March 18, 2026 • 20 mins
Lessons From the Delta continues — this time with a look at the research and infrastructure behind rice production.
In Episode 4 of the Purdue Commercial AgCast mini-series, Chad Fiechter and Todd Kuethe visit the Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center in Arkansas to understand how research, water management, and production systems come together in one of the most concentrated rice-growing regions in the United States.
Arkansas produces nearly half of U.S. long grain rice — and a significant share of that production comes from just a few counties surrounding this station. That makes decisions around irrigation, variety selection, and weed control especially important.
The conversation also discusses:
• Why rice production is highly location-dependent • How groundwater constraints are shaping irrigation strategies • The role of research centers in testing varieties and production systems • Differences between flooded rice and row rice systems • Why weed pressure in rice is fundamentally different from corn and soybeans • The labor and management intensity required to grow rice
While the crops may differ, the underlying questions remain familiar: How do you manage risk in a highly specialized system? How do resource constraints shape production decisions? And how does research translate into on-farm profitability?
This episode builds on earlier discussions of rice economics and processing, and sets up upcoming conversations on automation and farm-level decision-making in the Delta.
We’ll also continue sharing video clips and behind-the-scenes footage from the Arkansas trip on our YouTube channel throughout the series.
Subscribe to the Purdue Commercial AgCast so you don’t miss upcoming episodes in the Lessons From the Delta series.
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(00:00):
Arkansas, typically 46 to50% of all the long grain in
(00:03):
the United States of America.
And we're telling you half of that comesfrom just these five counties here.
Welcome back to the PurdueCommercial AgCast and our
Lessons from the Delta series.
I'm Chad Fiechter.
Todd and I spent several days travelingthrough the Mississippi Delta last
(00:24):
summer talking with farmers, researchers,and industry leaders about how
production systems in the region work.
In the first few episodes of the series,we explored how farming systems and
the Mississippi Delta differ from whatmany Midwestern producers are used
to — from the unique economics of rice,Delta farmland values, to how rice is
processed and marketed after harvest.
(00:45):
If you haven't had a chance tohear those yet, I'd encourage
you to go back and take a listen.
One thing that became clear in thoseconversations is that rice production
is highly specialized system.
Managing water, selecting varietiesand optimizing yields requires a
tremendous amount of coordination.
That's what led us to ournext stop on the trip.
The Northeast Rice Researchand Extension Center located
in Poinsett County, Arkansas.
(01:06):
Facilities like this play a keyrole in agricultural innovation,
connecting university researchto farmers and private companies
to test new varieties, productionpractices, and irrigation technologies.
We started asking Tim Burcham, thecenter's director, to explain what this
facility does and why it was built here.
So can you introduce yourselfand tell us where you are?
(01:28):
Yes.
Hey, I'm Tim Burcham, I'm the director ofthe Northeast Rice Research and Extension
Center, located just south of Jonesboroand just north of Harrisburg, Arkansas.
With the University of ArkansasSystem Division of Agriculture.
I've been on board inthis position since 2019.
The farm, the total property, 600 acres.
(01:48):
There's 500 acres in tillable ground.
The rice research mile, and itliterally is one mile from my
driveway to RiceTec up here.
The cool thing about that rice researchmile is, is that with us having
Nutrien's plots here, Horizon Ag'splots here, University of Arkansas
plots here, and then all of RiceTec'svarieties at their shop one mile away.
(02:15):
In this mile, you can view all theprominent rice in the Mid-South.
Every, every variety that is grownin the Mid-South or is potentially
being looked at as a forward variety.
You can come to this place.
And that place, and by thatI mean my friends at RiceTec.
And you, you're seeing every, everyvariety that the Mid-South plants.
(02:40):
Pretty cool.
RiceTec is a particularly, a veryimportant player in rice because
they're the primary hybrid.
It's very expensive to, to, uh, youknow, to create a hybrid variety.
And, and they have, youknow, perfected that craft.
And, uh, so they control upwardsof 60 to 70% of the rice acres.
(03:00):
Long grain rice acres in Arkansas.
Purchased this property in 2018.
Everything you see todayhas happened since 2019.
So I'm happy to say that, you know, afterfive long years, we, we opened the doors,
August 30th was our grand opening in 2024.
So we've not even beenin the building a year.
We bought the, bought thefarm in 18, uh, 600 acres.
(03:23):
It's basically a section, it's asection with a corner cutoff of it.
So we're a mile long and a mile wide.
The soil type here is Henry siltloam with a little bit of Callaway.
And the key thing in locating the stationclearly was highway one frontage here,
uh, west side of the ridge, which is aCash River critical groundwater area.
So that ridge is really importantbecause on the eastern side of the
(03:46):
ridge, you know, you're 60 feet down,you're in the Mississippi Alluvial
Aquifer, and quite a bit of water.
