News Release Distributed 01/08/14

CROWLEY, La. – Two new Clearfield rice varieties have been released by the LSU AgCenter, an improved Jazzman and a medium-grain, according to Steve Linscombe, rice breeder and director of the Rice Research Station.

Both will be available for seed production this year and commercial production in 2015. Clearfield rice varieties can tolerate herbicides that kill red rice, a noxious weed in south Louisiana.

The Kellogg Co. is interested in using the medium-grain variety, CL271, in its products, but the food company needs enough rice for a full test. “Up to this point, everything has been positive,” Linscombe said.

He said a seed increase was accomplished at the station with seeding at the rate of 10 pounds per acre, and it yielded 8,500 pounds (52.5 barrels) an acre of dry rice.

Linscombe said the new variety, with much better blast resistance and higher yield potential, will replace CL261.

The new CL Jazzman outyields Jazzman and Jazzman 2, he said, and it retains the aroma aimed at competing with imported aromatic rice.

“It probably has the prettiest grains of all the Jazzman types,” Linscombe said.

Linscombe said the winter nursery at Puerto Rico produced 18 pounds of seed, which was planted at the Rice Research Station on July 3 at the rate of 6 pounds per acre. It was harvested Nov. 13.

“We’ll have enough to plant it as a seed increase, and it should be available in 2015,” he said.

He said an experimental long-grain Clearfield line in development has good blast disease resistance and good grain quality.

He said the hybrid breeding program at the Rice Research Station continues to make advances, and it’s possible that the release of a hybrid from the LSU AgCenter could be announced in the near future.

“You can get a hybrid with good grain quality, but you might have to give up a bit of yield,” Linscombe said.

Linscombe said the breeding work at the Rice Research Station relies heavily on research funds from the rice checkoff program that assessed 5 cents for every 100 pounds of rice sold.

The mandatory checkoff program has been successfully challenged, but rice producers still have the option of making voluntary checkoff payments, Linscombe said. “These checkoff dollars are critical to what we do at the Rice Research Station.”

Bruce Schultz