Episode 2 - Rice Harvest 2019 Progress with Jarrod Hardke

Arkansas Row Crops Radio, providing up to date information and timely recommendations on row crop production in Arkansas.

Jarrod Hardke: Welcome to Arkansas Row Crops Radio. My name is Jarrod Hardke, Rice Extension Agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Today Id like to give a little bit of an update on where we are with rice harvest for 2019 and some follow-up information, answering questions on the continued use of sodium chlorate as a harvest aid in rice. 

At this stage in harvest things are beginning to pick up speed. South Arkansas is making some considerable progress at this point. They did get some rice planted earlier. In the latter part of March and the early part of April, some windows were permitted back then in the spring to get some more planted than was true in north Arkansas. Much of north Arkansas, being north of I-40 for our purposes, really just getting started right about now. Overall yields are again overall pretty close to last year. We expect them to be down slightly and that has largely held true. There is certainly as always some fields out there that are definitely underperforming, but a lot of others are doing very close to last year. Some of the unique observations not only at the field yield level, but also in planting date studies at both the Rice Research and Extension Center at Stuttgart and the Pine Tree Research Station near Colt, really show us that the earlier planting dates while as usual can look very strong, even into mid-April, planting dates are not declining in yield potential the way that we normally see. They're normally, its never much of a decline, but you normally see a slight one. In some instances, some cultivars actually we've documented their highest yields of the year so far all the way into mid-April. So that certainly bodes well for our crop and where we go from here. We've really had the standpoint so far that throughout the season it is remained so mild temperature-wise, never any excessive heat to really be drag on a crop. Obviously, rainfall was plentiful. Some concern over the amount of cloudiness, number of cloudy days scattered throughout the season causing some issue but ultimately the low stress environment well say somewhat optimal temperatures with highs more routinely in the upper 80s to low 90s. Really again optimal for rice growth, so our mid to late planting dates may hold up a lot better than we're used to - certainly in years where we get a lot more extreme temperatures throughout late July and early August. We will continue to look forward to that to see kind of how that data plays out and obviously the actual field yield performance from there. We do still have reasonable hopes for a pretty good crop at this point, and even though a lot of the crop did end up planted later, I'm still pretty optimistic about how a lot of that is going to turn out. We did also plant a lot of that later portion of the crop to hybrids, Jupiter and Diamond, which generally hold up a lot better planted late anyway. 

With that in mind, a lot of the grain moistures are dropping very fast right now with us being in, getting into the mid-90s each day. Humidity is still high enough, its still hot out there, but still low enough were seeing some very, very rapid grain moisture declines out there, so we need to be mindful that even though the plants may look very green and healthy right now and may stay that way for a little while, the grain is actually drying down extremely rapid, so we do need to try to get this crop out. 

The longer the rice sits in the field the greater chances that our milling yields are going to decline. Not that we can get grain out at these moisture levels on a commercial level but in reality, most of the research has shown that for long-grain cultivars, to have optimal milling, harvest should occur around 19 to 21% moisture and again that's a little higher than most you're going to get rice out, but that gives you an idea that again further declines below that run the risk of lower milling yields. Actually, for medium grains that optimal range is higher, it's 22 to 24%. I dont think anybody's taking much medium grain out of the field at that point, but again just trying to emphasize the point that allowing medium grains to dry even more in the field you're going to pay a penalty faster even than you are with long grains. One prime example, the past years has been Titan versus Jupiter. Titan matures out much faster than Jupiter. You're going to have to go get it a lot faster because it's going to fall below 16% moisture a lot quicker and just generally speaking, once you start getting below 16 in the field, you can really start to pay a penalty on medium grains in terms of head rice yields. Long grains still maybe have a little bit to give, maybe it won't be as extreme but we need to be mindful. 

With that in mind and the rapid drying that's going on, some additional questions that have come in on the use of sodium chlorate as a harvest aid, really have centered around, again, the moistures getting too low. So much green foliage using stripper headers so needing to get rid of some of that moisture and green foliage up top to increase efficiency in harvest speed when using stripper headers in particular, ok so, when we're getting in that 16% grain moisture range, but plants are still extremely green, that's very much below our recommended cut off. We again recommend not using sodium chlorate as a harvest aid once average moisture is below 18%. But what if you find yourself in the situation and you're really being slowed down and limited by the amount of green material out there, you need some help to do something. Well again, if you're going to attempt to use sodium chlorate in any fashion, we have to remind that you have got to harvest fast after that application. 

Many are usually running and most of the research has used, really about a five-pound active sodium chlorate per acre rate so most commercial products right now. That's about a gallon of product, so if you go with a half a gallon rate, you're still going to get some pretty rapid immediate burn, especially given current high heat conditions, high sunlight, its going to burn that upper foliage pretty fast. So backing that rate down in half and planning to harvest within a day or two as opposed to a normal waiting three or four days. Again, we're talking about 16% moisture rice getting very low anyway. Use a lower rate and go in there that much faster to get that rice out. The faster it's off the plant, the faster you minimize the drying down resulting from the sodium chlorate application and the additional fissuring and cracking that could occur and cause milling yield losses from making those applications that low. 

So still not something we want to emphasize or really recommend that you deliberately do, but if you find yourself in that situation, that is how I would basically try to handle that situation. If I just felt I had to use sodium chlorate to help get the rice out because I'm having to drive too slow and really just not able to separate enough rice from green material running through the combine, so again one of those situational things making the best of what we've got.

Well continue to monitor the rest of this crop as it comes out. Also, look for the Arkansas Rice Update Newsletter where we will be posting a preliminary yield data from research trials as well as other comments about what's going on around the state and issues you may want to look out for through harvest. If you have any questions, please let us know. Contact us through phone call or e-mail. Again I'm Jarrod Hardke, Rice Extension Agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, and thank you for joining us once again on Arkansas Row Crops Radio.

Arkansas Row Crops Radio is a production of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. For more information please contact your local county extension agent or visit uaex.edu