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.

Spraying for Weeds

Now that the Rice Research Station field has been planted, Larry White took the initiative against weed pressure Wednesday morning with a ground rig. He sprayed a tank-mixed combination that included Honcho Plus for grasses, Permit for sedges and Command to attack weeds before they emerge from the ground. Uncontrolled weeds can detract from a crop’s yield by as much as 70 percent, by robbing plants of valuable nutrients and sunlight.

Rice Research Station Field Planted

The blog field at the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station was planted Tuesday morning. Larry White, manager of the Rice Station foundation seed program, said the new Catahoula variety was drill seeded at the rate of 42 pounds an acre at a depth of approximately three quarters of an inch.
“There was a little frost in the low spots this morning,” according to White.
But by this weekend, temperatures are supposed to be in the 60s at night and the mid-80s, ideal conditions for rice to germinate.
White said he’ll flush the field next week.

In the photo, the rows can be seen to the right of the tractor where the seed was planted. In the background on the left is a small planter used for research plots.

Zaunbrecher Field is Planted

With good, warm weather, rice farmers are jumping at the chance to start planting.
On Wednesday, Lake Arthur farmer Ronnie “Blue” Zaunbrecher had seed flown onto the flooded 39-acre field featured in the blog. The field is in this year’s LSU AgCenter Verification Program.
The seeding rate was 120 pounds per acre of the Cheniere variety.

The above photo shows seed falling from the airplane.

Below is a shot of the seed as it hits the water.

Dr. Johnny Saichuk, LSU AgCenter rice specialist in charge of the verification program, recommended that Zaunbrecher not drain the field until Friday. The seed had been soaked to hasten germination, but Saichuk said the seed did not appear to be adequately pipped, or sprouting enough to allow immediate draining after planting. “I think it needs to sit there for 24 hours, then turn the water loose.”
He said the flood will protect the seed from tonight’s cold temperatures in the 40s.
By draining the field, the seed will sprout into the mud and make it less likely to be moved later when the field is reflooded.
Saichuk said reflooding can be done in 4-5 days, and herbicides and fertilizer applied in the next 10 days.
Meanwhile back at the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station, the 21.25-acre field may be planted within the week if the soil gets dry. Larry White, manager of the Rice Research Station’s foundation seed program, said the field is too wet for drill seeding.

Getting Ready to Plant the 2008 Rice Crop

As the days get warmer, rice farmers are eager to start planting.
Ronnie “Blue” Zaunbrecher of Lake Arthur , pictured above, expects to start in the next few days. One of the fields he will plant will be one of 2 featured in this year’s rice farming blog. The other field is located at the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station.
The blog will follow Zaunbrecher’s 39-acre field that is in this year’s LSU AgCenter verification program under the supervision of Dr. Johnny Saichuk, LSU AgCenter rice specialist.
Zaunbrecher is a fifth generation farmer. His forefathers started in the Mowata area, then some of the family settled in Gueydan and later Lake Arthur.
Zaunbrecher, 38, has been farming since 1996. He earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from McNeese and a master’s degree in agriculture at LSU where he studied sugarcane breeding. He was attending Texas A&M to get a doctorate degree in cotton breeding when he decided to return to Louisiana and start farming.
“This will be crop No. 13,” Zaunbrecher said.
He’s never seen rice prices this high, topping $30 a barrel on the futures market, but he knows firsthand that expenses are higher than ever for fuel, fertilizer and chemicals such as glyphosate.
Zaunbrecher will water seed the verification field with Cheniere at the rate of 120 pounds per acre. He said he favors Cheniere because of its high-yielding advantage, possibly 4 to 5 bushels more per acre.
He currently has a 6-inch flood on the field, made up of three cuts. It was fallow last year, and he applied glyphosate last month to burn off vegetation. Zaunbrecher said the best the field has yielded was 48 barrels when it was planted in Wells a few years ago.
“That was a year it just grew and grew, and never stopped.”
Between him and his two brothers, Randall and Russell Zaunbrecher, they will plant roughly 2,200 acres of rice. They also hope to plant soybeans, with the acreage depending on seed availability.


In addition to Zaunbrecher’s field, a 21.25-acre field at the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station will be followed this year, and the webcam will be focused on it so you can check on the crop’s progress.
Larry White, manager of the Rice Research Station’s seed program, said the field will be drill-seeded with Catahoula, a long-grain variety released by the LSU AgCenter last year.
White said the field will be planted “as soon as it dries up,” which could be in a week.
You can see the field now at http://www.lsuagcenter.com/ricecam/.

Harvest results tallied

The final numbers are in for the harvest of the blog field. The picture above shows the field after the rice was cut.

Larry White determined the overall yield was 46.26 barrels per acre at 18.5 percent moisture. That will be 42.8 barrels after the rice is dried in bins to 12 percent moisture.

In South Louisiana, rice is measured in barrels. A barrel is 162 pounds of rice.
North Louisiana farmers measure rice by the bushel. A total of 45 pounds is contained in 1 bushel, and that works out ot .277 of a barrel. One barrel contains 3.6 bushels.
But rice also is measured in hundredweights (100 pounds of rice = 1 hundredweight).


Meanwhile, several other fields at the station have been harvested while others are not mature enough for harvest. Some varieties mature earlier than others. Farmers generally prefer an earlier harvest to avoid the peak of hurricane season in late August and early September.

Rice harvest begins

Harvest of the rice blog field began at approximately 11:30 a.m. on Monday, August 06. This is 139 days since the field was seeded on March 20. The grain moisture of the first truckload of rice harvested was about 18%. This means that the grain at this stage contained approximately 18% water. Rice is typically harvested at between 17-21 % grain moisture. The grain is then artificially dried down to about 12% moisture. The reason rice is harvested at higher moisture then artificially dried (as opposed to letting the grain dry in the field prior to harvest) is to maintain the grain quality. If the grain dries much below 17% in the field, there is excessive breakage of the rice grains during the milling process. Even though the grain harvested from this field will be used for seed, maintenance of grain quality is still important.



Shortly after the harvest began, a bearing broke on the clean grain elevator on the harvest combine. The combine had to be brought into the Rice Research Station Maintenance Shop for repairs. The combine will be repaired and the harvest operation will resume as soon as possible. This is not a rare occurrence in any commercial rice farming operation. Harvest machines are very complex with a large number of moving parts and breakdowns necessitating repairs are commonplace during the harvest season.