RICE COUNTRY, USA – Rice planting is well underway along the Gulf Coast and the mid-South, and just getting started in California.
“Rice planting in southwest Louisiana is about completed, central Louisiana is about 80 percent planted, and while continued rains have delayed planting in north Louisiana, they are about 70 percent planted,” said Louisiana rice specialist Dr. Ronnie Levy. “Right now, it looks like we have the best rice crop throughout Louisiana that I have seen in many years.”
Marley Oldham, with Kennedy Rice in Mer Rouge, agreed. “Lots and lots of rice acres planted in the last ten days, most in dry soil. Our customers are 60-70 percent planted with less than 25 percent up to a stand but in very good condition.” Scott Franklin said his area in Richland Parish might be a little lower but the rice that has emerged looks good. John Owen, who farms near Gilbert, is two-thirds planted and has stopped planting to stagger harvesting.
In Texas, the west zone crop is in the ground for the most part. East of Houston, in the Raywood area, Dorsey Jones, with Helena, reported 90 percent planted with no stand issues and the early rice is flooded or going to flood this week.
The mid-South had significant rains recently and some rice ground is still under water, however, planting is progressing well in most rice regions.
Speaking of the entire mid-South rice region, Randy Ouzts, with Nutrien, said, “We’re well north of 50 percent by now. Floodwaters in several areas are reducing acres and it remains to be seen what the outcome of prevent planting will be overall.”
According to Mississippi rice specialist Will Eubank, “Mississippi rice planting started off well, kicking off in the last two weeks of March. Mother Nature followed up that early planting window with a heavy rain that knocked most of the state out of the field for the first week and a half of April. Heavy rainfalls have plagued the north near Tunica, causing flooding in various places which may necessitate some replant situations. As of the week of April 14-18, Mississippi’s optimum planting window, we’re recording 50-60 percent of the acres planted with 20-30 percent of those acres being emerged.”
Austin Davis and Kirk Satterfield farm adjacent to each other southwest of Cleveland, Mississippi. They are both finished planting rice and said that the rice that is emerged looks really good with excellent stands. Curtis Berry in the north Delta, near Robinsonville, said, “I’m guessing 75 percent has been planted. There were significant replants due to excess rain. Some consultants are noticing poor vigor and questioning the reasons behind it. Many farmers are having to live with a thin stand due to seed availability.”
Marvin Cochran spoke with three producers from south Washington County (southern area of Mississippi rice region), and all are finished planting. He said, “There is some rice up to a stand already. Weather so far has been excellent with most receiving a half-inch of rain Monday morning with light showers forecasted for the week.”
In the Missouri Bootheel, planting is also well underway. “We are about 70 percent planted on our rice and that’s typical for the area,” said Rance Daniels from Hornersville. “The earliest planted rice began emerging last week and was slow to emerge. It is looking better now with warmer weather and the shower we got Sunday night softened the crust up. Most of the rice planted before the major rain and flooding is up and looking good.”
Austin Littleton of Sikeston, Missouri, planted his entire 1,000-acre rice crop last week between Tuesday and Saturday. Zack Tanner, near Bernie, has finished planting his rice other than a variety that the seed is coming from the winter nursery in Puerto Rico which he hopes to plant next week.
Arkansas is the largest rice producing state in the U.S and rice is planted over a wide geographic area, from the southeast to the northeast and the Grand Prairie a little to the west. Dr. Jarrod Hardke, the state’s rice specialist, reports, “Rice planting progress is roughly halfway complete in the state, but it’s difficult to know what that really means for acreage. Some fields will go unplanted to rice this year due to the ongoing flooding issues. Replant questions abound, but the availability of replant seed is variable depending on what seed you’re looking for, and the rainy pattern we seem to be in is offering limited opportunities for replants even if we wanted them.”
Dow Brantley farms in the Grand Prairie, and said, “I am 95 percent planted on my farm, and I expect to replant approximately 10 percent of my rice lost to flood. Our rice that didn’t flood is up and looks very good.” Sydney Robnett, near Stuttgart, is 100 percent planted as of April 18. His farm received a timely rain Sunday evening which prevented needing to flush some of his earliest planted rice. John McGraw, near Star City, is also 100 percent planted with about 30 percent up and running.
Dr. Tim Walker, with Horizon Ag, said his field staff is reporting the Grand Prairie nearly 70 percent planted while northeast Arkansas is behind that at closer to 40 percent. Dr. Xueyan Sha is a rice breeder at the Rice Research and Extension Center near Stuttgart. He said, “Dr. Jarrod Hardke and I started planting research trials in mid-March prior to the 10-plus inches of rain received, then resumed planting Friday, April 11, and planted nonstop last week. I have planted about 4,000 plots out of 7,000+ total. Rice planted before last week is already emerged and appears to have good stands.”
In Florida, rice planting is progressing well, according to Daniel Cavazos who manages rice production for Florida Crystals. “I have planted 12,000 acres with about 8,000 left to go. This is the driest spring that I can remember, and we are flushing recently planted fields for germination.”
Moving west, California rice planting is just getting started. Overall planting will be earlier than 2024 when late rains caused delays. Jon Munger, with Montna Farms in Dingville, said, “We have been working ground for a couple weeks. So far, we have about 50 percent of our short grain planted and should be finished in a week or so, then we’ll begin planting medium grain around the first of May.” Bert Manuel, near Yuba City, also reported that it was much drier this year than last year. His planting dates in 2024 were May 21-28, and he hopes to have the crop planted this year by May 10.
Dr. Dustin Harrell, director of the Rice Experiment Station near Biggs, said, “The first research field plots were drill-seeded on Monday. We hope to plant the first breeding research field by mid-week.” Josh Sheppard, who farms near the Experiment Station, has 100 acres of no till drill seeded rice already planted and will begin seeding his other acres by week’s end. This will be 20 days sooner than his first water-seeded field in 2024.
Derek Sohnrey, from Oroville, said, “We are currently starting our final pass for tillage and will start leveling in the next few days. We will probably plant our first field around May 2.” West of the Sacramento River, Kim Gallegher, in Irrigation District 108, said, “I have a field planted already. We drilled it on April 10-14 – one hundred fifty acres planted with a 12' no till drill, and we flushed it last week. I also have about 1,000 geese and shorebirds on it every morning, and I hope they move on soon. We are so much earlier than last year, and the fields are dry.”
Near Williams, Leo LaGrande, said, “Rice planting is back to a normal schedule compared to the past two wet springs. Surface water allocations will not be a problem this year, and spring temperatures have been ideal to start out the 2025 planting season.”