Arkansas Rice Update 6-6-25

by Jarrod Hardke, Rice Extension Agronomist - June 6, 2025

Arkansas Rice Update 2025-12

June 6, 2025

Jarrod Hardke, Scott Stiles, & Bob Scott

“Lucky I’m sane after all I’ve been through.”

Just a Bit Outside

Not everyone received a weeklong reprieve on rain, but everyone certainly ended up with more dry days this week than we anticipated a week ago.  Plenty of the state hasn’t received any rain at all this week (getting spit on doesn’t count).  Some hot spots did of course receive a random downpour or even 2+ inches particularly on Thursday.

The notable comment at the first of the week with the rapidly drying conditions was “it looks like April 1 around here” referring to the amount of field work and planting going on.  This was especially notable in northeast Arkansas but was also happening further south.  It’s always difficult to tell exactly whether fields being worked and planted are rice or beans but there was definitely a surprising amount of rice being socked in the ground while at the same time others were turning seed back in for prevented planting.

While it looks like we got away with one this week to a large degree, rains expected to arrive the next few days should slam the door I thought was going to be shut earlier this week.  For better and worse this will be a more spread out rice crop this year.

Temperatures are starting to get right to drive plant progress and it looks like they’ll finally hold in the mid to upper 80s even touching 90.  Right about that perfect point where we start to get a little uncomfortable with the heat and humidity – that’s where rice gets a big smile on its face.  It’s time we all got something to smile about this season.

Read on below for more information on midseason N, K deficiency, managing late rice, herbicides and weed control, and rice markets.

Let us know if we can help.

Fig. 1.  NOAA 7-day precipitation forecast.

Ricing Around

Jarrod Hardke

Midseason nitrogen timing:

For those growing varieties (e.g., CLL18, DG263L, Ozark, Taurus, etc.) – our recommended timing for midseason nitrogen (N) has changed in recent years.  The focus for midseason N timing is more on time after preflood N is incorporated (rather than focus on growth stage).

We now rely more heavily on preflood N and with these higher rates preflood, we need to be certain that varieties have completed uptake of preflood N before we consider applying more at midseason.  Many moons ago with longer season varieties, the vegetative growth stage was longer was by the time we reached reproductive growth stages ample time had passed since preflood N was incorporated.  Not so with current earlier maturing varieties.

We recommend waiting 4 weeks after preflood N was incorporated by flood before applying midseason N, AND rice should be past beginning internode elongation (BIE; green ring) (Fig. 2).  Maximum preflood N uptake occurs 3-4 weeks after incorporation.  Applying earlier than recommended risks the plant not being ready for it and not getting the full benefit.

This timing will be increasingly important as many preflood N applications have been delayed due to weather.  If you’re at green ring and you only went to flood 2 weeks ago, applying midseason N could result in no measurable benefit because the plant isn’t done taking up preflood N.  Wait the recommended 4 weeks!  We saw the direct benefits of these exact scenarios in trial work.

Remember, we don’t recommend a true midseason on hybrid rice – the comments above apply to pureline varieties.  We’ll address the recommended late boot N application for hybrids in a later update.

Fig. 2.  Grain yield response from midseason nitrogen (N) application by days after preflood N incorporation (60+ site years; 2012-2018).

K deficiencies:

Preflood potassium (K) deficiency?  Rare, but it can happen (Fig. 3).  Should you find yourself in this situation, it’s recommended to apply 75-100 lb potash along with your preflood nitrogen to correct the problem.  Most often K deficiency begins to show itself once we enter reproductive growth (joint movement).  In these cases, the recommendation remains the same – just apply 100 lb potash into the floodwater and keep the water stable for several days.  Potash dissolves rapidly in water and is taken up in just a few days.  Luckily with K we can correct for deficiencies and achieve near maximum yield potential all the way up to late boot.

Fig. 3.  Potassium (K) deficiency on rice prior to flooding.

Managing late-planted rice:

A few quick comments on later planted rice (late May and early June).  When we plant this late and the rice emerges very rapidly (sometimes in 5 days), the management countdown to flood moves very fast.  Be prepared to fertilize and flood in just 4 weeks after planting.  Under average temperatures we can easily be at 5-leaf rice with good height and ensuring we don’t fall behind plant growth and demand is critical.  Getting the initial flood on rice in early July is always a much more difficult task than for earlier planted rice, so again leaning early will help avoid delays.  If you want to maximize the yield of late-planted rice, push it early in order to stay on time.  The added benefit of this will be reduced input costs – namely herbicides.

