From The Editor
An Honor
It’s that time of year where I’m reminded what an honor it is to be the editor for Rice Farming magazine. With the industry being as connected and vital as it is here in the United States, it’s no wonder why I’ve grown fond of this crop and the people who care for it.
Speaking of honor, this month’s cover story, beginning on page eight, explores the Boettcher family. Situated between Eagle Lake and East Bernard, Texas, andrew Boettcher has taken this farm from 30 acres to 300 in just a short span. Read more about his story and his plans to continue growing while he honors his family with his crop.
Cassidy Nemec Editor
Max alves, a rice grower from California, discusses his first Rice Leadership program session beginning on page 13 in this month’s Industry News section: “as a rice farmer from California, it was a privilege to tour in one of the most dynamic and innovative rice-producing regions in the world, exploring the rice industries in Texas and Louisiana to see how our partners in the South approach rice farming, milling, and trade. It gave me valuable insights into the similarities, differences, and challenges we all face in this industry.”
I’m eager to get Mississippi back in our Specialists Speaking section this month with Dr. Will Eubank joining as the new statewide rice specialist for Mississippi State University: “Over the past five years, Mississippi has seen increases in furrow-irrigated rice acreage, culminating in 2024 with 30% of the acreage being in FIR production. Sheath blight (Rhizoctonia solani J. G. Kuhn) and rice blast (Pyricularia grisea Cavara) are two major disease concerns for furrow-irrigated rice producers in the Mississippi Delta. In Mississippi, disease incidence and management of rice sheath blight has not been well documented in FIR. Thankfully, during my doctoral degree program, I worked to address that to an extent.” Read all of this month’s specialist comments discussing disease control beginning on page 19.
Finally, make sure to read this month’s My Turn column written by Dr. Steve Linscombe. His dedicated years in the industry have been full of learning and success. Read more of his story on page 22.
I’ve been fortunate enough to meet numerous people in this industry already who have helped teach me, guide me, and inspire me. I know we can all think back to the ones who’ve helped us over the years to get us where we are today, and I think there’s a lot of beauty in that. I’m immensely grateful for all my rice people, and I look forward to meeting and working with more in the future. It’s truly been an honor.
Cassidy
Send comments to: Editor, Rice Farming Magazine, 875 W. Poplar ave., Suite 23, Box 305, Collierville, TN 38017 or email cnemec@onegrower.com.
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2025 Rice Awards Nomination Form
The Rice Farmer of the Year, Rice Industry Award and Rice Lifetime Achievement Award recognize those rice leaders who have demonstrated dedication, determination and innovation to the industry. We need your help to identify candidates who are worthy of these prestigious awards. Please take time to consider which industry members in your area should be recipients of these honors and mail or scan/email this form and supporting materials or go to ricefarming.com/ra to nominate online.
Categories:
Please check the box of the appropriate award category:
Rice Farmer of the Year Award
■ Must farm at least 200 acres.
■ A farmer who has successfully achieved goals in his/her farming operation, rice industry association, community leadership/development, innovative production practices and/or environmental stewardship.
Rice Industry Award
■ Has been in the rice industry for more than five years.
■ A researcher, Extension person, government/association leader, etc... who has demonstrated commitment to the rice industry through innovative practices, industry association, community leadership/development.
Rice Lifetime Achievement Award
■ Has been in the rice industry for more than 10 years.
■ An industry leader who has provided great contributions to the rice industry through industry associations, community leadership/development, innovative practices/projects that have advanced the industry.
Deadline:
July 15, 2025
If you are submitting more than one nomination form, please make a copy before you fill out the form. Nomination forms can be downloaded or submitted online at ricefarming.com/ra
Nominee’s name
Nominee’s address
Nominee’s phone number/email address
Nominee’s rice acreage (if applicable)
Number of years involved in the rice industry (if applicable)
Your name
Your profession
Your address
Your phone number/email address
Your signature Date
Please send completed form & supporting materials to: Carroll Smith 7201 Eastern Ave., Germantown, TN 38138
Scan/Email: csmith@onegrower.com Online: ricefarming.com/ra
Include supporting materials to elaborate on your nomination:
In addition to completing this form, on a separate piece of paper, please describe the nominee in terms of the following guidelines:
Dedication to farming and/or agriculture and the rice industry, local community and education. Determination to succeed and overcome hurdles that have emerged while trying to reach goals. Innovation to identify new and better ways for the industry to become more profitable, manage risk, achieve a higher level of efficiency.
It also is helpful to send letters of recommendation for the nominee from other individuals in the rice industry who are familiar with his/her accomplishments. A panel of judges from across the Rice Belt will select the recipients of the 2025 Rice Awards.
The award recipients will be honored at the USA Rice Outlook Conference, Dec. 7-9 in New Orleans, Louisiana, where an official presentation will be made at the awards luncheon. They also will be featured in a special salute sponsored by Horizon Ag, USA Rice and Rice Farming magazine in the December 2025 issue.
SPONSORS
By Michael Klein USA Rice Vice President of Communications & Strategic Development
Only You Can Prevent Clickbait
In early april, a spate of internet stories popped up, once again, about arsenic, brown rice, and white rice. you probably saw them. Someone probably sent one of them to you. Or all of them. They were sent to me many times over.
I got the New York Post’s “Brown Rice has 40% more of this toxic chemical than white rice,” and Fox News Digital’s “Brown rice far worse than white rice when it comes to toxins, study finds.” There was also “Study: Brown Rice Contains 40 Percent More arsenic Than White Rice,” thanks Men’s Fitness, and there were others, including Verywell Health’s “Brown Rice Has More arsenic Than White Rice. Is It Still a Healthy Choice?”
Let’s set the last one aside for a moment. all the articles reference a Michigan State University study that was published in the journal Risk Analysis in February and then pushed out by the school’s PR team. all the articles pull snippets from the study (you can tell by the use of the distinctive phrase “earth’s crust,” from the study’s introduction), and all the articles share a scary headline. a headline engineered to make readers stop scrolling.
Because in today’s media landscape, attention is currency. The faster a headline can trigger outrage, fear, or curiosity, the more likely it is to be clicked, shared, and monetized. This incentive structure—driven by ad dollars and engagement algorithms—has turned news into a performance, rewarding the dramatic over the truthful, and the viral over the vital.
This time it was rice, but no topic is safe. Think about how many news stories The Media want you to read every day. you don’t have enough time to read five percent of them. Do you find yourself reading the ones where the headline or the graphic make you shake your head? Think, “What? No way! I have got to read this!”
you’ve been baited and you clicked.
But don’t feel badly, these media outlets spend a lot of money testing different words and sentence structures to increase the likelihood a person will click it. It’s their business and they’re good at it.
Recall above I mentioned the article from Verywell Health? Have you ever heard of it? I hadn’t before last week. you know why? I read their article about the study and it’s simply accurate. It isn’t sensational in any way. The second sentence of the article reads: “However, experts say arsenic exposure from rice is too low to cause long-term health problems.” Factual. as was the headline. Brown rice does typically contain more arsenic than white rice. But the article, written by a dietitian, puts the study in context. and as a result, it’s kind of boring. Which is why it doesn’t get as many clicks as the Fox story. Which sounds terrifying, even though it’s about the very same study.
So what can we do about it? Well, the truth is, today’s media ecosystem is awash in bad incentives. Clicks and engagements mean dollars, so whatever delivers them is what they serve up. all you can do is opt out. Resist the urge to click. Don’t forward it. and I make note of the source and give them a mental demerit. Not only won’t I click this story, but I also won’t click the next three. am I making a difference? Maybe. I’m certainly trying to make conscious and deliberate decisions about the news I consume and share.
Clickbait headlines don’t just mislead; they crowd out the deeper conversations and understanding we need to have. The result? Policy debates that should be informed by agronomists, dietitians, and economists are instead shaped by influencers with no accountability and headlines optimized for emotion, not accuracy.
as the supercomputer says in 1983’s Wargames, “the only way to win, is not to play.”
The Best Soil P Test for Rice: Olsen-P vs Bray-P
Dr. Bruce Linquist
University of California Cooperative Extension
This year, with high input costs and low rice prices, a lot of growers are testing their soil to determine if they need to apply P and K fertilizer. I have received a number of calls recently asking about interpreting their soil P test for rice soils. I have recommended using the Olsen-P test (or a sodium bicarbonate test) as it is a better predictor and more sensitive to available soil P levels for rice. Globally, it is also the most-used test for rice (it may be di erent for other crops). Most labs here in California use the Bray-P test as their default in their soil analysis. When sending in a soil sample, you usually have to ask for the Olsen-P test.
In previous meetings, I have recommended the Olsen-P test based on research we have done in California. Here, I want to show you why I recommend the Olsen-P test. Looking at the two graphs (Figure 1), we compare Olsen-P to Bray-P and see how well they correlate with Y-leaf P concentration. is is data from 64 eld trials where we took soil samples before planting and then Y-leaf samples around 35 days a er planting. A Y-leaf P concentration of 0.3 at this stage is usually considered adequate.
Based on these graphs, the Olsen-P test is a better predictor of Y-leaf P concentration than Bray-P. First, you can see that the R2 is 0.44 for Olsen-P and only 0.13 for Bray-P (a higher R2 means it is better correlated). Second, you can see the Olsen-P data is much more spread out. In the Bray-P graph, most of the soil P values are bunched in a narrow range — less than 10 ppm.
Based partially on the rst graph (Figure 1), but also on other data, a conservative Olsen-P value of 12 ppm or higher suggests that your soil is not de cient for P. For the Bray-P test there is a large cloud of data that makes it hard to determine the critical P level.
All that said, many of you may only have Bray-P soil data to work with. So, recognizing that the Bray-P is much less accurate (and this data needs to be taken with a lot of caution), I examined the correlation between Olsen-P and Bray-P (Figure 2). e gure below indicates that an Olsen-P of 12 ppm is equivalent to a Bray P of 5 ppm.
My recommendation on using soil tests is to trust but verify. If your soil test shows adequate P levels, do not apply P at planting. Access the crop at three to four weeks, and if the rice is a bit stunted with narrow dark green leaves, you most likely have a P de ciency. At that point, you can apply a top-dress of P fertilizer. Make sure to apply the top-dress within the rst month a er planting.
Figure 2. The correlation between Olsen-P and Bray-P.
Figure 1. Y leaf P (35 days after seeding) vs Olsen and Bray soil P tests.
Timing is Key for Fluridone
Herbicide Widens Palmer Pigweed Control Options for Rice Growers, but Stick to the Label
By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station
Aword of caution to rice growers: the herbicide uridone has become a valuable tool in ghting Palmer pigweed, but it can cause injury to some rice cultivars, depending on when it is used.
Registered under the trade name Brake by SePRO Corporation, uridone is a residual herbicide used to suppress grasses and broadleaf weeds before they emerge, also known as a preemergence herbicide. In 2023, uridone was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in rice at the three-leaf stage and onward. It had already been approved for use in cotton and peanuts.
Fluridone o ers a new tool in the arsenal to ght herbicide resistance in Palmer pigweed, said Jason Norsworthy, Distinguished Professor of weed science in the department of crop, soil, and environmental sciences for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences. e experiment station is the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
“ is is a herbicide that is very e ective in controlling Palmer pigweed in rice,” Norsworthy said. “ at’s a major weed for us now in rice, more so in row rice than in ooded rice since the ood itself can help take it out.”
Furrow-irrigated rice, also known as “row rice,” has gained momentum with Arkansas rice farmers over the past decade in e orts to conserve water, retain exibility for crop rotations with corn and soybean, maintain o -season cover crops, and allow for limited tillage.
Although a row rice eld isn’t entirely ooded, the bottom onethird to one-quarter of the eld o en does retain water, Norsworthy said. Since uridone is an aquatic herbicide — a herbicide that is highly active in moist environments — it can injure intolerant rice varieties located in the wet zones of row rice elds if not applied according to the label.
e goal of furrow-irrigated rice is to achieve increased pro t margins by reducing input costs, according to the Arkansas Furrow-Irrigated Rice Handbook.
Tolerance Test
In 2022, Norsworthy and a team of Division of Agriculture researchers began a two-year study on a dozen rice cultivars commonly grown in Arkansas to test the tolerance levels when sprayed before and a er rice plants emerge.
In the 2022 and 2023 trials, they used Brake’s label rate and twice the label rate. Both tests were done in ooded rice on silt loam soil, but still o er insights into uridone’s use in row rice, which calls for more frequent and timed irrigations. Traditional rice cultivation that uses levees and gates to manage water, also known as “ ooded rice” or “paddy rice,” allows the entire eld to be ooded.
Rice cultivars tested included CLL15, CLL16, Diamond, DG263L, Jupiter, Lynx, Titan, PVL02, RT7321 FP, RT7521 FP, RTv7231 Ma, and XP753.
The study, titled “Rice cultivar tolerance to preemergence- and postemergence-applied fluridone,” was published in Weed Technology by lead author Maria Souza, a Bumpers College graduate research assistant in the department of crop, soil, and environmental sciences. Co-authors included Norsworthy; Pâmela Carvalho-Moore, Bumpers College graduate research assistant; amar Godar, post-doctoral fellow with the experiment station; Samuel B. Fernandes, assistant professor with the experiment station and Bumpers College; and Tommy Butts, formerly with the Division of agriculture and now assistant professor and Extension weed scientist for the department of botany and plant pathology at Purdue University.
Based on their findings, the authors noted that fluridone tolerance is cultivar-dependent, and applications of fluridone in rice before the three-leaf stage should be avoided as required by the label.
Fluridone applied in rice at the three-leaf stage did not cause a yield penalty to any cultivar in 2022, but there was a yield loss for eight cultivars in 2023 at twice the label rate.
The field trials showed that when applied before the three-leaf phase in rice, fluridone negatively affected shoot density, groundcover, chlorophyll content, and days to 50% heading in most cultivars tested.
“When you apply Brake as a preemergence herbicide and you flood it, the rice has a tendency to go backwards, as noted in multiple trials,” Norsworthy said.