Over here, uh, in this criticalgroundwater area that, that ridge forms
an aqualine and the Mississippi Alluvialstruggles, to get over here, if you will.
Uh, so we we're drilling downmaybe, I think I did a test well
(04:08):
before we put our deep well in andwe hit a good lens of water, you
know, gravel at like190 and it went to 220.
So about a 30 foot
seam of gravel that's, youknow, high yield water.
But that water's declining in thisarea, uh, due to heavy rice production.
Other part of this is we're in PoinsettCounty and between Poinsett County
(04:31):
and Jackson County, it varies fromyear to year, but that'll be the
number one rice producing county inthe United States, not just Arkansas.
And so then when you draw a five countyarea around us in northeast Arkansas,
'cause many people ask, why'd you builda new station in northeast Arkansas?
When you drive, draw that five countiesnorth of I 40, you have half of the half
(04:55):
that we supply for the United States.
So Arkansas, typically 46 to50% of all the long grain in
the United States of America.
And we're telling you half of that comesfrom just these five counties here.
So very high, um, rice acreage here.
And this Henry silt loam isa primary driver for that.
(05:15):
So we're in the soil type that ispredominant for this five county area.
We're having to deal with the samewater issues that the farmers in
this area are having to deal with.
You're gonna see numerousreservoirs, including our own.
So water, of course, for rice productionis critical and right now you're seeing
a lot of, on the west side of theridge, which is where we are, you're
seeing a lot of reservoirs being put in.
(05:38):
Mentioned the reservoir area is the 32acre reservoir, and we're bordered on the
entire western border with the L'AnguilleRiver, and it's really a cut through.
That was a part when we lookedat the purchase, uh, it was a
farm that had all these features.
Location, location, location.
On the west side of theridge, Henry silt loam soil.
A reservoir.
(05:58):
But was largely unimprovedfrom an irrigation standpoint.
So we've got 3.1 milesunderground pipeline.
I'm adding some more this year beinganother thousand feet added to that.
We've got two river red lifts backthere on the L'Anguille River.
We just have one deep well, and itactually only came online in like '23,
(06:18):
so I, I did nothing but surface waterfor the first two or three years.
The fields are dividedup as 21 fields here.
So the Rice Research and Promotion Board,uh, group, at that time, they wanted us
to be able to do field level research,and we've already are accomplishing that.
So we have six zero grade fields,and then the majority of the
others are graded to a 10th.
(06:40):
We have four fields that are at oh threeor you know, what I call quasi zeros.
So that created 13 miles of roads.
So we have flow meters on every outletin the field, so most of the fields
have at least one riser, but manyof the fields, the heavier research
fields have multiple risers in there.
And then we put a flowmeter on every outlet.
So we measure, every drop of watergoes on, whether it's the lease
(07:01):
farmer's land or a research project.
We have Aquarius telemetryon all 21 fields.
So whether you're in flooded environmentwith a depth sensor and or a uh,
subterranean with, uh, tensiometers.
Uh, and a nice thing aboutthat Aquarius system is that
they do kind of a radio link.
So we have one receiver behindthe shop here, up on the pole,
(07:23):
you got good line of sight.
So I only pay one sailor bill, which ismuch better on the cost savings side.
But again, the beauty of that is you, youpick your phone up and you can look at
the moisture sensing, uh, of every field.
Now are, are farms in this partof the country also running
similar sort of technology?
Yes.
(07:43):
The, the farmers in this region,I would call most of our, our
farmers, pretty tech savvy.
And the reason is, is, I mean, youguys know what the labor situation is
and so anything that they can do thatenhances their ability to monitor.
'Cause you know, an average ricefarmer here is gonna be in the.
I call a small farmer 4,000 acresand that goes up to 20,000 acres.
(08:06):
So, and they won't own 20,000 acres.
But they'll own andlease up to 20,000 acres.
One of the things that stood out duringour visit was just how different rice
production systems are compared tothe corn and soybean systems most
Midwest farmers are familiar with.
You're gonna have your rotation.
So unlike some of the other partsof the Delta, get into some of the,
(08:30):
some of the clay ground, and it'sgonna be rice after rice, after rice.
But in this area, we're, wereally are a good rotation base.
Because, you know, you're, you're,you're running from that mutation
in the, in the weed population.
So the, the soybean rice rotationreally extends your capacity with
regard to your weed management program.
(08:51):
So that's what we're trying to do here.
So in the Provisia world, you go Provisiathen you follow that with Clearfield,
then you would follow that by twoyears of beans in the perfect world.
So it's a four year rotation.
Yeah.
In the perfect world, but most people,if they get into Provisia they probably
would do in a three year rotation.
Mm-hmm.
You can, you, it wouldn'thurt you on the plant
(09:13):
side.
Is it a herbicide.
So red rice
Yes.
Is what a lot of this is gonna deal with.