Bobbing and Weeding

Bob Scott

Can this year just be over.  Not my words, but words of several of you who have called with issues this year.  Mostly weather related, but some self-inflicted wounds as well.  I thought this week I would just do bullet points.  So here goes.

“Always read and follow label directions.”  Any good pesticide applicator training or herbicide label starts off with language like this.  I know that in the past few years we have gotten pretty cavalier with label language, rates, cut-offs, and restrictions.  It is true that some of the language found in a label is to protect companies – a little CYA, but some of this information is to protect you and your crop.  With all the generics out there now, these labels vary with things like tank mix compatibility and even lbs. of active ingredient per gallon.  So, well, always read the label of the stuff you’re putting out.

It's gut check time for some of these fields.  We have had a lot of herbicide injury this year for many reasons, one big one is drift.  But now it is time to spray, fertilize, and flood.  Some of this rice still looks a little rough.  I like to wait and let rice recover as long as possible before stressing it out with injurious herbicides or a flood.  But at some point, you must farm it and move on.  A good rule of thumb, this is not precise, is to have a good, green, and growing center tiller before deciding to continue with normal ag practices following a drift event regardless of what product it is.  The healthier the plant the more likely you are to not relapse from another herbicide or flooding too soon, etc.  Fig. 4 is gramoxone damage, but one good tiller has emerged.

Fig. 4.  Gramoxone drift on rice.

Late season weeds and rice going to flood or flooded.  Money is tight this year.  My position this year is that if the crop has been clean up until flood later weeds may not affect yield that much as long as they won’t take down the crop.  Don’t throw money at revenge treatments that may not work well anyway.  Weeds like annual sedge, barnyardgrass, sesbania/joint vetch, and smartweed can interfere with harvest and probably need a salvage.  Other shorter stature weeds or weeds on levees may be an eyesore but not add much to bottom line.  Judgment call but something to think about.

Missed horseweed with burndown.  It was wet this spring, and we missed a lot of winter annuals during burndown season.  I got calls on horseweed in row rice.  So, we did the weed science thing and put in a quick squirt and look, here are the results.  Novixid and Grasp Xtra looked the best in this trial (Fig. 5).  I will add to MP44 for next year.

Fig. 5.  Horseweed control with rice herbicides.

Market Update

Scott Stiles

The rice market has made solid gains this week and trades Friday (6/6) morning above all but one of the major moving averages.  Over the past two weeks we’ve talked about the September contract’s technical motivations to refill a pair of chart gaps.  These were at $13.50-$13.53 and $13.67-$13.75.  Both have been “refilled” this week.

Price resistance is showing up Thursday and Friday at $13.80.  After a lengthy rally off the May 14^th lows, we may see upward momentum stall, pull back some and await more news.  A settle above $13.80 could signal more upside with next resistance likely at the 200-day moving average ($13.95) and the March 11^th high at $14.02 ½.

Fig. 6.  CME September 2025 Rough Rice Futures, Daily Chart.

New crop rice futures are adjusting to shifts in 2025 planted acres.  That has been a key source of price strength since mid-May as exports of rough rice for the most part have been lackluster.  This week’s USDA Export Sales report did include a decent 17,500-ton sale of long-grain rough rice to an unknown buyer.  Long-grain milled rice sales last week totaled 17,648 tons, with 8,000 going to Haiti and 9,004 to Saudi Arabia.  Milled rice weekly shipments were the second highest of the marketing year at 54,760 tons.  The bulk of the total included shipment of the recent 44,000-ton sale to Iraq.

As an unfortunate reminder, total long-grain export sales are down about 16-18% from last year.  The USDA projected in May a decrease in old crop exports of 12% for the year.  With nine (9) reporting weeks remaining in the marketing year that ends July 31, it could be more than a challenge to reach the USDA's current export projection for the 2024 crop.  New crop long-grain sales continue to struggle with none reported for 2025/26 so far.

The next USDA WASDE is coming up Thursday, June 12th. Report Link: June 2025 WASDE Report   We  don’t anticipate any major shifts in the new crop estimates this month.  It is doubtful that USDA will change acres and production in the June report.  However, we might see reductions in old crop long-grain exports that could translate into larger new crop beginning stocks.

Debates over rice acres shifting to either beans or purely to prevent plant will continue until the USDA makes adjustments.  Generally, USDA will remain conservative in next week's report with acreage and production revisions being deferred until July.  The June 30 Acreage report will be a major determinant of price direction for new crop rice.

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.