Visible injury varied between years in all experiments, likely due to different environmental conditions, Norsworthy said. In 2022, injury following preemergence applications of fluridone was below 25% across cultivars. In contrast, in 2023, more than 30% injury oc-
curred to five cultivars, with a maximum of 58% observed for one.
Cut soils is also a factor when using fluridone, Norsworthy added. Their research has shown an increased risk for injury to irrigated rice on soil where the topsoil had been removed for elevation changes, also known as “cut ground.”
Tank Mixing Recommendation
as Norsworthy noted, fluridone is only registered to control weeds before they spring up and when the rice plant has reached the three-leaf rice. So, what’s a row rice farmer to do if Palmer pigweed has already emerged by the three-leaf stage? Essentially, Norsworthy said, it depends on how tall the pigweeds are.
Dr. Jason Norsworthy
“What we found in our work is that the most effective option is to put Brake out with 8 ounces of Loyant,” Norsworthy said. “a lot of growers are reluctant to apply Loyant by airplane because of the risk of off-target movement to nearby soybeans. But 8 ounces of Loyant by ground in furrow-irrigated rice is very effective on Palmer pigweed and poses less risk of drifting.”
Norsworthy said he and his team have tested tank-mixing fluridone with propanil, but it was only effective on 1 inch or smaller Palmer pigweed. However, Loyant was able to kill 3- to 4-inch pigweed, and Brake’s residual herbicide action suppressed other pigweed from emerging, he explained.
“Depending on the growth stage of the rice, 2,4-D would also possibly be an option,” Norsworthy said.
The study was supported in part by the arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board and SePRO Corporation.
Mention of a product name does not imply endorsement by the University of arkansas System Division of agriculture.
A two-year field trial by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station showed some rice varieties were more tolerant to the herbicide fluridone when applied before the three-leaf stage.
Building on a Legacy
How a Texas Rice Grower Honors His Family with His Crop
By Cassidy Nemec Editor
Andrew Boettcher would have never imagined his life turning out the way it has years ago when he was running track at Stephen F. austin University in East Texas and majoring in kinesiology.
Boettcher is now a fourth-generation farmer in the East Bernard, Texas, area since his family roots in farming began there around 1905. “a lot of this land we’re farming has been farmed since the early 1900s, so it’s been in the family for over 120 years.”
A Change of Plans
The Boettchers had stopped farming in 2005 due to water limitations and stuck with their cow-calf operation for a period.
“I grew up helping my dad riding in the combine, the farm kid kind of thing,” Boettcher said. “I never really had any interest in farming until, gosh, it was probably six years ago. It just hit me. all of a sudden, I was obsessed with it. all I wanted to do was farm rice. I didn’t care about any other crops; it was just rice.”
Boettcher said that he wanted to carry on a family legacy and start bringing rice back into the operation.
“I started with 30 acres of rice as my first crop,” he said. “That was a few years ago. Then I started getting into this organic rice and increasing acreage. Last year, I did 100 acres, and this year, I’m close to 300.”
He emphasized the struggle many in farming face. “It’s hard to start farming nowadays with all the equipment and costs. I’m just starting with older equipment and slowly building up while having a lot of breakdowns. That’s part of it. I can’t just go buy nice new equipment.”
What began as a way to continue his father and grandfather’s legacy quickly turned to his children.
In 2022, andrew and his wife Kenna had a son named Eli who passed away 36 hours after birth. Eli had a birth defect and
ended up in the 10% of cases where he wasn’t going to make it.
“as I was holding him in his last few moments, I decided that I would farm and use farming as a way to honor him and create kind of this heaven on earth. Because we all know rice is a beautiful crop. and so he has now become my true reason why I am doing it.”
One year after Eli and in an extremely rare occurrence, they had another son named Pierce who had the same birth defect.
“We’re automatically thinking, you know, we’re going to lose another son, but he made it,” Boettcher said. “In the midst of him making it, he got brain damage from premature birth. He has cerebral palsy, but he is the most fun, happy child. So, he’s an-
The Boettcher family includes (left to right) Andrew, Pierce, and Kenna Boettcher.
other reason. My children have really become a big inspiration. Part of it all.”
The
Operation
As it stands, the Boettcher operation includes roughly 300 acres of rice, a cow-calf operation, and Pradera Hunting Club — a hunting club that encompasses geese, ducks, sandhill crane, and dove.
He said rice and waterfowl go hand in hand. “Like with rice, I want to help restore a lot of what has disappeared here, waterfowl-wise. Texas used to be the goose hunting capital of the world. I don’t think it will ever be that again, but there are things we can do to help improve it. So, I think at some point it’s going to become just focused mainly on conservation and land restoration.”
Boettcher said this year’s crop will likely look like about 100 acres of organic rice and the remainder being conventional. Weed issues are minimal on his organic acres on the farm due to a combination of cow grazing and the hilly nature of the place.
“We are fortunate on the organic because we have the cows,” he said. “ e cows really help suppress weeds in the winter. And I farm a lot of hilly stu . So a lot of levees, which aren’t the most fun, but it is what it is. I’ve heard from a few local farmers that bench leveling a eld that has been a cow pasture may cycle weeds and make the eld unsuitable for organic farming. To stay safe, I keep my elds in their original state and run cattle on the elds a er harvest for a year to supress weeds.”
While weeds don’t pose a large issue, hogs certainly do. “Hogs are an issue... ey’re a problem. ey are a pest. I think if you planted a 30-acre eld of rice, they would destroy ve acres of it,” Boettcher said.
ey attempt to manage the population through thermal hog hunts. “We o er that as a hunt, and we do it as a management tool,” he said. “We did that last year, and it really helped. We killed probably 40 hogs across the 100 acres of rice, and they just kind of stopped going to it.”
Boettcher emphasized the community he has around him that help him learn and grow as a rice farmer. “Timothy and Daniel Gertson are local farmers in Lissie and have always been quick to help,” he said. “Timothy was part of Rice Leadership a few years back.”
“ ey’ve been so helpful to me. Whether I need to borrow equipment or need some custom stu done, they’re there,” he said. “ ey will drop anything to help and help encourage that next
Boettcher has grown is rice operation from 30 acres to about 300 in just over six years. He sees that number continuing to grow.
group of farmers… they are some good people to have in your community.”
Short and Long-term Goals
Boettcher would like to see his rice operation grow in both acres and e ciency in the short-term future. “I think I would love to get the rice operation up to 1,000 or 1,500 acres. I think that’s just a good, solid number,” he said. “And we are in the plans and in discussions of putting in a couple di erent electric water wells. We think Lower Colorado River Authority water will come back when the droughts kind of li up, but we’re just planning for more wells to help expand on acreage as if we can’t rely on them all the time.” ese water wells have the ability to put out about 1,200 to 1,800 gallons of water per minute and farm up to about 200 acres per well.
While he already attends many rice conferences and is working on an organic rice study on pelletized fertilizer with Dr. Sam Rustom this year, Boettcher also has a desire to be more involved in the rice industry. With the limitations on Texas water, he sees being part of a water board as something worthwhile, as well as the Texas Rice Council.
