Circles for Rice | Weekly Update

United States

Harvest | Sikeston, Missouri, USA

Data continues to come in from the commercial fields and, overall, the results have been good. Complete yield information will be periodically posted on www.CirclesForRice.com throughout this month; when all yield information has been published, I will post an update. 

Yields have ranged from 100 bu/ac (4.8mt/ha) to 195 (9.4mt/ha).  The overall average of the nine commercial fields is 159bu/ac (7.6mt/ha). Four fields yielded above the average, and five fields yielded under the average.

The Circles for Rice team is currently reviewing data to understand what happened in each case. We do know that all fields had excellent weed control, so we cannot blame weed pressure for impacting the yields.

Initial review of each field indicates that the yields may have been reduced due to a combination of irrigation management, center pivot performance, fertility, and harvest issues.

Harvest | Crawfordsville, Arkansas, USA

We have sampled several fields (both tissue and soil) to try to pinpoint fertility-limiting factors. This sampling has led to, in one case, the application of ammonium sulfate.

This growing season, the project moved onto non-traditional rice soils, and we have thus experienced more challenges with fertility needs on some of the finer sands and loamy sands.

• Total irrigation applications - 12.2 inches (310 mm ) to 27.1 inches (688 mm)
• Total number of passes with the center pivot (ie: trips around the field) - 27 to 68
• Total hours of operation of the center pivot - 411 to 1,357