Memphis, Tennessee, USA
August 27, 2015
Consistency is a key factor in successful rice production year after year, whether you’re talking about crop performance, costs, or, most importantly, weed control.
That was the message Lance Ramthun, a local crop consultant and owner of Crop Solutions, LLC, delivered to over 100 farmers and industry representatives who recently attended the Horizon Ag Arkansas Field Day at Mark Wimpy Farms near Jonesboro.
“I’ve been on Mark’s farm for 15 years and we’ve had many long conversations about consistency,” he said. “One thing Mark has always said is that we have to be consistent to have the privilege to do this year after year. We have to be consistent with everything we do, from ground work to field prep. But, primarily, we have to consistently be weed free.
“As a consultant, about the closest way I can guarantee a clean crop is with Clearfield rice. That’s not to say conventional crops can’t be clean. But they’re a chess game.”
Ramthun noted that the main request he gets at the start of each season involves budgeting for weed control. With conventional rice, more variables come into play.
“With conventional rice, I can get you a budget, but it’s going to be plus or minus about $50 to $60,” he explained. “Tell me what kind of weed spectrum you are going to have and I can tell you what you’ll spend. Tell me what kind of obstacles we are going to have and I can tell you how much we are going to spend. Tell me what kind of weather we’ll have and I can predict what you are going to spend. If we have good weather, no wind, no adjacent crop and grass not resistant to anything, I can probably develop a program for about $60 to $75 per acre. But, to be honest with you, the total cost to control weeds today will probably end up being over three figures.
“If you take me back 10 years ago and told me that I had $100 to clean up a rice crop, I’d probably say I could do that from my office. These days, that’s not true.
“With Clearfield varieties, I am consistently in the $45 to $50 range per acre. At that point, you may not be ‘field day clean’ but you’ll be at the point where you are happy with me and I’m coming back next year, and you’re coming back next year, and the landlord is not sending you a letter.”
Ramthun said rice farmers who chose conventional rice instead of Clearfield varieties in 2015 did so because they say they don’t have a history of red rice or think that Clearfield seed is too expensive. However, those farmers may not have considered the full impact of that decision on their ability to keep fields clean this year, or the total cost of weed control.
“Not having red rice goes back about 15 years, when Clearfield was launched as a crop system to take out red rice,” he said. “But Clearfield really should be looked at as a total weed control program for rice, a grass control program for rice. If you have barnyardgrass and you have it bad, you need to act like you’ve got red rice. That’s our problem now. The red rice is there, but it’s an underlying problem.”
As for Clearfield being more expensive, he noted the ability to achieve better weed control with Clearfield varieties at a reduced cost has the potential to more than offset the additional expense for seed.
“We’re looking at about $75 to control weeds in conventional rice vs. $40 to $50 for Clearfield varieties, so we’re looking at $25 to $35 right there,” he said. “And that’s assuming I don’t get into a knife fight with barnyardgrass in conventional rice. If that happens, it could cost another $50 to $60 dollars, and we are probably not going to get it clean. If we come in there and miss it at the first of the year and it turns into a mutant that is not killable, we’ll end up throwing good money after bad and finally get to the point where we might as well forget it.”
Another advantage to Clearfield varieties is the spectrum of control provided by Newpath® herbicide.
“Everyone knows about red rice and barnyardgrass,” he said. “But, say you walk across a conventional field of rice and you find smartweed, have grass in the field and have nutsedge. That means you’re into a two-shot program for conventional rice. What you are going to use to kill that smartweed and nutsedge is probably going to cost you $18 to $20. And that’s a trip with a plane. And then to control grass, you are probably going to spend another $30 with a trip. So, that is two trips right there, and you’re not done. You’d better put some residual in there and catch that next rain and put some residual in front of that. You need to be sharp and on your toes.
“I’m not saying Clearfield rice is idiot proof, not by any means, but I can come in at spike and 2-leaf rice after I put my pre down, and if I have smartweed, nutsedge, barnyardgrass and red rice, guess what? Newpath can take care of every one of them. I can come back in before flood, do it again and if I didn’t get them the first time, the second application will probably take them down enough to where I don’t have to worry about them any longer.”
Varietal Improvements Coming
In addition to reviewing the current varietal offerings, field day attendees were given a preview of what’s coming from Horizon Ag.
Dr. Tim Walker, General Manager of Horizon Ag, said breeding efforts the past few years to improve quality are resulting in new varieties that will better meet the needs of rice consumers in Central America and other countries where rice is an important part of daily diets.
“There are a lot of people in the world who know rice, and who know what they are looking for when it comes to a grain of rice,” he said. “You have to do all you can to please your customers. I am proud of the direction Horizon Ag has taken, getting out in the forefront and talking about quality. We told folks when we started engaging them in 2011 that quality was not something we could fix overnight. Now, here we are in 2015 going into 2016, and I am proud to say Horizon Ag is bringing improvements to the market in terms of quality.”
Among those improved varieties is CL163, which Walker said has the potential to provide a product that is going to be welcomed by Central American consumers, which “represents a huge market for us.”
Dr. Sunny Bottoms, Horizon Ag Technical Services Manager, said CL163 is a high amylose variety ideal for parboiling and canning. “Originally it was going to be for a small niche market but it has performed extraordinarily well, with extremely high quality,” she said. “You have to manage it for blast, but when you do, it has very good yield potential.”
Another variety attracting interest is CL172, which will be in a major seed production stage next year. CL172 is an Arkansas-bred variety that is performing well across a broad geography in the South. It has a good blast package, and features excellent straw strength, quality and yield potential. It should be available in good supply to rice farmers in 2017. “This grain is a beautiful grain that has gotten rave reviews from our milling industry partners,” said Walker.
“We were able to do a full run with a large mill who said they wished all their rice looked like this,” added Bottoms. “It’s the total package, something we have been waiting on.”
CLX2134, like CL172, also offers a 7mm grain length and very low chalk. Combine its high quality with blast tolerance and very good yield potential, and Walker believes its another variety that will provide farmers with the potential for “great improvement” when available commercially.
“This isn’t a situation where we are giving up yields,” noted Walker. “CL151 is a tough one to beat in terms of yield, but these new varieties have the potential to give CL151 a run for its money, while also being very appealing to U.S. and foreign consumers who buy our rice.”
For the medium grain market, CL271 has good yield potential and blast resistance, and “really stood out,” said Michael Fruge, Horizon Ag District Field Representative. The variety compares favorably with Jupiter, with very good yield potential, but much more blast tolerance.
“It’s done very well in tests over the past couple of years,” said Fruge.
Provisia™ Rice System
Farmers attending the field day also got an update from John Schultz of BASF regarding its Provisia rice system, a non-GMO herbicide-tolerant rice system expected to have a limited launch in 2017.
Schultz described Provisia as a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, the Clearfield system, saying it will be used in a rotation with Clearfield rice and soybeans. This will allow farmers to rotate herbicide modes of action, extending the life of both technologies.
“This will be a 2-shot system similar to Clearfield,” he said. “But with Provisia herbicide, there is no residual activity. We will need tankmix partners for residual control and we are evaluating those now.
“Grass control in the Provisia system looks phenomenal, including red rice and other weedy rice. After a limited launch in 2017 we expect a more widespread commercial launch in 2018.”
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