% to compensate.  For example, if you normally plant 22 lb/acre of hybrid, a 10% increase is 2.2 lbs to put you at ~24 lb/acre.  The same is true if germ is down to 60% where you would want to increase by 20% to put you at 26-27 lb/acre.  Use the same exercise if dealing with a variety (70 lb/acre plus 10% = 77 lb/acre).

In our experience in variety testing when we sometimes end up testing some lower germination products, these types of increases have given us our desired stands and the performance was there.  Note that this has been observational, we haven’t lined up lower germ lots versus higher germ lots and really dug into defining it.  But we haven’t observed drags in vigor or performance just because germination rates were sometimes low.

We’ll need to use extreme care when moving between planting different lots with different germination rates.  Planting excess seed at a high germ rate could be just as bad as not planting enough seed at a low germ rate.

Bobbing and Weeding

Bob Scott

All my rice calls that have been coming in for the past couple of weeks have been about burndown applications.  Specifically, questions have been about the plant-back interval to Select herbicide which for rice is 30 days.  It is real and we need to follow that so unfortunately, if you have ryegrass, it is probably too late for Select and we are left with paraquat.  For grown-up fields, it may take two applications of paraquat at this stage in the game to get ryegrass and other weeds under control.  You will have to weigh that cost against the expense and effectiveness of tillage.

Burndown options for rice can be found on pages 27-28 of the 2025 MP44 for burndown applications in rice that have a zero-day plant back.  Most of these herbicides are for broadleaf control and some provide some residual control into the season.  Glyphosate combinations with Command and either Gambit, Sharpen, or FirstShot are common treatments that provide both contact and residual control and can be applied prior to planting.

Which one do I use?  My answer is it depends on your goal and what weeds you have.  Command can be applied up to 14 days prior to planting, however I worry about putting it out too early and losing some grass control when planting early prior to some annual grass germination.  Gambit is a great option where sedges and smartweed may be up or a problem, Sharpen helps on pigweed and horseweed, and FirstShot is great for general winter annual weeds.  They all have activity on small-seeded broadleaf weeds.

Like with most crops this year, I believe the key to a successful weed control program in rice will be to start clean and stay clean with overlapping residuals.  This begins with decisions made around burndown and planting.

If struggling with cleaning up fields this spring with traditional burndown programs you should consider applying a residual herbicide this fall after final ground preparation for the 2026 crop.  Fig. XX shows some of our fall residual treatments and they were quite effective even though it was very dry at the time we put them out this past year.  There are options available that allow for rice plant-back intervals as well as for other crops that are effective for both ryegrass and broadleaf weeds.  Not all plots were perfectly clean, but all fall residual plots were able to be planted or required far less robust burndown or tillage prior to planting.

Fig. 3.  Fall residual herbicide treatments.

DD50 Program Sign Up and Alerts

Jarrod Hardke

The DD50 Rice Management Program (https://DD50.uada.edu) has undergone major improvements in recent years, providing even more recommendations based on rice growth stage.

One key update has been the ability to receive text message and/or email updates on crop progress.  If you select to receive these updates, you’ll receive a message for each field 7 days before it’s predicted to reach each of the following stages:

• End of the Optimum N window

• Final Preflood N timing

• Green Ring (beginning internode elongation)

• 50% Heading

• Drain Timing

• 20% Grain Moisture

These notifications will hopefully help eliminate some of the guesswork and need to regularly re-check crop progress in the online program.

Use the Arkansas Rice Advisor Internet App!

The Arkansas Rice Advisor site https://riceadvisor.uada.edu functions like an app on your mobile device.  There you can readily access the DD50 program, rice seeding rate calculator, drill calibration, fertilizer and N rate calculators, publications, and more.

Additional Information

Arkansas Rice Updates are published periodically to provide timely information and recommendations for rice production in Arkansas.  If you would like to be added to this email list, please send your request to rice@uada.edu.

This information will also be posted to the Arkansas Row Crops blog (http://www.arkansas-crops.com/) where additional information from Extension specialists can be found.

More information on rice production, including access to all publications and reports, can be found at http://www.uaex.uada.edu/rice.

Acknowledgements

We sincerely appreciate the support for this publication provided by the rice farmers of Arkansas and administered by the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board.

The authors greatly appreciate the feedback and contributions of all growers, county agents, consultants, and rice industry stakeholders.