“I love Texas rice. I would rather farm here than anywhere else. Yes, even given its challenges. Whatever I can do to be a voice and a person that can help really make a di erence here would be great. I really have no interest in just being a rice farmer. I want to accomplish more than that and be more involved.”
Challenges and Rewards
Outside of the farm, Boettcher is kept busy with his hunting club and church involvements. additionally, he drives a lot with his son Pierce for his weekly appointments, works on financial reporting for a fractional CFO firm, and enjoys traveling with his family.
The biggest challenge on the Boettcher operation continues to revolve around water.
“I think every operation is different. Some people don’t want to put in a water well because it’s costly. But in our operation, it’s a little different because I don’t mind putting a well somewhere because, one, I’m going to use it for rice. Two, I’m going to use it to flood up for waterfowl. So the hunting club would help contribute and pay for the well,” he said. “The rice would of course help, so that way, it kind of alleviates the cost of it. We could get it paid for in five years and move on. So I would say water is a challenge because we don’t always have LCRa. But two, it’s just scaling. It’s scaling the business and starting kind of from nothing.”
Boettcher said that a new reservoir is going to go in just south of their operation around Lane City that is supposedly going to be able to hold 40,000 to 90,000 acre feet of water. “Its purpose is to help take some pressure off of the island lakes, so I think any sort of reservoirs or other things like that will be helpful.” aside from water, equipment costs also remain a hurdle to the young grower.
“We bought an older combine this year, and I love it,” Boettcher said. “It’s an old 1992 Case combine, and it cuts rice great. It’s old, but it gets the job done. and I love it and feel like even if I got another one, I’d still want to drive this one because it’s kind of special. “I guess you could say I’m stretching my equipment this year
“I love Texas rice. I would rather farm here than anywhere else. Yes, even given its challenges.”
with 300 acres. I’ll be pushing it. Stuff’s going to break down. It’s going to get tight. Say I went to 500 acres next year — now I’ve got to start putting some money into some better equipment. That’s just part of the scalability piece.”
On the flipside, Boettcher has no trouble remembering the biggest upside to waking up every day and continuing to farm.
“The biggest reward I get is I think it all comes back down to one: just getting to do this stuff with my dad and continue the family legacy,” he said. “It’s exciting — down to your soul, it’s exciting.
“I do it for my son Eli. Harvest for everybody can just be the most exciting time. I always say to honor somebody requires work. you can’t just say, ‘I want to honor him’ and not do anything. It requires work, and rice is a very labor-intensive crop. you don’t just plant and have a consultant tell you to spray. It requires work. and our fields, with all the levees, require even more work. at the end of the day, when we’re harvesting, I get to look back and know this is truly a labor of love and a way I can honor him.”
Understanding the deep commitment it takes to farm and following through on building his family’s legacy is non-negotiable for Boettcher.
“I remember I was holding my son’s hand and told him I was going to use my hands to do the work on this earth since he will not be here. ‘you’ll be in heaven, and I’ll use my hands to do the work for you.’ That’s all it is. It’s a labor of love in a way that I can honor him and continue this family legacy.”
Boettcher said that wildfowl and rice go hand in hand and would like to get his Pradera Hunting Club to the point where its emphasis is on conservation and land restoration.
Solar Leasing on Agenda for NALC, NASDA Foundation’s Mid-South Conference
To install, or not to install, that is the question — and attendees of the 12th annual Mid-South agricultural and Environmental Law Conference will have the chance to hear perspectives on solar lease agreements and solar development from two experts in their respective fields.
While renewable energy efforts such as solar panel installations have increased in recent years, there are many factors for farmers, landowners, and developers to consider before making the decision to work together on a long-term project.
at the Mid-South, Seth Hampton, member at Rose Law Firm, and Will Veve, land acquisition and development at DESRI, will discuss both sides of the transaction in the session, “Solar Leases and Development in the Mid-South: Pointers and Pitfalls.”
The conference will be held June 5-6 in Memphis, Tennessee, and is co-hosted by the National agricultural Law Center, or NaLC, and the National association of State Departments of agriculture Foundation, or NaSDa Foundation. It also features a livestream option. Registration, agenda and more is available at https://nationalaglawcenter.org/legaleducation/mid-south-2025.
Hampton has years of experience representing farmers, landowners, and their lenders in negotiating solar lease and purchase options involving developments throughout the United States.
“Rental rates certainly make solar leases attractive, but there is much for landowners to consider when approached by developers about installing panels and related facilities on their land,” Hampton said. “Provisions concerning rental rates, land included within the leased premises, minimum rental/acreage requirements, crop damages, rights of third parties (such as easement and mineral interest owners, farm tenants and lenders), property tax increases, insurance obligations, early termination rights, decommissioning/restoration obligations and security, and more should all be considered before making a decision.”
Veve will bring insight regarding the developer’s perspective to the presentation, as DESRI develops, owns, and operates U.S. renewable energy projects.
“Both developers and landowners have much to consider regarding coming to an agreement for the development of a project,”
Veve said. “There is tremendous shared opportunity for both the landowner and developer. Having an open, collaborative process from the beginning is the most important aspect of this relationship to ensure both sides are successful.”
NaLC Senior Staff attorney Rusty Rumley says that NaLC attorneys have heard an increased amount of inquiries regarding solar leasing in recent years.
“Solar leasing has been around for quite a while, but it garnered more attention in recent years due to the Inflation Reduction act of 2022, which incentivized the adoption of solar through various mechanisms, like tax credits,” Rumley said. “It’s a topic that landowners and developers should investigate carefully before coming to an agreement. This session at the Mid-South Conference provides an opportunity to learn about what to consider from both the landowner and developer sides.”
—
Drew Viguet National Agricultural Law Center U of A System Division of Agriculture
Session I of the 2025 Rice Leadership Development Program Visited the Gulf Coast
as a rice farmer from California, it was a privilege to tour in one of the most dynamic and innovative rice-producing regions in the world, exploring the rice industries in Texas and Louisiana to see how our partners in the South approach rice farming, milling, and trade. It gave me valuable insights into the similarities, differences, and challenges we all face in this industry.
One of the key things that stuck with me as Pamela West with Texas Rice Milling and Brookshire Drying Company shared the history of the Texas rice industry in Katy was how the land between Houston and Katy, which used to be prime rice-growing area, had been developed into urban areas in less than 25 years. She talked about the growing number of solar farms in nearby towns. I was surprised the next day to see about 4,000 acres of farmland that had recently been turned into a solar energy farm.
We heard similar sentiments from Heath Bush, Dick Ottis, and L.G. Raun at Rice Belt Warehouse where they shared what the future of Texas rice might look like, especially given the signifi-
Renewable energy efforts such as solar panel installations have increased in recent years. The 12th Annual Mid-South Agricultural and Environmental Law Conference will feature a session on solar leasing and development, discussing pointers and pitfalls for farmers, landowners, and developers to consider.
IMAGE COURTESY STEPHEN BOYD
The class hears about tailwater recovery from Christian Richard.
Submit a nomination for the 2025 Rice Consultant of the Year Award.
Recognize an outstanding consultant for his or her dedication, leadership and innovation in the U.S. rice industry.
For more information, go to ricefarming.com/rcoy or go toPage 11in this issue of Rice Farming
Scan here to see previous RCOY Award winners. Or visit Corteva. us/2025RCOY
cant decline in production acreage due to drought, urban development, and rise of those solar energy farms.
Greg and Donnell Devillier at Doguet’s Rice Mill and Turf Farm in Beaumont walked us through the entire production process from branding of rough rice to the nal stages of milling and packaging — it was great to witness the full cycle of rice production from start to nish.
e stop at RiceTec, where we met with Dr. Brian Ottis, was my rst time visiting a facility like this, and I was both impressed and thoroughly informed about the importance of hybrid seed, whether being high yield or disease resistant.
Before crossing into Louisiana, we practiced communication skills with mock on-camera interviews; learned about the rice brokerage industry, including rice quantity, quality, and international trade from Michael Creed; the role of equipment dealers from Terry Hlavinka; and talked drought, high cost of water, and new wells with farmer Timothy Gertson on his farm.
Port of Lake Charles and Southwest Louisiana Rail Facility stops provided us with insights into exports and logistics — and my rst taste of boudin (recommend!).
We enjoyed meeting with several alumni along the way, from a restaurant event in Texas to a craw sh boil at Christian and Julie Richard’s farm (also a delicious rst for me). At every stop, we visited with farmers and had great discussions about rice farming and how we can improve and sustain rice farming for the future.
Bobby Hanks and his team at Supreme Rice welcomed us with an impressive tour including one of the most modern and well-maintained mills I’ve seen and a presentation of their history and operations..
We also got to see more research in Loui-
siana, including a brief stop at the Louisiana Rice Research “South Unit,” where one of our classmates, Connor Webster, works, and a visit to the H. Rouse Ca ey Rice Research Station, where we got to watch a seeder in action. Coming from California, where we ood our elds and use crop dusters to plant, this was fascinating to me.
Fred and Paul Zaunbrecher welcomed us to their rice and craw sh farm, showed us the sorting facility that was sizing craw sh, and then they took us out on boats to see how the craw sh are harvested.
Later, 2.5 hours east in New Orleans, we visited the USDA Southern Regional Research Center to learn some innovative projects they’ve been working on, including repurposing rice by-products for use in the medical eld, and a new health drink made from rice, packed with probiotics, and designed to support gut health.
A trip to the Russell Marine Group taught us about managing trade and cargo operations from the U.S. to international markets, and we met with the owners Pat and Tom Russell. We then headed out on a crew boat to travel along the Mississippi River, getting a rsthand look at cargo ships, mills, and barges in action.
e week literally took us from research labs and seeds all the way through to export barges destined for a foreign market!
On behalf of myself and my classmates, I want to sincerely thank all the people we met with who shared their knowledge, as well as e Rice Foundation and the generous sponsors: John Deere Company, RiceTec, American Commodity Company, and Supreme Rice. It’s been an amazing and transformative experience that has broadened my perspective on the rice industry, and we’re just getting started.
— Max Alves
™ Trademark of Corteva Agriscience
NOMINATION FORM
Nominate an outstanding consultant for the Rice Consultant of the Year Award
Sponsored by Corteva Agriscience and Rice Farming magazine, the annual award recognizes the dedication, leadership and innovation of this crucial segment of the U.S. rice industry.
“Corteva Agriscience™ is committed to rice consultants and the key role they play in agronomic guidance and support,” said Drew Clark, Corteva Agriscience portfolio marketing lead, rice and cereals.
“As the sponsor of the Rice Consultant of the Year program, Corteva is honored to recognize consultants who continuously strive to impact the rice industry and their local communities,” he said.
The RCOY Award recipient will:
Be featured in a four-page salute in the February 2026 Rice Farming magazine and honored at a special recognition event Feb. 26, 2026.
Receive a personalized Rice Consultant of the Year jacket.
The award recipient and nominator each will receive two night’s hotel stay and round-trip travel to the event.
SUBMIT SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
Please use a separate page for biographical/professional information.
Additional recommendation letters from rice farmers, consultants and industry members in support of the nominee are encouraged.
Submit all materials via:
Email: csmith@onegrower.com
Mail: Carroll Smith
7201 Eastern Ave. Germantown, TN 38138
Online: ricefarming.com/rcoy
Submit nominations by July 15, 2025.
Consultant’s Name:
Company Name:
Mailing Address: City:
Scan here to see previous RCOYAward winners.
Or visit Corteva. us/2025RCOY
Please describe the dedication, leadership and innovation that makes this person a good candidate for the 2025 Rice Consultant of the Year Award. (Be as specific as possible, and use a separate sheet, if needed.)
Soil for Sale?
Congress Seeks to Strengthen Oversight: Proposed Amendments to AFIDA
Over the past few years, federal and state lawmakers have become increasingly concerned about foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land. While there is no federal law that restricts foreign investments of agricultural land, the federal government does monitor certain foreign acquisitions and landholdings in agricultural land through a federal reporting law known as the agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure act (“aFIDa”) of 1978. Essentially, aFIDa requires certain foreign persons to disclose their interests in U.S. farmland to the U.S. Department of agriculture. Recently, the Farmland Security act of 2025 was introduced in Congress, which seeks to amend certain provisions of aFIDa
Background
Enacted by Congress in 1978, aFIDa established a nationwide system for collecting certain information about foreign investments and ownership of U.S. agricultural land. according to a U.S. House Report from the Committee on agriculture (H.R. Rep. No. 95-1570, 2d Sess. 1978) discussing aFIDa prior to its enactment, Congress was concerned with the growing number of foreign investments because these investments likely increase farmland prices, which was considered as a factor that was adding to the economic pressures affecting family-farm operations. However, the House Report asserts that determining the impact of foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land “is difficult to gauge…because of the lack of data on the nature, magnitude, and scope of foreign investment activity.” In order to measure the impact of foreign investments in agricultural land, Congress enacted aFIDa to collect the data necessary to assess foreign investment activity within the U.S. Under aFIDa, “foreign person who
National Agricultural Law Center Staff
acquires or transfers any interest…in agricultural land” is required to disclose their interest in the land to USDa. 7 U.S.C. § 3501(a). Thus, a foreign person who acquires, holds, transfers, or disposes an interest in agricultural land within the U.S. is required to disclose certain information concerning such transactions and investments by filing an FSa-153 reporting form at the appropriate Farm Service agency county office. FSa will soon accept electronic FSa-153 filings from foreign persons. This data is compiled into an annual publication that reports the amount of cropland, pastureland, forestland, and other types of agricultural land that is foreign owned. To learn more about aFIDa, read NaLC’s article titled answering to aFIDa: Reporting Requirements of Foreign agricultural Land Investments.
Farmland Security Act of 2025
Over the past decade, foreign investments in agricultural land have grown. according to the most recent aFIDa report, which includes data through Dec. 31, 2023, foreign persons held an interest in nearly 45 million acres of U.S. agricultural land. In response to these types of invest-
ments, there have been multiple bills introduced in the 119th Congress (2025-2026) that seek to increase oversight and restrict foreign investments and acquisitions of land located within the U.S. Some of these proposed measures seek to amend certain provisions of aFIDa.
Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-Ia) have introduced the Farmland Security act of 2025 (“S. 845”) which seeks to amend aFIDa according to the sponsors of this bill, foreign investments of U.S. agricultural land “have the potential to impact our food security and national security.” During the 117th Congress, the pair of senators introduced a measure — Farmland Security act of 2022 — that was signed into law as part of the Fiscal year 2023 Omnibus appropriations Bill, directed USDa to accept aFIDa disclosures electronically and establish a database of certain disaggregated foreign ownership data that is accessible to the public. S. 845 seeks to take additional steps to increase monitoring foreign investments in U.S. farmland and support transparency of these investments.
One way S. 845 seeks to increase monitoring of foreign investments in U.S. farm-
land and forestland is by penalizing shell corporations 100% of the fair market value of the entity’s interest in agricultural land not reported to USDa. Under the bill, a “shell corporation” is a business entity, including partnerships, joint stock companies, trusts, estates, or any other legal entity “that has no or nominal operations.” In other words, a business entity that has no significant business operations or assets. Currently, it is unclear whether a shell corporation that is part of a larger business structure, and contains some level of foreign interest, is required to disclose its agricultural landholdings under aFIDa accordingly, S. 845 seeks to require all foreign-owned shell corporations to disclose its agricultural landholdings or risk a penalty equal to the foreign person’s interest in their agricultural land.
While S. 845 seeks to establish a civil penalty against shell corporations that fail to file or submit a defective aFIDa disclosure, the legislation does provide shell corporations the ability to correct its filing or submit a disclosure without incurring a penalty. If USDa provides notice to a shell corporation’s failure to properly file an aFIDa disclosure, the entity has 60 days to remedy its failure to file or a defective filing. If the entity correctly files a disclosure within this 60-day period, it will not
incur a penalty.
Further, S. 845 will require USDa to conduct annual audits of at least 10% of the aFIDa disclosures the agency received during the year. In conducting these audits, USDa will be required to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the aFIDa disclosures submitted during the year. This piece of legislation also seeks to require USDa to provide training to state and county-level employees to identify agricultural and forestland that should be reported as having some level of foreign ownership and farmland that has not yet been reported by the applicable foreign person.
S. 845 will require USDa to conduct research on leases of agricultural land by foreign persons and the impact these leases have on family farms, rural communities, and the U.S. food supply. This legislation directs USDa to examine trends of foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land by shell corporations, and the agricultural production capacity of foreign-owned agricultural land (i.e., the amount of agricultural or forestry products that can be produced on foreign-owned land) and the overall foreign participation in the U.S. agricultural economy. USDa will be required to submit its research and findings to Congress on an annual basis.
Last, S. 845 will appropriate $2,000,000
to USDa each year from 2025 through 2030 to carry out the task of auditing aFIDa disclosures and conducting the research required under the legislation.
Conclusion
S. 845 was introduced and referred to the Senate Committee on agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry on March 6, 2025. a companion bill, H.R. 1629, which contains identical language to S. 845 has been introduced in the House and is currently being considered by the House Committee on agriculture. at this stage, the committee can review the bill, hear testimony in support of and opposition to the bill, amend the bill, pass the bill for consideration by its respective chamber, or vote to fail passage of the bill out of committee.
NaLC will provide an update to this article as S. 845 and H.R. 1629 advance through the legislative process.
To read NaLC articles discussing foreign investments in U.S. agriculture, visit https://nationalaglawcenter.org/category/ corporate-farming-laws/.
To learn more about foreign ownership of U.S. land, visit https://nationalaglawcenter.org/foreign-investments-in-ag/.
This article is provided by the National Agricultural Law Center.
PHOTO COURTESY THE NALC
LSU AgCenter Professors Recognized for Significant Paper on Silicon
In 2021, LSU agCenter researchers Lawrence Datnoff and Brenda Tubaña published a paper analyzing the role silicon plays in plant stress reduction and why the element is not used as a fertilizer in agricultural production. Since its publication in the Plant Disease journal, the paper has been downloaded more than 11,000 times and has been cited 45 times.
The paper, titled “Silicon’s Role in Plant Stress Reduction and Why This Element Is Not Used Routinely for Managing Plant Health,” was written with Wendy Zellner, of the University of Toledo, and Fabrício Rodrigues, of Universidade Federal de Viçosa.
Datnoff, a professor and head of the agCenter Department of Plant Pathology and Crop Physiology, said he wanted to ensure the paper would be comprehensive about the importance of silicon in agriculture and provide the reader with a detailed overview on why silicon is not used.
Throughout his career, Datnoff has contributed to the literature on silicon in agriculture and has committed much of his career to furthering research into disease epidemiology as well as the physiological and molecular basis for disease resistance. He has published three books, including “Silicon and Plant Disease and Silicon in agriculture,” on the importance of silicon in plant disease resistance as well as soil and plant tissue levels needed to reduce disease development.
Even with these positive outcomes, there is still a lack of interest by producers in improving silicon soil levels within a farm to enhance plant growth and development, Datnoff said. Part of this reason stems from the view that silicon, being the second most abundant element in the earth’s crust, is not unavailable to the plant. Furthermore, many plant scientists still view it as not essential for plant performance.
For Tubaña, this is the reason why the paper has gained so much recognition and popularity. The research was thorough, both about the information currently available and the shortcomings of the information.
“The article presented what really is
lacking for silicon fertilization to become an agronomic and horticultural practice to manage plant health,” Tubaña said. “That’s the reason why this article became very popular — because we’ve been looking for a publication on comprehensive evaluation of factors why silicon fertilization like this has not taken off as practice in crop production.”
The two researchers will be speaking at the International Conference on Silicon in agriculture in Belgrade, Serbia, this fall as they continue to support the collaboration necessary to further the role of silicon in agriculture. While there has been significant
progress made in recent years, Tubaña still believes there are clear paths to learn more about the impact silicon can have in agriculture.
“One of the research areas we continue to work on is the standardization of soil and plant tissue testing. another one would be the identification of effective silicon fertilizer sources. also, growers ask, ‘Where do we get the materials if we figure out that we have this deficiency in the soil?’” Tubaña said. “So, there’s still some of those basic things that need to be addressed when it comes to establishing a silicon fertilization program.”
A rice plant amended with silicon showing reduced lesion size development.
Graduate students Alisson Camargo and Eve Radam conduct disease ratings on wheat applied with biostimulants; some of these biostimulant products contain silicon.
Prevention is Key
DR. JARROD T. HARDKE ARKANSAS
Professor/Rice Extension Agronomist University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture jhardke@uada.edu
For disease control in rice, prevention and avoidance go a long way in minimizing our issues. This starts with cultivar selection, relying on those cultivars that provide the best disease packages for our needs. Luckily, we continue to see improvements in the overall disease packages of cultivars we’re growing today compared to those of the past.
