Rice milling yields and ‘Make America Healthy Again’ top discussions at 2025 NERREC Field Day
By Sarah Cato
Aug. 5, 2025
Fast facts
- ‘Make America Healthy Again’ impacts on agriculture discussed
- Hardke covers potential causes for recent poor rice milling yields
(784 words)
(NEWSROOMS: download photos from the NERREC Row Crop Field Day.)
HARRISBURG, Ark. — From the broad scope of national agricultural law, to the more narrow perspective of Arkansas rice conditions, the Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center Field Day covered all bases for corn, rice and soybean producers in Arkansas.
Almost 300 producers, consultants and agricultural professionals gathered at NERREC last Thursday to hear updates from University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture specialists.
"We were absolutely thrilled by the excellent turnout for our second annual field day!” said Tim Burcham, director of NERREC. “The field tours and seminar series highlighted the outstanding commitment and innovation of our researchers and staff. It’s truly an honor to play a part in work that supports the profitability and sustainability of our producers. We’re grateful for the opportunity to serve and strengthen the livelihoods of our farming communities.”
The field day ran two concurrent field tours with stops discussing pest management, irrigation, breeding updates and more. Indoors, speakers in the field day’s first Seminar Series covered policy updates, the “Make America Healthy Again”report, and the use of Arkansas rice in the brewing industry.
Make America Healthy Again
This past February, the Trump administration created the Make America Healthy Again Commission, chaired by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In May, the MAHA Commission released its first report outlining its priorities, some of which could directly affect the agriculture sector.
“The MAHA report released in May did identify some key priorities that could affect American agriculture if legislation or regulation is put behind it,” said Emily Stone, staff attorney for the National Agricultural Law Center. “Specifically, initiatives focused on maintining soil health and reassessing the use of pesticides could affect producers where the commission’s concern over certain additives and dyes could more directly affect food manufacturers.”
Although no legistlation has been passed on the federal level related to MAHA, some states have taken a page from the commission’s book and proposed, passed or even enacted legislation related to ideas put forth in the May 2025 report.
“As of right now, these are just statements. There’s no law behind them, so we don’t really know what kind of policy may come from this commission,” Stone said. “However we have seen some legislation from states that could suggest these ideas are a movement, not just a moment.”
Read more about the MAHA movement and related legislation in Stone’s blog post.
Rice milling yields
Field tours brought the focus back to Arkansas, with several specialists remarking on the difficult year Arkansas producers have faced thus far — a year that extension weed scientist Bob Scott said he “will be glad to be done with.”
Extension rice agronomist Jarrod Hardke said, though he usually gets 10 separate rice performance trials planted, he was only able to get eight this year due to weather, adding that “that’s just been the year we’ve had.”
Hardke also discussed the poor milling yields Arkansas rice producers have experienced the past three years.
“We had disappointing milling yields in 2023, and I think it’s fair to say things got critical in 2024,” Hardke said.
Hardke’s 2024 trials investigated late-season fertilizer and crop improvement applications, but he found that producers would have to throw in “a lot of money for little response — it just isn’t economical.”
The culprit could be warmer fall weather. Hardke said after plotting weather data from the last six years, it’s apparent that Arkansas is staying warmer — and drier — for longer into the fall. This, paired with the quick rice planting the last two years, could be why milling yields have been falling.
“When it’s staying hot and dry and we start harvest in the heat of August, our grain drying gets ahead of the combine,” Hardke said. Once rice fields are drained and grain starts drying, it’s possible the grain is drying too quickly for growers to harvest all of their fields before the grain moisture is too low for optimal milling yields.
The possible solution? Staggering draining at harvest.
“Can we work with draining fields as we go to avoid draining too far from the combine?” Hardke asked. “It’s a recommendation I hate. No one wants to stop harvest to deal with flood gates and draining fields, but it could help our rice make it to harvest without that grain moisture getting too low.”
Hardke says this wouldn’t be a silver bullet but could help the rice hold on to some moisture a bit longer. His program is teaming with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station’s Arkansas Rice Processing Program to sample during various grain moisture levels to gauge the impact on milling.
The experiment station and extension service are the research and outreach arms of the Division of Agriculture.
To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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Media Contact: Sarah Cato
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
870-815-9035