SOUTHWEST, LA – This week, rice farmers, wildlife specialists, researchers, USA Rice staff, and other industry stakeholders across the state of Louisiana gathered to hear from experts, state officials, and USA Rice about the important work being done to rice.
On Monday night, a large crowd of more than 120 assembled at the Kaplan farm of Julie and Christian Richard for the annual Horizon Ag Field Day. At the event, attendees heard from Horizon Ag CEO Dr. Tim Walker, Senior District Field Manager Jason Satterfield, and other team members on the performances of Provisia (PVL03, PVL04) and Clearfield (CLL19) varieties, promising lines in development, and the new agreement between Horizon Ag and the LSU AgCenter that will support collaborative breeding efforts.
“It was great to have so many farmers in attendance for the Horizon Ag Field Day,” said Walker. “We have a lot to talk about with them including how the new CLL19 is impressing folks in its first commercial year of availability and how our Provisia varieties are helping farmers clean up costly weedy rice and bring fields back into profitable rice production.”
On Tuesday, close to 300 people attended the 115th annual LSU AgCenter Rice Field Day in Crowley for poster sessions, field tours, and a panel discussion. Attendees learned about potential new varieties that are currently being evaluated and could be released to the industry in the coming years including several conventional long- and medium-grain varieties as well as jasmine, popcorn, and other specialty types of rice.
The station’s most recent release, CLL19, a high yielding Clearfield variety that is already being farmed on about 70,000 acres, received a lot of attention. Overall, the field day continued to showcase to attendees the immense value of rice research and extension initiatives to the state’s rice industry.
During the panel discussion, attendees heard from various industry experts and stakeholders that included Dr. Adam Famoso, station director and rice breeder; Matt Lee, LSU Vice President for Agriculture; Allen McLain, rice farmer and Louisiana Farm Bureau representative, and Peter Bachman, USA Rice President and CEO.
Bachmann spoke about the successes USA Rice had achieved for the Louisiana rice industry and industry as a whole and praised the contributions of the many Louisiana volunteer leaders. His address covered the distribution of funds from the Rice Production Program, increased food aid shipments, the facilitation of Louisiana rice sales to Cuba, the $6.25M RAPP allocation from the USDA, launch of the Climate Smart program sign up, and updates on the Farm Bill including the proposed $16.90/cwt PLC reference price for rice in the House Farm Bill.
Later that afternoon, the Louisiana Rice Promotion Board and the Louisiana Rice Research Board both met. Bachmann addressed the promotion board and fielded questions from board members.
USA Rice COO Sarah Moran and Senior Director of Domestic Promotion Cameron Jacobs presented results of the current year’s promotion campaigns and formally requested the Board’s support for the USA Rice Council for the coming year. The request was approved unanimously.