Circles for Rice Update | by John Robison

Robison's field

Dennis Robison’s rice field in Neelyville, Missouri, USA, is still looking great. His Irrometer® WATERMARK (soil moisture monitoring equipment) chart shows poor numbers on his hillside location.  These numbers represent the driest areas of his field. There are a few areas in the field that do show stress before the rest of the field. Since the soil moisture transmitter site does not accurately represent a sizable portion of the field, I will be installing another transmitter this week.

To help combat the soil moisture disparity in the field, I installed Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) Speed Control software on Dennis's Valley Pro2 control panel last week.  With use of the VRI Speed Control, we aim to see more consistency in the field's hillside. With the software update required to use VRI Speed Control, Dennis also acquired Cruise Control™, which will improve the accuracy and ease of management for fertigation and chemigation.

Chad Price's rice field in Arkansas, USA, is experiencing some issues with pigweed. However, the crop still looks good, and should be profitable for Chad.