Arkansas Rice Update 5-3-24

by Jarrod Hardke, Rice Extension Agronomist - May 3, 2024

Arkansas Rice Update 2024-05

May 3, 2024

Jarrod Hardke, Nick Bateman, and Bob Scott

“Fire on the mountain, lightning in the air.”

Gearing Up

This season continues to claw its way forward at a rapid pace, and we’re now roughly double the five-year-average (83% vs. 43%) for planting progress and sizably ahead of even last year (Table 1; Fig. 1).  The upcoming report may not see much of an increase as rains were scattered across the state this week, particularly in areas with the most left to plant.

Speaking of the most left to plant – a look at the accumulated precipitation over the past 30 days (Fig. 2) makes it pretty clear where the drier opportunities to plant were and weren’t.  Good old I-40 creating yet another dividing line across the state.  The southeast cannot catch a break it seems while the central region has also caught their fair share of rain.

The northeast wouldn’t complain about a little more rain at this stage to straighten things up and improve weed control chances.  Too many weed control conversations this week that were something along the lines of “the rice is too small for this herbicide and conditions are too dry for those herbicides, so you just need to wait”.  Very rarely are you going to hear “wait” on the topic of weed control, but sometimes the best way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.  The most expensive application is one that doesn’t work.

The rain forecast for the next 7 days (Fig. 3) is once again a bullseye on the state so we’ll see if the northeast rings up bigger totals and the southeast can be spared a little.  In some of these areas that are still behind and the overall rain outlook (if it holds) means we’ll find ourselves speeding up on late May and whether to keep planting remaining rice.

Some of the earliest rice in the state went to flood this week just ahead of rains that began popping up the last couple of days.  That really tells the story of early planting progress and warm early temperatures to have rice ready to flood the first few days of May.  Many more acres will be sitting ready to go to flood when the upcoming rains pass us.  Strangely there’s currently a fall back into the 70s for highs next weekend in the middle of May – not too cool but a wrinkle nonetheless.

The improved conditions this week have resulted in a nice rebound to most rice after it looked on the rougher side much of last week.  Continue to be mindful of surrounding fields when planning herbicide applications and have patience getting those apps out with the correct winds (and that some spray applications will have to be split up to take advantage of different winds).  Plan ahead!

Let us know if we can help.

Table 1. U.S. Rice Planting Progress as of April 28, 2024 (USDA-NASS).

Fig. 1.  2012-2024 Arkansas rice planting progress by week (USDA-NASS).

Fig. 2.  NOAA 30-day observed precipitation.

Fig. 3.  NOAA 7-day precipitation forecast.

Questions About Seed Treatment Color Fading

Jarrod Hardke

A couple of weeks ago we started receiving an occasional call about planted seed having lost its seed treatment color.  Understandably, this caused some concern about whether the crop protection products (insecticide and fungicides) were there and providing the expected benefits.  To avoid suspense – our findings indicate there is no reason for concern.  Now for further explanation.

This issue appears to be isolated to certain lots of RiceTec FullPage hybrid seed (green seed) possibly only some RT 7521 FP.  To be clear – it appears to be limited and there’s no need for alarm if you dig up seed/plants and find they have lost seed treatment color.

We collected random samples from growers (some good, some bad) and put them through some conditions that would encourage seed treatment loss.  Some samples lost their seed treatment color, others did not.  These samples were then sent to an independent lab to look at the initial crop protection product values and the values after we had encouraged loss.  Regardless of whether the seed color was lost or not, the retention of crop protection products was the same.

Since this was first noticed, we have communicated with RiceTec and they are working to address the seed color retention issue that occurred on these limited lots this year.  Again, this appears to be an issue only for the colorant and not for the crop protection products on the seed.

Cutworms in Rice

Nick Bateman

Last week we talked about seeing some true armyworms and defoliation in some seedling rice.  Since that update we have received numerous calls about cutworms in rice.  Damage can be similar; however, cutworm damage is usually more sporadic than armyworm feeding.  True armyworms tend to “march” across a field, eating the rice back to ground level and moving to the next plant.

Cutworms are more prone to be in fields with old crop residue or standing stubble compared to a clean field.  If you are seeing clipped off plants, you can usually look under the stubble or down in the cracks near the plants and find the worms.  What has been odd this year is that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to which fields they are occurring in.  The calls have been close to half clean fields versus fields with old stubble or other debris.  In clay soils, cutworms will hide in the cracks if there is no stubble present (flip up clods and dig in the cracks to find them).

We generally don’t recommend treating small rice for defoliation.  We have done several years of work on this, and just do not see a yield loss from defoliation occurring prior to tillering.  In some cases, we see a minor yield increase.  With that said, there are always exceptions to thresholds.  If feeding is occurring on the growing point, below ground at the seed due to soil cracking, then an application should be considered.  This has occurred in several situations this year and has caused major stand loss in some cases.  If they can only feed to the soil line, the rice growing point is still safe and intact, but if they can feed down to the seed they can kill the growing point.

If stand loss is occurring and an application is warranted, we would suggest sticking to lambda-cyhalothrin products (Warrior II, Lambda-Cy, etc.). It’s recommend that these applications are made very early or late in the evening since most of the feeding will occur at night.  If you have Dermacor or Fortenza as a seed treatment, then they should protect the rice with no issues.

Fig. 4.  Black cutworm in small rice with clipped off plants (h/t Scott Greenwalt).

Fig. 5.  Dingy cutworm feeding on small rice (h/t Craig Brown).

Bobbing and Weeding

Bob Scott

Scattered thoughts on weed control:

• Watch out for timing on early grass sprays (rice should be 3-leaf before Regiment goes out).

• Watch rates on propanil and quinclorac – there are many generics with different rates than you have used in the past.

• Avoid glyphosate drift on baby rice from burndown applications still going out.

• Many sprays going out ahead of rains that are residuals only – this is a good place to find yourself!

• Lots of reports of Poa annua surviving glyphosate burndowns. We will test for resistance if you manage to harvest some viable seed – contact your county agent about how to sample.

Fig. 6.  Poa annua surviving glyphosate burndown applications.

UADA Row Crop Text Message Service

To sign up to receive text messages regarding row crop updates (including to receive the Arkansas Rice Update link via text):

1. Text the number 501-300-8883 with the following word to join that list:

   1. Cotton

   2. Fieldcorn (all one word)

   3. Irrigation

   4. Rice

   5. Soil

   6. Sorghum

   7. Soybean

   8. Weeds

   9. Wheat

2. Once you’ve sent the list word to 501-300-8883, you should receive an automatic reply confirming your enrollment in the group.

3. If you would like to join multiple lists, send separate text messages with each list word above to 501-300-8883.

4. Reply STOP to cancel, HELP for help. Message and data rates may apply.  Terms and privacy: https://terms.smsinfo.io/tc.php?id=1885323 .

We recommend saving 501-300-8883 as a contact in your phone.  If you ever have a question regarding a message sent, you can reply directly to the text message.  The responses will only be visible to the Extension specialists, and we will reply on a one-on-one basis.

If you have any questions regarding the UADA Row Crop Text Message Updates, please feel free to contact me at jhardke@uada.edu and thank you for continuing to support the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

CBOT September Rice Futures, 10-Year Monthly Continuation.

DD50 Rice Management Program is Live

The DD50 Rice Management Program is live and ready for fields to be enrolled for the 2024 season.  All log-in and producer information has been retained from the 2023 season, so if you used the program last year you can log in just as you did last year.  Log in and enroll fields here:  https://dd50.uada.edu.

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.