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The H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station has acquired new technology to help rice breeders identify lines of rice with desirable traits.
LSU AgCenter rice breeder Adam Famoso said the system can process up to 40,000 samples in a day and have the DNA analyses completed for making selections at a fraction of the cost of other methods.
Much of AgCenter weed scientist Eric Webster’s work in 2016 involved studies of the quizalofop herbicide to be used with Provisia rice technology.
“We had several trials that were tank mixes,” Webster said.
He tested combinations of quizalofop with broadleaf and aquatic herbicides.
Testing continues on a potential product to protect matured rice from bird predation.
The material, AV-4044, is a modified version of AV-1011, the seed-treatment material made by Arkion Life Sciences to prevent rice seed from being eaten by birds. It was tested last year at the LSU AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
LSU AgCenter agronomist Dustin Harrell has been studying nitrogen and seeding rates for potential Clearfield and Provisia varieties.
“The objective is to have an agronomic package to coincide with the release of new varieties so we can answer questions about how they are going to respond to nitrogen fertilizer and the proper seeding rate,” Harrell said.
Louisiana rice farmers faced a number of challenges in 2016, but the two biggest were high water and low prices.
Steve Linscombe, director of the LSU AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station, said the poor crop of 2016 already has farmers concerned about 2017.
“That, coupled with the current market situation, means it’s going to be a tough year for producers,” he said. “It’s one you want to put behind you.”
Work by the LSU AgCenter to develop superior hybrid rice continued in 2016 with promising results.
AgCenter hybrid breeder Jim Oard said a Clearfield hybrid and a conventional hybrid were entered into the commercial advanced yield trial and the uniform regional nursery.
The availability of Provisia rice is getting closer for farmers.
“We’re hoping to have seed production in 2017, with an expected launch date of commercial production in 2018,” said LSU AgCenter rice breeder Steve Linscombe.
The range of the Mexican rice borer continues to move eastward in the rice-growing region of southwest Louisiana.
“I’m fairly certain that they are found in every rice-growing parish in southwest Louisiana,” said Mike Stout, LSU AgCenter entomologist and head of the Department of Entomology.
A new fungicide will be available for treating sheath blight and blast. “We’ve been testing it for about five years,” said LSU AgCenter plant pathologist Don Groth.
International collaboration with rice researchers has benefitted the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station as well as rice farmers, according to station director Steve Linscombe.
“The rice station cooperates with a number of institutions and companies around the world,” Linscombe said.
Niranjan Baisakh, an LSU AgCenter plant molecular biologist and geneticist, is working on a project to develop rice that uses less water.
A considerable amount of water is used to grow rice. It requires about 170 gallons of water to produce one pound of rice, Baisakh said.
Even though it has been several weeks since the presidential election, we are still trying to wrap our heads around what it means to have such a change in leadership at the top. We are a divided nation when we look at our differences, but when we look at our similarities, we don’t look that different.
Mike Deliberto worked in 2016 as the interim LSU AgCenter economist for rice, as Mike Salassi took over as head of the AgCenter Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness.
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture
