STUTTGART, Ark. —More than 350 people attended the 2024 Rice Field Day at the Rice Research and Extension Center on Aug. 1 to hear research updates on rice breeding, precision agriculture, and weed control.
Arkansas remains the nation’s top rice producer, with over 1.4 million acres of rice this year. The annual Rice Field Day gives researchers and extension specialists with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture an opportunity to share the latest information with the rice industry. These rice experts presented updated management recommendations and highlighted research projects supported by Arkansas rice growers through the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board’s Rice Check-off Program.
The day commenced with field tours and concluded with remarks by leaders in the industry. Keith Glover, president and CEO of Producers Rice Mill in Stuttgart, announced that USA Rice, the national trade association, had elected him as chairman.
“Today is my first day of a two-year term as chairman of USA Rice,” Glover said on Aug. 1. “Just like you have all of these wonderful people working on your behalf every day on the research side, you have the same activities taking place on the marketing and promotion side through USA Rice.”
Quotingthe most recent export update, Glover said U.S. rough rice sales and exports for long grain were up 152 percent this year. On the milled rice side, the biggest markets for rice grown in Arkansas and the Mid-South are in Iraq and Haiti, Glover noted.
Glover also said he is excited to see how the market responds to the two latest rice releases from the Division of Agriculture’s rice breeding program: Ozark, a short-season, conventional long-grain, and Taurus, a very short-season, semi-dwarf conventional medium-grain.
“Check-off is the money that people like you, the farmers, and others who make the contribution, goes to do research,” said Alton Johnson, director of the Rice Research and Extension Center. “Thirty-five new rice varieties, drone research, AI, and all of these different things we do are supported by the check-off dollars. Without that and the contribution it makes, Arkansas would not be the top rice-producing state in the country.”
Johnson added that the United States ranks 13th in rice production worldwide and sixth in rice exports.
The 2024 field day was co-hosted by the Division of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, which operates the neighboring Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center. Shannon Pinson, a research geneticist for USDA-ARS, commented on the high-interest level shown by attendees.
“The field day attendees were full of interest and questions.They were clearly here to gain the knowledge your group has to offer,” she said. “That says a lot about the reputation the Rice Research and Extension Center has for conducting quality research.”
2024 rice crop review
This year, favorable conditions for early planting have led to rice harvest already beginning in some parts of the state. “July rice” in Arkansas is a first since 2012, said Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist for the Division of Agriculture. Most of Arkansas’ rice country is on the cusp of harvest season.
“Generally speaking, we had a very rapid start this year, not just for rice but for all crops, and it was really shocking how early in April that comments were coming in saying ‘We’re done,’” Hardke said. “So, we knew we were off to a good start this year.”
Winds and frequent, intermittent rainfall led to issues with applying herbicides and fertilizers during the season’s first six weeks. Despite the challenges and inefficiencies created by the weather, Hardke said the state’s rice crop “overall looks very good.”
Rice breeding update
Xueyan Sha, senior rice breeder and professor of plant rice and genetics, joined Christian De Guzman, assistant professor of rice breeding and genetics, to share the latest updates from the Rice Breeding Program operated through the Division of Agriculture’s research arm, the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Long-grain, medium-grain, and short-grain varieties are developed in the program, some in collaboration with private companies and the Louisiana State University AgCenter.
Sha said the recently released new long-grain variety Ozark offers better yields, milling, and grain quality, and helped alleviate the seed shortage issue faced by Arkansas rice growers earlier this year. The Rice Breeding Program has a number of potential new long-grain experimentals in the pipeline with earlier maturity and improved characteristics sought by grain mills, such as a larger but more slender grain. He also noted the new medium-grain, Taurus, provides significant yield advantages to Titan and Jupiter.
Disease resistance, straw strength, grain chalk,milling quality, and yield potential are other characteristics sought by rice breeders. De Guzman noted they continue to work on aromatic varieties like the jasmine-type ARoma 22 and other niche varieties with high amylose content, and “waxy” or “sticky” rice.
“ARoma 22 is a very good quality aromatic rice, and we have some potential lines which are also conventional and aromatic and yield as much as Diamond, that we are looking forward to possibly releasing,” De Guzman said.
The rice breeders recognized support from the Rice Check-off Program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
