UC Cooperative Extension will host a Rice Production Workshop on August 7, 2018 from 8:30am to 3:00pm at Lundberg Family Farms (5311 Midway, Richvale, CA 95974). The Rice Production Workshop is an in-depth workshop that covers the principles and practices of rice production. It is intended for those who are new to the rice industry or those who are looking to brush-up on their knowledge of the applied sciences of rice production. These workshops are generally hosted every two to three years. We ask for registration by August 1st, and the registration fee covers lunch, snacks, and a manual. Enrollment is limited to 75 people. We have applied for DPR and CCA continuing education credits. The agenda is below and in the attached flyer. Please contact your local farm advisor for more information.

Agenda:

8:30      Sign in, pick up class materials

9:00      Introduction and Workshop Overview

9:10      Rice Growth and Development

9:30      Land Formation, Water Management

9:50      Tillage, Planting and Stand Establishment

10:10    Break

10:30    Variety Selection

11:00    Invertebrates

11:30    Diseases

12:00    Lunch

1:00      Fertility

2:00      Weeds

3:00      Adjourn

This year, with the help of Dow AgroSciences, UC farm advisors will increase the number of armyworm traps that they will monitor in rice fields. The idea is to give growers and PCAs more localized information so that they can have a better idea of what's going on near them, and when to increase their monitoring efforts. Weekly trapping numbers will be posted on the UC Rice Online website, http://rice.ucanr.edu/armyworm_traps/.

Luis Espino will be sending a weekly “armyworm alert” email once the trap numbers are updated on the website. The e-mail will go out to those who are subscribed to one of our electronic newsletters (Rice Briefs, Rice Leaf, or Field Notes). If you receive the armyworm email but are not interested, just click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. For those who do not receive our newsletters electronically, you can subscribe to the alert email in the armyworm website: http://rice.ucanr.edu/armyworm_traps/.

I will also keep you updated through this blog, specifically on Delta trap counts.

The 2017 season was marked by weather extremes, including record winter rainfall and high summer temperatures. Despite those, Delta rice growers generally observed an average to above-average season. Total acreage for the Delta south of the Yolo Bypass was roughly 2900 acres. For some growers, acreage was up because they were able to get ground preparation done early, but for others, acreage was down because the ground was late to dry out. Most of the Delta acreage is in San Joaquin County, with a few hundred acres in the “tail” of Sacramento County. The acreage was entirely drill-seeded, as is typical for the Delta, and planted with M.206.

Annual rainfall (October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017) for the region varied greatly by location. CIMIS stations for the south Delta reported rainfall from 16 to 20 inches, but stations in the north Delta reported 28 to 38 inches. Most of this rainfall fell in October through January. Spring rainfall lingered into the month of April, but accumulation of at least a tenth of an inch ceased by mid-April. Given the high organic matter content of many Delta soils, fields generally dried out for on-schedule planting in late-April through early-May, with few exceptions.

Growers and consultants did not report high pest pressure. Watergrass and sprangletop can be problematic weeds, but these were generally managed well with herbicide programs. We have been trapping armyworms in the Delta during the summer, in cooperation with Sacramento Valley farm advisors. We found moth flights to peak in late June (Fig. 1). Some growers indicated needing to spray some of their acreage; however, others did not. For those who sprayed, populations fell and did not resurge later in the season.

Cooler temperatures in the Delta, compared to the Sacramento Valley, make the Delta a challenging place to grow rice. The summer of 2017, however, brought many days over 100⁰F. This varied greatly by location, with some areas in the north Delta having approximately 10 days over 100⁰F and areas of the south Delta having 25 days over 100⁰F, according to CIMIS stations. Hot days meant warmer nights, which was a good thing for Delta rice culture. Delta rice can experience blanking due to low night-time temperatures, influenced by Delta breezes. We expect blanking to occur when the developing pollen grains are exposed to night-time temperatures at or below 55⁰ F for several hours. Across four Delta CIMIS stations, the average minimum temperature from August 1^st to September 15^th was 60⁰F.

Harvest was generally on-schedule and occurred from late-September to early-October. Anecdotally, yields were up and averaged over 90 cwt/acre. Growers suspect that the higher summer temperatures (including higher night-time temperatures) resulted in less blanking and higher yields.

Overall, Delta rice growers had an average to above-average year as we close out 2017. Let's hope for a similar 2018.

Here are a few articles, written by UC Cooperative Extension colleagues, that may be of interest to readers of this blog:

From the UC Rice Blog:

Armyworm vs. High Temperature Blanking - by Luis Espino, Farm Advisor, Colusa County

From the UC Dry Bean Blog:

UC Davis Dry Bean Field Day Announcement - by Rachael Long, Farm Advisor, southern Sacramento Valley

From the UC Small Grains Blog:

Start Planning Your Nitrogen Management Strategy for Fall-Planted Wheat Now - by Mark Lundy, Small Grains Specialist, UC Davis and Konrad Mathesius, Farm Advisor, southern Sacramento Valley