Greetings from Louisiana rice country! This year, the blog will concentrate research conducted at the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station, in addition to showing the progress of a 6-acre field of rice planted March 19 to produce foundation seed. We encourage your comments and thoughts to help improve this online tool. If you would like a photograph of a particular piece of equipment or a better explanation of a process, let us know.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Rice Has Emerged on the Zaunbrecher Field



Rice plants emerged during the weekend at the Zaunbrecher field near Lake Arthur.
The farmer, Ronnie “Blue” Zaunbrecher of Lake Arthur, said the rice seedlings responded to the warmer weather.
Dr. Johnny Saichuk, LSU AgCenter rice specialist, said the rice is at the 1-leaf stage and he estimated emergence occurred Saturday (March 29). Shown above is a view of the rice plants.

Weeds are dominating some areas of the 39-acre field.
Saichuk walked the field April 2 with Zaunbrecher and they identified several weeds that could cause problems. The worst Saichuk found was Juncus. In the picture below, Saichuk, on the right, and farmer Ronnie "Blue" Zaunbrecher walk through the field with the heaviest concentration of the waxy-leaf weed.













“We knew it was here and we knew we didn’t get it with the burndown,” Saichuk said.
He also found starworts, sedges, alligator weed and water primrose.
“We need to get the flood on the field before we have a red rice problem,” Saichuk said.
Zaunbrecher said the field has been used for crawfish, so the aquatic weed problem is to be expected. “Compared to what it used to be, this is clean.”
Saichuk prescribed an ounce of Permit per acre for the Juncus, and a half ounce of Londax for the other weeds, in addition to a gallon of zinc per acre and a 1 percent concentration of crop oil, 200 pounds of urea and 40 pounds of potash.
After all that material is applied by airplane, the field will be flooded.

Below is a picture of a King snake found during Saichuk's weekly walking inspection of the field.

2 comments:

nelson said...

My name is Nelson Mucenic and I live at south Brazil. Do you have soil analysis of Zaunbrecher field?

LSU AgCenter said...

Here are results for macro nutrients from the LSU AgCenter Soil Testing Lab:

pH (1:1 Water) 5.38 Optimum Phosphorus, ppm 19.89 High
Potassium, ppm 210.87 Medium
Calcium, ppm 2,627.17 High Magnesium, ppm 777.17 Very High
Sodium, ppm 110.87 Optimum
Sulfur, ppm 26.16 High
Copper, ppm 1.63 High
Zinc, ppm 0.97 Low

Soil Texture:
silty clay
Soil Testing and Plant Analysis Laboratory
Department of Agronomy and
Environmental Management
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Website: www.lsuagcenter.com/stpal
Element (Mehlich3)