While a cultivar with a solid disease package is a great leg up, there’s always a disease lurking we should be mindful of. Since sheath blight is the only rice disease we have a treatment (scouting) threshold for, most of our attention is focused on avoiding and preventing the other diseases. Use of optimal seeding and fertility rates are critical in limiting disease issues.
For sheath blight, a reminder that our threshold is based on percent of positive stops while scouting and active movement threatening the upper canopy. For cultivars rated very susceptible or susceptible — 35% positive stops; for cultivars rated moderately susceptible — 50% positive stops. So, if you have both of those boxes checked, it may be time to consider a fungicide application. For diseases such as blast, Cercospora, and the smuts, we have to depend on the disease rating of the cultivar, field history, and environmental conditions as our guide. For cultivars susceptible to blast, there isn’t typically a reason to treat for leaf blast unless severe pressure begins burning areas down. Most often, we’re worried about spraying around heading to prevent neck and panicle blast. For detail on specific fungicide timings for blast check out https://www.uaex.uada.edu/publications/pdf/mp154/ Rice-Diseases.pdf and https://www.uaex.uada.edu/farm-ranch/ crops-commercial-horticulture/rice/Rice-Management-Guide. pdf.
In 2025, as in 2024, there will be more acres grown of varieties that are blast susceptible. Remember that increased flood depth after mid-season can help suppress blast development. For blast-susceptible varieties in a furrow-irrigated environment, it may be wise to consider at least one fungicide application for prevention of neck and panicle blast due to the lack of a flood on the field.
Cercospora has become a more persistent issue in the past five years. Not necessarily common, just persistent, when it wasn’t even a topic of conversation prior to that in arkansas. The best we can do is apply a fungicide between early and late boot to prevent infection from occurring on the neck and panicle, at times appearing similar to blast. Ensuring we have adequate potassium fertilization can also help.
Kernel smut and false smut also rely on cultivar susceptibility and field history to determine if preventative fungicide applications may be beneficial. The timing of these applications can be similar to those for Cercospora, which can save us an application
if we feel the need to treat for both.
To wrap things up, use fungicides only when needed, avoid excessive nitrogen rates, and ensure adequate potassium rates to maximize disease management in 2025. Let us know if we can help.
What is New in California Disease Management Research
DR. LUIS ESPINO
CALIFORNIA
Rice Farming Systems Advisor
University of California Cooperative Extension
laespino@ucanr.edu
Every year, I conduct research projects to try to improve disease management in California. These projects are mostly funded by the Rice Research Board. I collaborate with the Rice Experiment Station and rice growers that let me set up trials in their fields. In this column, I will highlight some of the projects I have been working on for the past couple of years and that will continue during 2025.
One of the major needs in the area of disease management is new fungicides. California rice growers have been relying on azoxystrobin (the active ingredient in Quadris) for more than 20 years. I’ll give it to azoxystrobin — it continues to provide good control of our major rice diseases. However, we need new products so we can rotate and reduce the risk of resistance. This year, I will be testing two fungicides belonging to the group of the DMIs (Demethylation Inhibitors).
Last year I tested several fungicides that are known to induce plant defenses against pathogens. These included laminarin, cerevisane, Reynoutria extract, and others. It is too early to say for sure if any of these products will provide a benefit, but some showed promise when combined with azoxystrobin.
I have also been working on a project to improve scouting of stem rot. Stem rot is the most common disease of rice with potential to cause significant yield loss. Two years of experiments in several M-206 fields have shown that when more than 20% of tillers at mid-boot or more than 50% of tillers at drain time have stem rot lesions, the risk of stem rot yield reduction is high. I will be conducting more sampling this year to refine these thresholds.
Blast was introduced to California in the late 90s. at that time, it was determined that only one blast race was present, race IG1. It is important to know the race present in an area because the genes of resistance that are used to make a blast-resistant variety are race specific. We currently don’t know for sure if IG1 is still the only race present in California. For the past three years, I have been collecting blast samples from blast-affected fields. I am collaborating with researchers at the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in arkansas to determine the blast races in these samples. If other races are found, that information can be used by our rice breeders to develop varieties that have the adequate resistance genes.
Blast would be the most important disease of rice in California if it wasn’t for the fact that blast does not occur every year. When blast epidemics occur, they cause severe losses. It is not known for sure why some years are blast years, but weather most likely plays a large role. If we knew what specific field weather conditions allow blast development, we could warn growers so that they could intensify monitoring and use preventive fungicide applications effectively. Last year, I deployed three weather stations in areas of Glenn County known to be susceptible to blast, collecting temperature, relative humidity, and leaf wetness data. I plan on continuing gathering these data for the next few years so that we can determine what kind of field level weather patterns we observe when blast epidemics occur. This is a mid- to long-term project, but hopefully, it can help us reduce the risk of yield loss due to blast in the future.
Sheath Blight
DR. RONNIE LEVY LOUISIANA
Extension Rice Specialist
Louisiana State University RLevy@agcenter.lsu.edu
Sheath blight has been the most economically significant disease in Louisiana since the early 1970s. The disease is caused by Rhizoctonia solani, a fungal pathogen of both rice and soybeans. On soybeans, it causes aerial blight.
Several factors have contributed to the development of sheath blight from minor to major disease status. They include the increased acreage planted to susceptible long-grain varieties and the higher rates of nitrogen fertilizers used with the modern commercial rice varieties. The disease is favored by dense stands with a heavily developed canopy, warm temperature, and high humidity. The fungus survives between crops as structures called sclerotia or as hyphae in plant debris. Sclerotia or plant debris floating on the surface of irrigation water serves as sources of inoculum that attack and infect lower sheaths of rice plants at the waterline.
Sheath blight is characterized by large oval spots on leaf sheaths and irregular spots on leaf blades. Infections usually begin during the late tillering-joint elongation stages of growth. Lesions about 0.5 to 1 centimeter in width and 1 to 3 centimeters in length are formed a little above the waterline on infected culms. Fungus mycelium grows up the leaf sheath, forms infection structures, infects, and causes new lesions. The infection can spread to leaf blades. The lower leaf sheaths and blades are affected during the jointing stages of growth. after the panicle emerges from the boot, the disease progresses. Infected culms are weakened, and the tillers may lodge or collapse.
The fungus can spread in the field by growing from tiller to tiller on an infected plant or across the surface of the water to adjacent plants. The fungus also grows across touching plant parts, for example from leaf to leaf, causing infections on nearby plants. Infected plants are usually found in a circular pattern in the field because the fungus does not produce spores and must grow from plant to plant. The lesions have grayish-white or light green centers with a brown or reddish-brown margin. as lesions coalesce on the sheath, the blades turn yellow-orange and eventually die.
as areas in the field with dead tillers and plants increase, they may coalesce with other affected areas to cause large areas of lodged, dead, and dying plants.
Damage is usually most common where wind-blown, floating debris accumulates in the corners of cuts when seedbeds are prepared in the water. Disease severity can be reduced by integrating several management practices. Dense stands and excessive use of fertilizer both tend to increase the damage caused by this disease. Broadcast seeding tends to increase stand and canopy density. Rotation with soybeans or continuous rice increases the amount of inoculum in field soils.