So it's literally red rice.
Provisia has control on red riceand some of the other grasses.
Barnyard grass, I thinkit has some capacity.
And Clearfield's beenaround longer than Provisia.
But, uh, it's a big, big problem.
It's really hard to get rid of.
The big problem there was is red rice and,you know, not as big a problem in Arkansas
(09:35):
as say, our neighbors to the south.
The weeds that you mentioned, are they thesame like we'd have in our soybean fields
like water, hemp, et What are, what is it?
Is it different down here,what they're worried about?
You'll get some of that too.
I mean, pigweeds gonna be the bigone with soybeans, but in general,
like rice is totally different.
Yeah.
It's Barnard grass.
They're all water.
Water weeds.
Yeah.
Okay.
Stuff I've never heard of.
(09:56):
All the, the sedge
Sedges and barnard grass is a big one.
and barnard grass.
Coffee beans.
It comes outta that water and itliterally spreads a canopy over the rice.
And just like shades it out.
Yep.
Um, and it's tough too.
It's a monster.
It is a like, you get outand start yanking on it.
It's, it's a tough weed.
So yeah, the barnyard grass, if you wereto interview any rice farmer here, they're
(10:21):
gonna say barnyard grass is absolutely thenumber one problem we're facing right now.
Then after that would be sedges.
Sedges can be, also, can bevery difficult to handle.
FMC has a new herbicidethat the university has been
testing for a number of years.
I can't remember the name of it,but it's still waiting approval and
it, it will be our first new modeof action in over, over a decade.
(10:44):
So I guess I should just ask amuch simpler version, which is,
these are different weeds than what
That's correct.
our farmers in Indiana arefighting in their fields?
Correct.
Keep in mind that the reason you floodrice is for weed control and the weed
control there, that the original aspectof that weed control was to pigweed and
some of the weeds you're talking about.
In the upland crops, they can'thandle an anaerobic environment.
(11:05):
But of course then as you get going along,you bring along the aquatic weeds that can
and do thrive in a flooded environment.
But the real reason you floodrice is for weed control.
So while flooded rice is still thedominant system, research here is
shaping how farmers understand hownewer production systems like row
rice might fit in their operations.
(11:27):
Row rice, ROW, not toget my southern slang.
So row rice is probably 20% ofthe acres in Arkansas right now.
And so row rice production,we've got a graded field.
We're gonna put the boardsin the drain at the bottom.
We'll let the bottom third ofthe field flood up just like
it's a flooded environment.
I mean, why not?
Rice loves it.
Weeds don't like it as much.
(11:48):
You got a middle part of the fieldthat transitions depending on when
you let water in and rainfall events.
And then you got the upper thirdof the field that is truly upland.
Okay.
It'll just be furrow.
You'll just see wet marksgoing down through the furrows.
And our research is reallylooking at particularly the
fertilization aspect of that upland.
You know, you can have all fertilizationlosses there that you don't have
(12:11):
in the flooded portion, becausebasically when you put, you know, fly
urea on into a flooded environment,you lose virtually none of it.
I mean, it's, it'smaintained in the flood.
While fertilize sitting on top of theground, it starts volitalizing as soon
as it starts melting into the soil.
So, so there are some aspectsof row rise production that, you
(12:32):
know, we're having to deal with.
And how do you apply nitrogen tomaximize yield based on those three
zones in that, uh, production system.
And the other piece that'salways, uh, harvest time, right.
Think about moisture contentdrying down your field
Yep.
And getting consistencyfrom top to bottom.
Yep.
And so trying to play with the fertilityand then the dry down and like trying
(12:54):
to all
that
Right.
Has a huge variation.
Yes.
Yeah.
I mean, if you, if I got a flooded field,a zero field, like I'll show you today.
And when I pull the boards on it.
Pull the boards, meaningwe're draining it.
When we drain that field, then all ofit's gonna desiccate simultaneously.
But in a row rise field, when I pullthe boards, the bottom starts draining,
and then it's at one moisture content.
This up here is at a whole nothermoisture content, a lot lower.
(13:18):
It's dropping fast.
And so yeah, there's some aspects there.
The key thing that people like aboutit is, you don't have to pull levees.
So you guys drove by today, I'msure they saw cascade flood.
We talked about it where it looked likethe whole field was nothing but levees.
Mm-hmm.
And then you saw straight levees.
Those are graded fields.
When you see a straight as an arrowlevee, that means that field's is grated.
(13:42):
But these fields that you saw that werejust classic cascade, you know, where
it's just curly slope after curly slope.
Yeah, those, you know,
that's a lot of work.
That's a lot of work on,on uh, your levees, right.
Over here in this silt loam, Ican pull a levee that's reasonable
in two passes with a levee plow.
(14:03):
I get over in Mississippi County intogumbo clay, and that's six passes.
So you can imagine the machinerycost of pulling those levees.
And then we call those 30minute soils over there.
That means if 30 minuteswere their ideal to work.
Yeah.
It's usually during lunch.
(14:26):
So they're, they're their own animal.
We create the levees.
We go ahead and flat plant the rice.
We'll get it up to two or three,four leaf, something like that.
Okay.
And then you pull the levies.
Rice continues to grow.
You get it up there where you'reready to put the first shot of
nitrogen on, you fly the nitrogenon, and then we hit it, we flood it.
Which preserves all that nitrogen.
(14:46):
Ideally you want to fly theplane at nine, flooded at 10.
That day.
Because you're, yeah.
Every, every moment thatgrains laying on the soil.
Mm-hmm.
And we're putting Agrotainon there to reduce that.
So you, you've got some time withAgrotain coating on the urea, but yeah,
You don't want take the risk.
Ideally, you're coming, the airplanegoes by, I turn the water on.
(15:10):
So, so imagine those fields that yousaw running, each one of those levees,
six times with a 360 horsepower tractor.
It's time, time, time, time.
Or you can drag some furrows.
Yeah.
And just plant.
That's right.
And so when, when you do it,
So there's a big economic tradeoff.
When you do it with the standardrow rise model, just you
(15:31):
take all of that outta play.
If, if it's a graded field.
And you just pull a polypipe acrossthe top, turn the water on, go ski that
weekend, come back, turn the water off.
It's, it's, it's watered.
So you're gonna take a small yield hit.
But the ones that implement this,they're willing to take the yield
(15:51):
hit for the quality of life.
And cost savings.
And cost too.
Water usage, not really much difference.
We, we've not found that it's ahuge water saver, but there's still
ongoing research in that regard.
The commercial farmers, they'regonna, they're gonna also seed the
levee when they pull the levee.
Actually the levee plowshave a seed box on them.
(16:13):
That rice will be at a little bitdifferent stage, but because it's up on
that levee, it ends up coming in at aboutthe same time and they'll harvest it.
They'll harvest the levees.
I mean, think about those fields you sawwhere, where there were curlys everywhere.
If you didn't harvest the leveesyou'd lose half the field.
When you look at the, the rice crop inthe United States, and I compare it to
the corn crop in the United States orthe soybean crop of the United States
(16:36):
or the wheat crop in the United States.
It's a small player.
For Arkansas, it's a huge player.
Although we certainly have moreacres in soybean than we do rice.
A lot of people don'trealize that, but we do.
But it's, it's small.
And so when we go to the RiceTechnical Working Group meeting that's
held every other year, I mean, whenyou come to that meeting, you're
(16:57):
gonna see everybody that's in rice.
Talking about you were talkingabout, we're all academics.
So everybody that's in riceis gonna be at that meeting.
So that's gonna be University ofArkansas, LSU, California Davis,
Texas, uh, a little bit of Mississippi.
Missouri's got a little bit of rice.
Believe it or not Florida'sgot a little bit of rice now.
(17:19):
Oh, interesting.
But Florida's total rice isless than one farmer here.
The other very interesting thingI found with rice, there's a
lot of rice consumed globally.
Yeah.
And, uh, so, so it is a, it's kindof like, it's very small in the U.S.
but on the global playing field,it's a huge, huge, huge player.
But growing rice is likebeing in the dairy business.
(17:40):
Dairy business is 24 7.
Growing rice is 24 7.
I mean, there's never a day thatsomething doesn't have to be done in
rice, which contrast to corn and soybean.
I mean, soybean.
You just plant it and forget it.
I mean, I'm gonna go spray it twice.
I'm done.
Water it a couple times.
Rice, plant it.
(18:03):
Put the water on.
Manage the
water.
Start the fertilization program.
Get it to green ring.
Put my final boot shot on.
Pull the water down, go in and harvest.
Mm-hmm.
Tear the levees down.
And so there's, it's just a continuouscycle of, you know, levees break.
You have a big rain, you havea levees that erode away.
(18:26):
You gotta go back out there andwait out in the mud and fix it.
It's just a very labor intensive crop.
Compared to traditional row crops.
And I would add to that, thatthe herbicide resistance, the
issues that we're facing and thetools that we don't have in our
toolbox right now, add to that.
(18:47):
Significantly.
That was our visit to the Northeast RiceResearch and Extension Center in Arkansas.
Seeing how much infrastructure andcollaboration goes into understanding
efficient rice production reallyreinforces how different farming
systems can be across the region,even within the United States.
Our visit to the Northeast ArkansasRice Research and Extension Center
(19:08):
gave us a firsthand look at the scaleand complexity of rice production in
the Delta — from water management andirrigation systems to the research that
supports one of the most important riceproducing regions in the United States.
But while we were out visiting farms andresearch sites during this trip, we also
had some of those unplanned moments.
