Rice growers expected to have strong 2009 yields

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Rice growers are projected to have a 2009 yield nearly 3 percent greater than a year ago, even though the heart of the nation’s rice-producing area had an unduly wet spring and a cool summer.

“Rice is a pretty forgiving crop,” said Chuck Wilson, an agronomist with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. “It takes a pretty good beating; it should do well.”

As long as there’s not a hurricane.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service has forecast the U.S. rice yield to be 2.8 percent greater than a year ago, generating 7,039 pounds per acre versus 6,846 pounds in 2008. About 3 million acres are planted with rice this year, up slightly from last year’s crop, which was worth $3.4 billion.

Arkansas, where about half the nation’s rice is produced, has about 1.4 million acres planted, a crop worth $1.5 billion a year ago. California is second in acreage, with 517,000 acres planted; Louisiana is next with 464,000 acres planted, followed by Mississippi, Missouri and Texas.

Wilson is based in Stuttgart, heart of the Grand Prairie region in east Arkansas, where harvesting has just begun. He said early yields have varied widely, but offered a conservative estimate, saying the state average yield will be up about 1.5 percent from last year.

He said cool weather had slowed development of some of the crop and that the harvest will be going on for weeks. Planting was staggered, with growers putting in what they could amid spring deluges around east Arkansas.

“Late-planted rice, regardless of the weather, it just doesn’t perform as well,” Wilson said.

Anthony Prillaman, a statistician for the NASS, said the rice crop also is delayed in Missouri and Mississippi, with the cool summer further slowing growth.

Blast, a fungus, is another effect of the cool and cloudy weather.

“It’s more widespread than I’ve seen in a long time (but) outright disasters (on individual farms) are not that widespread,” Wilson said.

In Craighead County in northeast Arkansas, Cooperative Extension Agent Branon Thiesse said the first farmers to harvest have brought in healthy yields, but he stopped short of saying growers would be able to sustain the trend.

“It’s hard to say,” Thiesse said. “We have so much late rice.”

After planting began in the spring, so much rain fell that no one was able to plant for two weeks in Craighead County, Thiesse said.

Now, many growers who are ready to harvest are waiting for their fields to dry. The cool weather has slowed the process. Lows were in the 50s across most of the state Tuesday, a time of year when 100 degrees or greater is often the high temperature.

Thiesse said he expects an average yield, maybe a little above average.

Nationwide, 66 percent of the rice crop is in good or excellent condition. Last year at the same time, 70 percent was good to excellent.

“This was prior to the hurricanes hitting,” Prillaman said.

A hurricane or widespread severe storms can damage a crop with lodging and shattering. Lodging occurs when rice stalks blow over, hurting the harvest. Shattering is the loss of mature grains to wind or other effects. Last year, two hurricanes struck the Gulf Coast region, causing plenty of both conditions.

Hurricane Ike hurt the rice crop in Texas, where it also damaged equipment and storage facilities. In Louisiana, Ike and Hurricane Gustav sent saltwater into low-lying growing areas, resulting in a drop in acres planted this year. But Prillaman noted Louisiana is forecast to have a bumper crop in 2009, with an 8 percent rise in yield among acreage that’s planted, harvesting 6,300 pounds per acre compared to 5,830 pounds per acre last year.

Storms from Gustav flattened rice fields from south Louisiana to southeast Arkansas last summer.

Wilson said growers are close enough to harvest that farmers can’t do anything about weeds and blast beyond hoping their impact will be minimal.

“The biggest threat at this point is the weather,” Wilson said.