USA Rice Attends Louisiana Field Days and Meetings

KAPLAN, CROWLEY, & NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – If it’s hot and humid in Louisiana it must be time for field days – an exciting time of year.

USA Rice staff participated in sessions here last week – first the HorizonAg Field Day at the farm of Christian Richard in Kaplan.  Growers came from all over Louisiana, with a few also coming down from Missouri and Arkansas and over from Texas.  Despite the heavy rains that kept attendees on buses, there was an excellent turnout to hear about and see the new Provisia lines in the fields, and a new low chalk variety that HorizonAg’s General Manager, Dr. Tim Walker says shows great promise.

“Clearly, as we ride around south Louisiana we can see that there is a need for the Provisia Rice System and we are very excited to highlight what this technology brings to the industry,” Walker said. “Provisia is a technology that can help us get back to those cleaner rice-growing environments that we’ve become accustomed too for a number of years with the Clearfield system. Many of the attendees today had not seen a large-acre field production of Provisia rice, so we had a 20-acre demo field here they could view that looks very good in terms of weedy rice control.”

The weather was more cooperative the following day for the 108^th LSU Rice Field Day that was marked as the last for Dr. Steve Linscombe after 35 years at LSU, 16 as the director of rice breeding at the H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station in Crowley.  Linscombe is retiring following this year’s harvest, but did speak about a new Clearfield jasmine rice that he believes shows promise for the industry.

Other speakers shared results and research projects on topics from hybrid-Clearfield cross breeding, insect pressures, best chemical practices, rice pathology, and the new use of drones to aid in pollination.

Following reports from rice farmer Clarence Berken on the activities of the Louisiana Rice Research Board and a world market update from LSU’s Dr. Michael Deliberto, USA Rice’s President and CEO Betsy Ward shared examples of unique partnerships USA Rice undertakes in an attempt to both broaden the rice industry’s collaborative footprint, but also stretch limited resources available.

“We are particularly proud of our partnerships with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and Foreign Agricultural Service, both of which rely on industry and partner contributions,” Ward said. “We supplement the NRCS programs with $25 million in private funds and services, and add about $28 million to FAS funding.  Additionally, we partner with end users like PF Chang’s restaurants who use their own resources to spread the word about U.S.-grown rice.”

Arkansas rice farmer Jennifer James and chair of the USA Rice Sustainability Committee spoke about the importance of sustainability programs and the need for rice farmers to be willing to talk about what they are doing on the farm, since 98 percent of Americans are not involved in agriculture.

“I challenge you all, over the next 52 weeks, to commit to talking to at least one person each week who doesn’t know about rice, and share with them something you’re doing on your farm to aid in sustainability and conservation,” she said to the crowd.

Dr. Linscombe was then honored by several colleagues for his work and dedication over the previous 35 years and he received two standing ovations from the appreciative crowd.

“Thank goodness he never became a grain sorghum breeder as he had originally intended,” joked Dr. William Richardson, vice president for agriculture at LSU AgCenter.

Ward and USA Rice Vice President of Domestic Promotion Michael Klein, who conducted several member visits during the week, also attended the Louisiana Rice Promotion Board meeting where they provided updates on USA Rice activities and led a discussion of challenges facing the rice industry.  The Board later approved the USA Rice Council funding request for the 2017-18 year.  Klein also shared results of a recently completed USA Rice research program to the Louisiana Rice Research Board, that helped underwrite the project.  Ward and Klein also visited with several members during the week.

On Saturday, Ward then addressed the Rice Commodity Conference meeting at the 95^th Annual Louisiana Farm Bureau Meeting in New Orleans, providing up to the minute analysis of happenings in Washington, DC and the impact policies and actions or inactions are having on the rice industry.

Linscombe was again honored at this meeting for his contributions to the industry, as was USA Rice’s Director of Field Operations for Louisiana, Randy Jemison, who, after 16 years in the field for USA Rice, is retiring this summer.

“When we were planning this meeting we felt Betsy was the person most qualified to talk about what is happening in Washington and the expected impact on rice.  We were very pleased that she was able to work us into her busy schedule,” said Donald Berken, chairman of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Rice Advisory Committee.