LSU AgCenter plant breeder Steve Linscombe tells rice farmers and industry representatives about the latest in rice variety and hybrid research during a field day June 16 at Crowley, La. (Photo by Bruce Schultz. Click on photo for downloadable image.)

Barrett Courville, LSU AgCenter county agent in Acadia Parish, reviewed this year’s rice crop at an Acadia Parish rice field day June 16 at Crowley, La. (Photo by Bruce Schultz. Click on photo for downloadable image.)

News Release Distributed 06/17/10

CROWLEY, La. – With rainfall becoming more frequent, rice farmers should be alert for diseases on their crop, according to an LSU AgCenter expert who spoke at the Acadia Parish Rice Tour held Wednesday (June 16).

Leaf blast and sheath blight are starting to show up in fields, said LSU AgCenter plant pathologist Don Groth. Sheath blight can reduce yields by 10-20 percent, he said, but the effects of blast are far worse.

“Blast can take the whole crop,” Groth said.

Groth said applying a fungicide at the proper time is necessary. The best time for a fungicide application to fight blast is very early in the heading stage when about 50 percent of the tillers are showing some part of the emerging panicle, he said.

“When the head emerges is when it’s susceptible to blast,” Groth said. Once the head is fully emerged, he said, it’s too late for fungicide.

Soybean farmers should be on the lookout for aerial blight and frogeye cercospera, he added.

Groth also said Asian soybean rust is not expected to be as great of a threat in Louisiana this year because the cold weather killed kudzu and volunteer soybeans in which the fungus overwinters.

Barrett Courville, LSU AgCenter county agent in Acadia Parish, said heavy rainfall in the past few weeks damaged young soybean plants.

“Most of the beans now are starting to recover,” he said. “It’s not real pretty out there right now.”

Courville said some farmers are asking if it is too late to replant. “My answer to that is probably yes.”

Steve Linscombe, LSU AgCenter rice breeder, talked about potential varieties of rice in development. He said a line of aromatic rice shows promise to exceed Jazzman, released in 2009, with more aroma.

Linscombe said a line of medium-grain rice also shows promise. “This particular line looks like it will have better yield than Jupiter or Neptune.”

Work by Weiki Li to develop hybrid rice continues at the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station, Linscombe said. “If effort equals success, then I think that program will be successful.”

But Linscombe said a hybrid from the project is still years away.

Eric Webster, LSU AgCenter weed scientist, showed farmers different tests he conducted to evaluate combinations of different herbicide at different rates. He also had test plots to show how rice is affected by herbicides intended for other crops.

A demonstration project at the Darryl Hoffpauir farm in Acadia Parish to compare effectiveness of seed treatments for rice water weevils did not have a high-enough number of adult weevils to get a thorough test, LSU AgCenter entomologist Natalie Hummel told farmers.

She said she has seen some fields this year with bad scarring from adult weevils. “The plants were dehydrating and dying,” she said.

LSU AgCenter entomologist Mike Stout is evaluating a new seed treatment, Nipsit INSIDE, from Valent, Hummel said.

Bruce Schultz