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- Rice: Running Late, Despite All The Warm Weather
Originally published April 11, 2012
Last year I wrote the first edition of Rice Field Notes one month earlier than this year. In spite of the much warmer weather (hottest March since record keeping began in 1895), much of the crop is later than last year.
The photo was taken in our verification field in Cameron parish and is a good example of why it is late.
The intention here was to drill seed. Each time it got almost dry enough to drill, it rained. In desperation we decided to vibrashank and broadcast seed. As you can see it had gotten pretty hairy with weeds in the interim. Nearby water seeded rice kept us from hitting it with glyphosate.
By the following Monday rice was up or coming up. A lot of emergence is occurring in 5 to 7 days when we normally expect 10 days to call it. By that time we could have drilled, but would have been a week behind. Based on the data generated by Dr. Steve Linscombe last year a week later could mean a significant drop in yield. We’ll just have to see how it goes.
Verification field in Cameron Parish, a good example of why it is late.
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture