Arkansas Rice Update 6-20-25

by Jarrod Hardke, Rice Extension Agronomist - June 20, 2025

Arkansas Rice Update 2025-14

June 20, 2025

Jarrod Hardke, Scott Stiles, & Camila Nicolli

“Well son, when you’re hot you’re hot.”

Turn the Heat to 11

If you’ve been waiting on the hot and miserable weather to show up, congrats because it’s arriving with a vengeance.  It has been a long time since we had an extended forecast (Fig. 1) with this little rain in it.  It’s a welcome sight as long as it doesn’t turn into a prolonged stretch of hot and dry.

We referenced the “two-week high five” last week, but that’s already ending for some who are turning now to the “two-week facepalm”.  That is, grasses and other issues (fertility) are starting to show themselves more now.  Most of the worries are just that, worries.  Worries are a like a rocking chair, they give you something to do but they won’t get you anywhere.  While there will certainly be legitimate problem fields, often most of the escaped grass we worry about is not yield limiting and is not worth the substantial cost to bring it under control late in the season.  Fertility issues are never fun but most when caught in early reproductive growth stages are easily corrected to full or near full yield potential.

More on the general topic of herbicides / weed control.  There seemed to be a 10-day window where it seems like not much worked for some – didn’t matter the herbicide mix and these same complaints were scattered up and down the state.  Thanks, weather.  Not counting that window, there have been the opposite experiences where some of our apps have run hotter than expected and we need to lower the flood for rice recovery.  Long story short, inconsistent weather leads to inconsistent results.

I’m ready for ample sunshine and warm days to point this rice to its full potential this week.  Keep it watered up and yourself too in this heat.

Read on below for more information on blast, growth staging, progress, and rice markets.

Let us know if we can help.

Fig. 1.  NOAA 7-day precipitation forecast.

Fig. 2.  Picture of the week from Craig Brown.

**Send in your best pictures and you may see them in a future update**

Disease Update

Camila Nicolli

First Report of Blast in Arkansas – Ashley Co.

As anticipated given the recent weather patterns, blast disease has made its first reported appearance in Arkansas for the 2025 growing season.  The disease was confirmed in Ashley County (Fig. 3), affecting the Titan variety, which is known to be susceptible to blast.

Weather Conditions and Disease Risk

The development of blast is closely linked to prolonged leaf wetness, high humidity, and frequent rains — conditions that have been common in southeastern Arkansas over the past several weeks.  These environmental factors have created a favorable setting for the disease to emerge earlier than in some previous seasons.

What to Watch For?

Growers should be on alert for diamond-shaped lesions with gray or white centers and brown margins on leaves. Symptoms appearing in low-lying, shaded, or poorly drained areas first.

Fig. 3.  Leaf blast on Titan in Ashley Co.

Management Recommendations

If you're growing a susceptible variety or observing early symptoms:

1. Scout fields regularly — particularly in areas with dense canopy and prolonged dew.

2. Consider a timely fungicide application at early heading, especially if weather remains wet.

3. Avoid excessive nitrogen applications, which can promote disease development.

Ricing Around

Jarrod Hardke

Rice Growth Staging:

Most cultivars take 28-40 days to progress from Beginning Internode Elongation (BIE / green ring) to reach 50% heading.  For simplicity, let’s use a 36-day example (differs for all cultivars).

Generalization of Days:

Day 0 – Green Ring (BIE; R0)

Day 9 – ½” Internode Elongation (R1)

Day 18 – Early / Mid Boot (flag leaf “points”)

Day 27 – Late Boot (flag leaf collar visible, R2)

Day 36 – 50% heading (half of panicles emerging above flag leaf collar, R3)

**Remember this is generalized – each cultivar varies in these timings and DD50 program can help**

Panicle Length and Boot Stages:

Once we pass ½” internode elongation and you can begin to see the panicle, we’re headed toward the boot stages.  While each cultivar is different in their ultimate panicle size and length, and affected by management, here are some general ideas.

Early boot – panicle is typically less than 2 inches in length; flag leaf may have begun exserting.

Mid boot – panicle is 2 to 4 inches in length; flag leaf is exserting (“point”).

Late boot – panicle is greater than 5 inches in length; flag leaf fully exserted and leaf collar visible.

Crop Progress:

Even though things have seemed milder this spring as we haven’t achieved much in the way of really hot days, our DD50 unit accumulation has actually been very good and is keeping this crop moving along.

Since 2006, only a few years have accumulated more DD50 units from April 1 to June 15 compared to this year (Table 1).  So keep an eye on your progress and growth stages especially with a further speed-up expected with increased temps in the forecast.

Table 1.  DD50 unit accumulation from April 1 to June 15 at Stuttgart, AR from 2006-2025.

Market Update

Scott Stiles

A back-and-forth week of trading in rice futures.  Monday’s trading saw heavy profit-taking on large volume with the September contract losing 31 cents.  Most of Monday’s losses have since been recovered as of this writing Friday morning.  Technical resistance is showing up at the 200-day moving average at $13.90.  We’re just 6 trading days away from the June 30 Acreage report which might deliver the fuel to push through the 200-day and retest the March high at $14.02 ½ .

Fig. 4.  CME September 2025 Rough Rice Futures, Daily Chart.

Friday’s delayed Export Sales report offered little in the way of bullish news.  Long-grain shipments were steady week-to-week, but sales were at 4-week lows for both rough and milled rice.  There are seven (7) reporting weeks left for the old crop 2024/25 marketing year.  In total, old crop long-grain export sales are 20% behind last year.

Local dealers report Urea prices are starting to decline some.  In contrast, fuel prices have shot higher following the escalation in Middle East fighting.  Since the first week of June, diesel futures have traded from a low of $2.00 to a high of almost $2.70/gallon.  Diesel futures were trading Friday morning near $2.57/gallon.

Fig. 5.  NYMEX Diesel Futures, Daily Nearby Chart.

DD50 Rice Management Program is Live

The DD50 Rice Management Program is live and ready for fields to be enrolled for the 2025 season.  All log-in and producer information has been retained from the 2024 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.