Horizon Ag: Crop Progressing Rapidly Despite Rains, Flooding

Texas/Louisiana

The crop is progressing along nicely and is starting to look like a decent rice crop. We have had major challenges to get to this point, but it is now going pretty smoothly. It has been several weeks since our last rain, but we have a good chance of 2 inches to 4 inches forecasted for Thursday.
 
My territory hasn’t been dealing with all the flooding like many of our friends to the north. That could change a little later this week when they open the Morganza Spillway. This will cause some flooding for farmers that farm in the spillway and may affect more depending on how high the water gets. Only time will tell. As bad as it may be for parts of Louisiana, it is much needed to help out many farmers north of us who are dealing with major flooding. This is a very difficult time for U.S. agriculture and, hopefully, everyone will continue to push hard and fight to keep their operations going. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those impacted by the disastrous weather events.

I am starting to get a lot of calls about fungicide applications. Farmers are trying to decide what is the best route to take in choosing which fungicide to use. We have a unique situation in Louisiana because we have sheath blight that is resistant to strobilurin fungicides, which makes these decisions a little more difficult. I am telling farmers if you have varieties like Horizon Ag CL111, CL153 and CL172 that have the pita gene for blast resistance, then make sure you concentrate on sheath blight and use a fungicide that will control the resistant sheath blight. If you are growing CL151 or PVL01 that is susceptible to blast, you need to make sure you have a fungicide that will protect you from blast and slow down the sheath blight. We stand to lose more yield from blast than we do from sheath blight. It is not a bad idea to treat PVL01 with two fungicide applications. In order to control blast, timing is of utmost importance. By treating this variety twice, you have the best chance of getting this timing correct. If you have any questions about fungicide applications, please give me a call and I will be happy to assist you. Again, to our friends up north, our thoughts and prayers are with you. Stay safe, and good luck with everything.  

Michael Fruge 
District Field Representative
(832) 260-6193

North Louisiana and Mississippi

Planting is finishing up in my territory. A good bit of rice has been planted in the last 10 days. There will still be some acres planted through next week, but the total will depend on the rain forecasted through the end of this week. The majority of the early-planted rice has gone to flood and is looking much better overall. 
 
Midseason fertilizer applications should start to escalate this week in the earliest planted rice. The later-planted rice is advancing rapidly with the heat. Management practices are being expedited due to the speed at which the crop is progressing. Since the planting window was tightened, guys are wide-open trying to stay ahead. Other than a few more instances of off-target herbicide drift, the last 10 days have been positive overall. Hopefully we’ll only get the rain we need out of this forecasted system and progress can continue.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions or if I can help in any way.

Tim Jett 
District Field Representative
(901) 687-6362