Rice producers from the Gulf Coast to the Mid-South are reporting high yields and great performances this year with RiceTec hybrid rice.
''In good growing conditions and bad, across the Mid-South and coastal rice regions, RiceTec hybrid rice is really putting on some memorable performances,'' says Van McNeely, technical services manager for RiceTec.
Big yields are on early harvest reports from the Mid-South. In Gould, Ark., Gregg Gassaway cut 18,772 bushels (5,214 barrels) from a 72-acre field of XP710, a long-grain hybrid from RiceTec that has exhibited exceptionally high yield potential on farms across the Mid-South.
''That's an average of 253.6 bushels (70 barrels) per acre at 13% moisture,'' brags Gassaway. ''I had another field that cut 220 bushels (61 barrels) per acre, dry, and another that cut about 215 bushels (60 barrels), dry. My overall yield average for XP710 will probably be 225 to 239 bushels (63 to 67 barrels) per acre, dry weight.''
It was an unusually cool growing season for his area of Arkansas. Lots of rain in early June, then frequent rains and good growing conditions throughout the rest of the summer. Gassaway says he calculates that at loan price, he made an extra $150 per acre with XP710 over all the other rice varieties planted on his farm.
''With a 180 bushel-per-acre yield on a conventional rice variety, and say it gets a 10-cent premium on milling grades, that's only an extra $18 per acre,'' he says. ''So, it's a no-brainer, which is better for our farm. I have not had the XP710 milled this year, but last year it milled out at about the loan average. When you are making 220 to 260 bushels per acre, though, the 10- to 15-cent premium for good milling grades is insignificant.''
Fred Carter, who farms rice in Randolph and Greene Counties in Arkansas, cut an average of 244 bushels (68 barrels) per acre on a field of XP710. He has cut about 70 acres of XL8 and it was averaging 200 bushels (56 barrels) per acre.
''Last year was my first year to grow hybrids and I think they are great,'' says Carter. ''They will make so much more yield that it makes you want to grow more. Everything except my water-seeded land will be planted in hybrids next year. Hybrids are not any more expensive to grow than conventional varieties. The extra yield more than makes up for the higher seed costs.''
In an early harvest report from Sam Nicholson in Jackson County, Ark., both CLEARFIELD XL8 and XL8 were delivering high yields.
''I have about 1,800 acres of CLEARFIELD XL8 and XL8 and when I harvested
them, I did not separate the two,'' Nicholson says. ''Together, the hybrids
averaged about 205 bushels (57 barrels) per acre. That's a good yield
about the best rice yield I've ever made.''
Nichols says he's had a perfect growing season that helped his farm make
more rice yields across all hybrids and varieties.
For more information, please visit
www.ricetec.com.