Update on mechanized irrigation rice projects

Let's start with Pakistan this week - Farid Noon had a field day near Lahore last week with a great turnout of farmers and government officials.  To date, the center pivot has used 65% less water than the adjoining traditional irrigated field.  This really gets people's attention when they can see the fields side by side and the rice under the center pivot looks as good as the traditional irrigated field!  We are anxiously waiting for the harvest which should begin in a week or two for the transplanted rice and several weeks later for the direct seeded rice.

In the U.S., the data keeps coming in and we are still waiting for one field and some plots to be harvested, though with the dry weather this week should be about done.  Some members of the Valley Rice Team will be in Arkansas and Missouri next week measuring wheel tracks in some of the harvested fields and collecting soil samples from fields we anticipate will have rice in 2010 under center pivots and linears.

Our cooperators in Brazil did receive several days of rain this week and the soil profile is full.  Currently soil moisture monitoring equipment is showing about 0% depletion at the different depths being monitored.  This rain will help push the crop along.  The primarly used seeds by the cooperators are Querencia, IRGA 417, IRGA 423, IRGA 424 and Ricetec Ecco.

Have a great week!