USA
January 21, 2016
As growers put the pencil to the upcoming crop they were reminded of the cost-advantages of growing Clearfield rice by Dr. Eric Webster, weed scientist at LSU AgCenter during the Conservation-Tillage Cotton & Rice Conference last week.
“When you do not plant Clearfield rice, you are losing two herbicide options, and then you have to look at using additional herbicides, costing you extra money,” said Webster, who presented a paper at the 19th annual conference held in Memphis.
As farm budgets get tighter in these times of low commodity prices, many farmers are looking to reduce costs. In an effort to reduce up-front seed costs, many farmers planted conventional rice in 2015, then looked to cut more costs by reducing herbicide applications. The combination drove total cost of production up for many growers, said Webster.
“In a lot of cases with conventional systems, if you are not careful, you can end up spending a lot more money on weed control,” he said. “If weeds keep coming back, you have to hit that crop with additional herbicides to try and get it cleaned up.”
While this can happen in Clearfield rice, Webster said most of the cases he deals with are in conventional rice. He said the Clearfield system allows for a more stable, flexible and cost-effective weed control program that includes both pre-emergence and post-emergence applications. It offers broad-spectrum weed control, with multiple modes of action working in the field when mixed with other herbicides.
With Clearfield rice, said Webster, farmers can get control of red rice, barnyardgrass and broadleaf signalgrass. They can get activity on perennial grasses, as well as nutsedge. Newpath® is an excellent aquatic herbicide, especially when applied pre-emergence, he said, allowing management opportunities for ducksalad and alligatorweed.
“The inbred Clearfield lines have proven to be very tolerant of the herbicide, so no reason to reduce rates or delay applications,” Webster said.
Webster’s herbicide program for growers was anywhere from $25 to $100. He said many more herbicides were needed to control weed pests in conventional rice and chemical control of red rice is not an option. Controlling red rice with cultural practices is difficult and often produces lower yields than the Clearfield system.
“When you take Newpath out of the system you lose that residual post-emergence herbicide, and very few herbicides are lightning fast and very few have synchronicity with other herbicides with no problems,” Webster said.
Another positive to planting Clearfield rice is the Clearfield rice lines farmers are planting have continually gotten better in terms of genetics, said Webster.
Since its adoption in 2002, Clearfield rice has resulted in many agronomic advantages in Louisiana that positively impacted farmers’ bottom lines. It basically improved planting methods, fertility programs, insect control and weed control, said Webster.
Source: LSU AgCenter
Even more important, the average rice yield in Louisiana has increased since the adoption of Clearfield rice. In first 5 years of Clearfield rice, the state of Louisiana experienced a 400 pound per acre increase in average yield. The next five years resulted in an average increase of 1,200 pound per acre. The average yield has increased by 300 pounds in the past three years.
In 13 years of planting Clearfield rice, the average yield in Louisiana increased by 1,910 pounds per acre, said Webster.
“The increase in yield from 2002 to 2015 was twice as much as the yield increase from 1990 to 2002,” he said. “In the 13 years prior to 2002 the yield increase was only 970 pounds per acre.”
While he does not advocate reducing herbicide rates, the practice was tried last season oftentimes with bad results. Reduced rates often cost more in the long run and can lead to delayed application timing, and added sprays needed to clean up fields. Growers also get reduced control with reduced rates, he said.
“If you are trying to reduce costs, cutting herbicide program is not the place to do it,” he said.
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