Next week on the podcast, we'll sharea conversation we had right in the
(19:31):
middle of a field with someone wejokingly started calling the robot
lady — Sarah Hinkley, the CEO andco-founder of Barn Owl Precision Ag.
Her company is building small autonomousrobots designed to move through fields and
perform precision weeding between plants.
It was a fascinating look athow automation might change
labor, weed management, and farmtechnology in the years ahead.
(19:52):
So be sure to subscribe to thePurdue Commercial AgCast and join
us next week for that conversation.
We're also sharing video clips fromeach stop on the trip over on our
YouTube channel, so you can seesome of those places firsthand.
Thanks for listening, andwe'll see you next time.
Arkansas, typically 46 to50% of all the long grain in
(00:03):
the United States of America.
And we're telling you half of that comesfrom just these five counties here.
Welcome back to the PurdueCommercial AgCast and our
Lessons from the Delta series.
I'm Chad Fiechter.
Todd and I spent several days travelingthrough the Mississippi Delta last
(00:24):
summer talking with farmers, researchers,and industry leaders about how
production systems in the region work.
In the first few episodes of the series,we explored how farming systems and
the Mississippi Delta differ from whatmany Midwestern producers are used
to — from the unique economics of rice,Delta farmland values, to how rice is
processed and marketed after harvest.
(00:45):
If you haven't had a chance tohear those yet, I'd encourage
you to go back and take a listen.
One thing that became clear in thoseconversations is that rice production
is highly specialized system.
Managing water, selecting varietiesand optimizing yields requires a
tremendous amount of coordination.
That's what led us to ournext stop on the trip.
The Northeast Rice Researchand Extension Center located
in Poinsett County, Arkansas.
(01:06):
Facilities like this play a keyrole in agricultural innovation,
connecting university researchto farmers and private companies
to test new varieties, productionpractices, and irrigation technologies.
We started asking Tim Burcham, thecenter's director, to explain what this
facility does and why it was built here.
So can you introduce yourselfand tell us where you are?
(01:28):
Yes.
Hey, I'm Tim Burcham, I'm the director ofthe Northeast Rice Research and Extension
Center, located just south of Jonesboroand just north of Harrisburg, Arkansas.
With the University of ArkansasSystem Division of Agriculture.
I've been on board inthis position since 2019.
The farm, the total property, 600 acres.
(01:48):
There's 500 acres in tillable ground.
The rice research mile, and itliterally is one mile from my
driveway to RiceTec up here.
The cool thing about that rice researchmile is, is that with us having
Nutrien's plots here, Horizon Ag'splots here, University of Arkansas
plots here, and then all of RiceTec'svarieties at their shop one mile away.
(02:15):
In this mile, you can view all theprominent rice in the Mid-South.
Every, every variety that is grownin the Mid-South or is potentially
being looked at as a forward variety.
You can come to this place.
And that place, and by thatI mean my friends at RiceTec.
And you, you're seeing every, everyvariety that the Mid-South plants.
(02:40):
Pretty cool.
RiceTec is a particularly, a veryimportant player in rice because
they're the primary hybrid.
It's very expensive to, to, uh, youknow, to create a hybrid variety.
And, and they have, youknow, perfected that craft.
And, uh, so they control upwardsof 60 to 70% of the rice acres.
(03:00):
Long grain rice acres in Arkansas.
Purchased this property in 2018.
Everything you see todayhas happened since 2019.
So I'm happy to say that, you know, afterfive long years, we, we opened the doors,
August 30th was our grand opening in 2024.
So we've not even beenin the building a year.
We bought the, bought thefarm in 18, uh, 600 acres.
(03:23):
It's basically a section, it's asection with a corner cutoff of it.
So we're a mile long and a mile wide.
The soil type here is Henry siltloam with a little bit of Callaway.
And the key thing in locating the stationclearly was highway one frontage here,
uh, west side of the ridge, which is aCash River critical groundwater area.
So that ridge is really importantbecause on the eastern side of the
(03:46):
ridge, you know, you're 60 feet down,you're in the Mississippi Alluvial
Aquifer, and quite a bit of water.
Over here, uh, in this criticalgroundwater area that, that ridge forms
an aqualine and the Mississippi Alluvialstruggles, to get over here, if you will.
Uh, so we we're drilling downmaybe, I think I did a test well
(04:08):
before we put our deep well in andwe hit a good lens of water, you
know, gravel at like190 and it went to 220.
So about a 30 foot
seam of gravel that's, youknow, high yield water.
But that water's declining in thisarea, uh, due to heavy rice production.
Other part of this is we're in PoinsettCounty and between Poinsett County
(04:31):
and Jackson County, it varies fromyear to year, but that'll be the
number one rice producing county inthe United States, not just Arkansas.
