EAGLE LAKE, TX -- On Tuesday, members of the rice community from across the state gathered at the 48th Annual Rice Field Day in Eagle Lake, Texas to meet, greet, and catch up over barbecue.
The focus of this year’s field day was “Designing Texas Rice for the Future” and was sponsored by the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center. The day kicked off with meetings of the Texas Rice Producers Board and the Texas Rice Producers Legislative Group, where USA Rice’s Dr. Steve Linscombe and Jamison Cruce gave updates on the Rice Foundation and Capitol Hill, respectively, and Ducks Unlimited Rice Specialist Dennis Neumann discussed opportunities through DU and the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) available to Texas farmers.
Field day attendees were then invited to tour the David R. Wintermann Rice Research Station just outside of Eagle Lake, where research scientists explained what they were working on in each small plot of rice, such as selectively breeding for beneficial characteristics and studying various rice diseases. Visitors climbed on a shaded trailer and were shuttled around the research station’s fields, and even witnessed a large agricultural drone in action.
Water and input costs were the main topics of the day, as Texas has been suffering through a drought this year and the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) is set to curtail water soon, which would affect Texas rice farmers’ ability to grow a ratoon crop. Conservation, sustainability, and rice breeding were at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
“We’re at a critical stage in Texas,” said Kirby Brown, conservation outreach biologist with Ducks Unlimited. “Most of the water that comes down the Colorado River of Texas comes through the Texas mid-coast, and the rice farmers on the Texas mid-coast depend on that water for irrigation of rice. Recently it’s been so dry in the western part of the state, where the reservoirs are, that the water supply is going down fast.”
Beyond impacting every level of the Texas rice industry, according to Brown the lack of ratoon crops would also be bad for ducks. “If you lose that second crop, you lose the habitat for the time that ducks are regularly here in this part of the countryside. It’s going to be a difficult problem for everyone.”
“These meetings and field days are really all about outreach and education,” said Jamison Cruce, USA Rice’s senior director of government affairs. “Given the ongoing financial situation in the industry, it's important that rice farmers are aware of all the tools at their disposal to help their bottom lines, as well as learn about USA Rice's efforts to attain financial assistance."
The USA Rice and Ducks Unlimited Rice Stewardship Partnership since its inception has been very active in the Texas Rice industry. The programs delivered via the Partnership, targeted specifically to rice producers, have brought in over $25 million of financial assistance to deploy conservation programs in the state of Texas.
The field day wrapped up with barbecue, sweet tea, and a presentation by Texas A&M professor and extension economist George Knappe on the state of the rice economy and farm policy issues.