Fields should be scouted for the presence of sheath blight symptoms at least once a week beginning at mid-tillering and continuing until heading. avoid dense stands and excessive N fertilizer. Most long-grain varieties have little resistance to sheath blight. Medium-grain varieties are more resistant. Fields should be scouted by making periodic random stops throughout the field. Tillers should be examined for the presence of symptoms. When 5% to 10% of the tillers of a susceptible variety or 10% to 15% of the tillers of a moderately susceptible variety are infected, a fungicide application is justified.
Timing and rate of fungicide applications are critical for good sheath blight management. Check with your Extension agent for the latest information on fungicides.
Sheath Blight Management Options in Mississippi
DR. WILL EUBANK MISSISSIPPI
Assistant Professor & Extension Rice Specialist Mississippi State University twe34@msstate.edu
as I write this article on april 16, we are right in the middle of our optimum planting window in the state of Mississippi. Growers were eager to get in the field following the rain and cold temperatures that proceeded an early planting window in late March. I wanted to highlight some of the disease work we have been doing over the past few years in furrow-irrigated rice.
Over the past five years, Mississippi has seen increases in FIR acreage, culminating in 2024 with 30% of the acreage being in FIR production. Sheath blight (Rhizoctonia solani J. G. Kuhn) and rice blast (Pyricularia grisea Cavara) are two major disease concerns for furrow-irrigated rice producers in the Mississippi Delta. In Mississippi, disease incidence and management of rice sheath blight has not been well documented in FIR. Thankfully, during my doctoral degree program, I worked to address that to an extent.
a survey was conducted over the past three years, evaluating sheath blight incidence and severity across the three separate FIR management zones. Preliminary results from that survey indicated that 64% of the fields surveyed had sheath blight in the top portion of the field, followed by 56% in the middle, and 52% in
Characteristic water-soaked lesion caused by sheath blight.
the bottom portion. These results help to back up what consultants and growers see in their fields. I attributed this increase in pathogen presence to increases in canopy temperature and humidity we observed from the lack of the flood in the top zone. The timeline of development for sheath blight seems to be very similar to a flooded rice field, which would help to answer any fungicide timing questions that may arise. When fields were surveyed prior to mid-boot, sheath blight prevalence was low to non-existent. However, following heading to soft- and hard-dough stages, sheath blight prevalence increased similar to a flooded rice system when ideal disease development conditions are met.
In FIR, growers sometimes increase their in-season nitrogen rate to account for the yield loss that can be seen in certain FIR scenarios. These higher in-season nitrogen rates can increase rice production, which can also lead to exacerbated sheath blight symptoms. We looked at several commonly used rice fungicides: Quadris, Tilt, Elegia, amistar Top, and avaris 2XS in combination with greater nitrogen rates. When N was applied at the recommended rate, all the fungicides provided comparable suppression of sheath blight symptoms. However, when the N rate was increased to a 2x (360 pounds of N per acre) rate, fungicide application did not provide a reduction in sheath blight prevalence.
So, a few final take home points in FIR: a moderately susceptible variety is going to be the best option when it comes to varietal selection and suppression of sheath blight, as well as using your states recommended nitrogen rate and scouting before you spray. If you have any questions, please feel free to call. God bless and Hail State!
The Right Path
Being born and raised in the southwest Louisiana coastal prairie town of Gueydan was an ideal environment for someone who would spend his career in the region’s rice industry. Gueydan is a small community in western Vermilion Parish that came to be because of settlers moving into the area to farm rice or create businesses to support the emerging rice industry. It lies on the southern edge of the coastal prairie, and just a few miles south of the town can be found the northern boundaries of the coastal marshes that extend to the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, some of the rice production is actually in marsh areas that were leveed and pumped off to allow for cultivation.
I had several jobs that educated me in rice production and related enterprises. at a fairly young age, I went to work for my cousin, Keith Hair, who farmed rice east and south of Gueydan. That was when I first learned to plow fields, water level, butt levees, install overflows, soak rice seed in burlap bags to pre-sprout and puddle newly water-seeded rice fields to facilitate pegging and thus stand establishment. This is where I first drove a rice cart (typically behind a John Deere 4020 tractor) and a combine, both a John Deere 95R and an International Harvester 915, and later a JD 4400. I also gained rice drying experience by operating the Hair Brothers rice dryer at Wright. This is the site of the famous sign “If you Lived in Wright, you’d Be Home Now!”
I also worked for my uncle, Raleigh Linscombe, who had a farm supply business in Gueydan. Back then, fertilizer came in 80-pound sacks. We would unload the sacks from a box car and store them in the warehouse, later to be loaded onto one of a fleet of bob-tail trucks to be transported to a remote strip to be loaded to crop dusters, which were primarily converted Stearman trainers from World War II. Several times we caught a quicker ride back to town as a passenger in the plane riding in the hopper — probably not Faa approved.
“I could not have picked a better path to become a rice breeder.”
after receiving my B.S. and M.S. degrees from Louisiana State University, I knew I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. degree in plant breeding and genetics but was not sure at which university. I had offers for assistantships from Mississippi State, North Carolina State, and Texas a&M. I chose Mississippi State because I was given the opportunity to choose which scientist I would work under. after spending time with the soybean, cotton, corn, and sorghum breeding programs, I chose to work with Dr. Clarence Watson in his forage grass research efforts. This was a monumental decision for me because Dr. Watson was an outstanding teacher and mentor. after a very successful career at State, he would later lead the statewide ag research programs for both Oklahoma State and the University of arkansas.
It was common then for nearby rice farmers to join forces to harvest as a group, and we often cut rice with the Hardee brothers (H.G and Burnell). Mr. H.G. was a strong leader in the rice industry and one of the main reasons the Louisiana rice research check off program was created. This program would later be essential during my career as the rice breeder at the LSU agCenter’s H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station. Of note during this time, I assisted in harvesting several rice demonstration plots under the direction of Mr. Lewis Hill, who was the Louisiana rice specialist. I would later replace Mr. Hill as rice specialist.
My first full-time job at LSU was as the statewide rice specialist where I spent six years working with farmers, consultants, researchers, other Extension scientists, and many other people in the industry. In 1988, I moved to the Rice Station where I began working in the breeding and genetics program. In hindsight, I could not have picked a better path to become a rice breeder. The six years I spent as the rice specialist were invaluable in preparing me to become the rice breeder at Crowley. My time as rice specialist allowed me to develop a keen understanding of the problems, challenges, and opportunities facing Louisiana rice producers. This would later serve me very well in attempting to develop new varieties to assist our farmers in facing these challenges.
also in hindsight, I do realize how fortunate I have been to have worked with so many outstanding people during my career.
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Steve Linscombe Mountain Home, Texas
Rice Farming’s My Turn column is devoted to telling unusual “farm tales” or timely stories from individuals in the rice industry. Now it’s your turn. If you’ve got an interesting story to tell, send a short summary to cnemec@onegrower.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Steve Linscombe
For almost 60 years, our Rice Farming team has worked in partnership with farmers, industry experts and more to provide profitable production strategies to help boost your bottom line.