And so then when you draw a five countyarea around us in northeast Arkansas,
'cause many people ask, why'd you builda new station in northeast Arkansas?
When you drive, draw that five countiesnorth of I 40, you have half of the half
(04:55):
that we supply for the United States.
So Arkansas, typically 46 to50% of all the long grain in
the United States of America.
And we're telling you half of that comesfrom just these five counties here.
So very high, um, rice acreage here.
And this Henry silt loam isa primary driver for that.
(05:15):
So we're in the soil type that ispredominant for this five county area.
We're having to deal with the samewater issues that the farmers in
this area are having to deal with.
You're gonna see numerousreservoirs, including our own.
So water, of course, for rice productionis critical and right now you're seeing
a lot of, on the west side of theridge, which is where we are, you're
seeing a lot of reservoirs being put in.
(05:38):
Mentioned the reservoir area is the 32acre reservoir, and we're bordered on the
entire western border with the L'AnguilleRiver, and it's really a cut through.
That was a part when we lookedat the purchase, uh, it was a
farm that had all these features.
Location, location, location.
On the west side of theridge, Henry silt loam soil.
A reservoir.
(05:58):
But was largely unimprovedfrom an irrigation standpoint.
So we've got 3.1 milesunderground pipeline.
I'm adding some more this year beinganother thousand feet added to that.
We've got two river red lifts backthere on the L'Anguille River.
We just have one deep well, and itactually only came online in like '23,
(06:18):
so I, I did nothing but surface waterfor the first two or three years.
The fields are dividedup as 21 fields here.
So the Rice Research and Promotion Board,uh, group, at that time, they wanted us
to be able to do field level research,and we've already are accomplishing that.
So we have six zero grade fields,and then the majority of the
others are graded to a 10th.
(06:40):
We have four fields that are at oh threeor you know, what I call quasi zeros.
So that created 13 miles of roads.
So we have flow meters on every outletin the field, so most of the fields
have at least one riser, but manyof the fields, the heavier research
fields have multiple risers in there.
And then we put a flowmeter on every outlet.
So we measure, every drop of watergoes on, whether it's the lease
(07:01):
farmer's land or a research project.
We have Aquarius telemetryon all 21 fields.
So whether you're in flooded environmentwith a depth sensor and or a uh,
subterranean with, uh, tensiometers.
Uh, and a nice thing aboutthat Aquarius system is that
they do kind of a radio link.
So we have one receiver behindthe shop here, up on the pole,
(07:23):
you got good line of sight.
So I only pay one sailor bill, which ismuch better on the cost savings side.
But again, the beauty of that is you, youpick your phone up and you can look at
the moisture sensing, uh, of every field.
Now are, are farms in this partof the country also running
similar sort of technology?
Yes.
(07:43):
The, the farmers in this region,I would call most of our, our
farmers, pretty tech savvy.
And the reason is, is, I mean, youguys know what the labor situation is
and so anything that they can do thatenhances their ability to monitor.
'Cause you know, an average ricefarmer here is gonna be in the.
I call a small farmer 4,000 acresand that goes up to 20,000 acres.
(08:06):
So, and they won't own 20,000 acres.
But they'll own andlease up to 20,000 acres.
One of the things that stood out duringour visit was just how different rice
production systems are compared tothe corn and soybean systems most
Midwest farmers are familiar with.
You're gonna have your rotation.
So unlike some of the other partsof the Delta, get into some of the,
(08:30):
some of the clay ground, and it'sgonna be rice after rice, after rice.
But in this area, we're, wereally are a good rotation base.
Because, you know, you're, you're,you're running from that mutation
in the, in the weed population.
So the, the soybean rice rotationreally extends your capacity with
regard to your weed management program.
(08:51):
So that's what we're trying to do here.
So in the Provisia world, you go Provisiathen you follow that with Clearfield,
then you would follow that by twoyears of beans in the perfect world.
So it's a four year rotation.
Yeah.
In the perfect world, but most people,if they get into Provisia they probably
would do in a three year rotation.
Mm-hmm.
You can, you, it wouldn'thurt you on the plant
(09:13):
side.
Is it a herbicide.
So red rice
Yes.
Is what a lot of this is gonna deal with.
So it's literally red rice.
Provisia has control on red riceand some of the other grasses.
Barnyard grass, I thinkit has some capacity.
And Clearfield's beenaround longer than Provisia.
But, uh, it's a big, big problem.
It's really hard to get rid of.
The big problem there was is red rice and,you know, not as big a problem in Arkansas
(09:35):
as say, our neighbors to the south.
The weeds that you mentioned, are they thesame like we'd have in our soybean fields
like water, hemp, et What are, what is it?
Is it different down here,what they're worried about?
You'll get some of that too.
I mean, pigweeds gonna be the bigone with soybeans, but in general,
like rice is totally different.
Yeah.
It's Barnard grass.
They're all water.
Water weeds.
Yeah.
Okay.
Stuff I've never heard of.
(09:56):
All the, the sedge
Sedges and barnard grass is a big one.
and barnard grass.
Coffee beans.
It comes outta that water and itliterally spreads a canopy over the rice.
And just like shades it out.
Yep.
Um, and it's tough too.
It's a monster.
It is a like, you get outand start yanking on it.
It's, it's a tough weed.
So yeah, the barnyard grass, if you wereto interview any rice farmer here, they're
(10:21):
gonna say barnyard grass is absolutely thenumber one problem we're facing right now.
Then after that would be sedges.
Sedges can be, also, can bevery difficult to handle.
FMC has a new herbicidethat the university has been
testing for a number of years.
I can't remember the name of it,but it's still waiting approval and
it, it will be our first new modeof action in over, over a decade.
(10:44):
So I guess I should just ask amuch simpler version, which is,
these are different weeds than what
That's correct.
our farmers in Indiana arefighting in their fields?
Correct.
Keep in mind that the reason you floodrice is for weed control and the weed
control there, that the original aspectof that weed control was to pigweed and
some of the weeds you're talking about.
In the upland crops, they can'thandle an anaerobic environment.
(11:05):
But of course then as you get going along,you bring along the aquatic weeds that can
and do thrive in a flooded environment.
But the real reason you floodrice is for weed control.
So while flooded rice is still thedominant system, research here is
shaping how farmers understand hownewer production systems like row
rice might fit in their operations.
(11:27):
Row rice, ROW, not toget my southern slang.
So row rice is probably 20% ofthe acres in Arkansas right now.
And so row rice production,we've got a graded field.
We're gonna put the boardsin the drain at the bottom.
We'll let the bottom third ofthe field flood up just like
it's a flooded environment.
I mean, why not?
Rice loves it.
Weeds don't like it as much.
(11:48):
You got a middle part of the fieldthat transitions depending on when
you let water in and rainfall events.
And then you got the upper thirdof the field that is truly upland.
Okay.
It'll just be furrow.
You'll just see wet marksgoing down through the furrows.
And our research is reallylooking at particularly the
fertilization aspect of that upland.
You know, you can have all fertilizationlosses there that you don't have
(12:11):
in the flooded portion, becausebasically when you put, you know, fly
urea on into a flooded environment,you lose virtually none of it.
I mean, it's, it'smaintained in the flood.
While fertilize sitting on top of theground, it starts volitalizing as soon
as it starts melting into the soil.
So, so there are some aspectsof row rise production that, you
(12:32):
know, we're having to deal with.
And how do you apply nitrogen tomaximize yield based on those three
zones in that, uh, production system.
And the other piece that'salways, uh, harvest time, right.
Think about moisture contentdrying down your field
Yep.
And getting consistencyfrom top to bottom.
Yep.
And so trying to play with the fertilityand then the dry down and like trying
(12:54):
to all
that
Right.
Has a huge variation.
Yes.
Yeah.
I mean, if you, if I got a flooded field,a zero field, like I'll show you today.
And when I pull the boards on it.
Pull the boards, meaningwe're draining it.
When we drain that field, then all ofit's gonna desiccate simultaneously.
But in a row rise field, when I pullthe boards, the bottom starts draining,
and then it's at one moisture content.
This up here is at a whole nothermoisture content, a lot lower.
(13:18):
It's dropping fast.
And so yeah, there's some aspects there.
The key thing that people like aboutit is, you don't have to pull levees.
So you guys drove by today, I'msure they saw cascade flood.
We talked about it where it looked likethe whole field was nothing but levees.
Mm-hmm.
And then you saw straight levees.
Those are graded fields.
When you see a straight as an arrowlevee, that means that field's is grated.
(13:42):
But these fields that you saw that werejust classic cascade, you know, where
it's just curly slope after curly slope.
Yeah, those, you know,
that's a lot of work.
That's a lot of work on,on uh, your levees, right.
Over here in this silt loam, Ican pull a levee that's reasonable
in two passes with a levee plow.
(14:03):
I get over in Mississippi County intogumbo clay, and that's six passes.
So you can imagine the machinerycost of pulling those levees.
And then we call those 30minute soils over there.
That means if 30 minuteswere their ideal to work.
Yeah.
It's usually during lunch.
(14:26):
So they're, they're their own animal.
We create the levees.
We go ahead and flat plant the rice.
We'll get it up to two or three,four leaf, something like that.
Okay.
And then you pull the levies.
Rice continues to grow.
You get it up there where you'reready to put the first shot of
nitrogen on, you fly the nitrogenon, and then we hit it, we flood it.
Which preserves all that nitrogen.
(14:46):
Ideally you want to fly theplane at nine, flooded at 10.
That day.
Because you're, yeah.
Every, every moment thatgrains laying on the soil.
Mm-hmm.
And we're putting Agrotainon there to reduce that.
So you, you've got some time withAgrotain coating on the urea, but yeah,
You don't want take the risk.
Ideally, you're coming, the airplanegoes by, I turn the water on.
(15:10):
So, so imagine those fields that yousaw running, each one of those levees,
six times with a 360 horsepower tractor.
It's time, time, time, time.
Or you can drag some furrows.
Yeah.
And just plant.
That's right.
And so when, when you do it,
So there's a big economic tradeoff.
When you do it with the standardrow rise model, just you
(15:31):
take all of that outta play.
If, if it's a graded field.
And you just pull a polypipe acrossthe top, turn the water on, go ski that
weekend, come back, turn the water off.
It's, it's, it's watered.
So you're gonna take a small yield hit.
But the ones that implement this,they're willing to take the yield
(15:51):
hit for the quality of life.
And cost savings.
And cost too.
Water usage, not really much difference.
We, we've not found that it's ahuge water saver, but there's still
ongoing research in that regard.
The commercial farmers, they'regonna, they're gonna also seed the
levee when they pull the levee.
Actually the levee plowshave a seed box on them.
(16:13):
That rice will be at a little bitdifferent stage, but because it's up on
that levee, it ends up coming in at aboutthe same time and they'll harvest it.
They'll harvest the levees.
I mean, think about those fields you sawwhere, where there were curlys everywhere.
If you didn't harvest the leveesyou'd lose half the field.
When you look at the, the rice crop inthe United States, and I compare it to
the corn crop in the United States orthe soybean crop of the United States
(16:36):
or the wheat crop in the United States.
It's a small player.
For Arkansas, it's a huge player.
Although we certainly have moreacres in soybean than we do rice.
A lot of people don'trealize that, but we do.
But it's, it's small.
And so when we go to the RiceTechnical Working Group meeting that's
held every other year, I mean, whenyou come to that meeting, you're
(16:57):
gonna see everybody that's in rice.
Talking about you were talkingabout, we're all academics.
So everybody that's in riceis gonna be at that meeting.
So that's gonna be University ofArkansas, LSU, California Davis,
Texas, uh, a little bit of Mississippi.
Missouri's got a little bit of rice.
Believe it or not Florida'sgot a little bit of rice now.
(17:19):
Oh, interesting.
But Florida's total rice isless than one farmer here.
The other very interesting thingI found with rice, there's a
lot of rice consumed globally.
Yeah.
And, uh, so, so it is a, it's kindof like, it's very small in the U.S.
but on the global playing field,it's a huge, huge, huge player.
But growing rice is likebeing in the dairy business.
(17:40):
Dairy business is 24 7.
Growing rice is 24 7.
I mean, there's never a day thatsomething doesn't have to be done in
rice, which contrast to corn and soybean.
I mean, soybean.
You just plant it and forget it.
I mean, I'm gonna go spray it twice.
I'm done.
Water it a couple times.
Rice, plant it.
(18:03):
Put the water on.
Manage the
water.
Start the fertilization program.
Get it to green ring.
Put my final boot shot on.
Pull the water down, go in and harvest.
Mm-hmm.
Tear the levees down.
And so there's, it's just a continuouscycle of, you know, levees break.
You have a big rain, you havea levees that erode away.
(18:26):
You gotta go back out there andwait out in the mud and fix it.
It's just a very labor intensive crop.
Compared to traditional row crops.
And I would add to that, thatthe herbicide resistance, the
issues that we're facing and thetools that we don't have in our
toolbox right now, add to that.
(18:47):
Significantly.
That was our visit to the Northeast RiceResearch and Extension Center in Arkansas.
Seeing how much infrastructure andcollaboration goes into understanding
efficient rice production reallyreinforces how different farming
systems can be across the region,even within the United States.
Our visit to the Northeast ArkansasRice Research and Extension Center
(19:08):
gave us a firsthand look at the scaleand complexity of rice production in
the Delta — from water management andirrigation systems to the research that
supports one of the most important riceproducing regions in the United States.
But while we were out visiting farms andresearch sites during this trip, we also
had some of those unplanned moments.
Next week on the podcast, we'll sharea conversation we had right in the
(19:31):
middle of a field with someone wejokingly started calling the robot
lady — Sarah Hinkley, the CEO andco-founder of Barn Owl Precision Ag.
Her company is building small autonomousrobots designed to move through fields and
perform precision weeding between plants.
It was a fascinating look athow automation might change
labor, weed management, and farmtechnology in the years ahead.
(19:52):
So be sure to subscribe to thePurdue Commercial AgCast and join
us next week for that conversation.
We're also sharing video clips fromeach stop on the trip over on our
YouTube channel, so you can seesome of those places firsthand.
Thanks for listening, andwe'll see you next time.
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