|
Rice Growing Revolutionized
Brian Ottis, RiceTec Global Solutions Development Lead recently spoke at the
RiceTec Annual Field Day where the newest herbicide tolerant
development for rice growers was showcased.
Photo by Jack Thompson
RiceTec Introduces Its New FULLPAGETM Rice Crop Solution
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER
MidAmerica Farmer Grower
JONESBORO, ARK.
RiceTec showcased the newest herbicide tolerant development for rice growers at its Annual Field Day here recently. The FULLPAGETM Rice Cropping Solution was discussed by Brian Ottis, RiceTec Global Solutions Development Lead, at the field day.
Farmers attending got a first look at the FULLPAGETM cropping solution. FULLPAGETM is a new system, a proprietary trait of imidazolinone-tolerant traits developed by RiceTec.
“We partnered with ADAMA Chemical Company who produces the herbicides Preface and Postcript for us,” Ottis said. “This is a program that gives us a stronger tolerance to the imidazolinone herbicides than what is currently in our Clearfield rice.”
The new system does not require farmers to delay or cut herbicide application rates because of cool weather. FULLPAGETM really stands up to the Clearfield varieties when it comes to crop tolerance to IMI herbicides. RiceTec will be phasing out Clearfield and phasing into FULLPAGETM over the next three years.
“We’re required by BASF to discontinue any Clearfield after 2020, so we’ve taken all of our lead genetics and introgressed all of our FULLPAGETM traits into the genetics so there won’t be any misstep,” he stated. “In fact, some of our recent data, fresh out of the field last week, shows our new FULLPAGETM hybrids are actually outyielding our Clearfield. So we feel FULLPAGETM is going to actually be equal to or better in genetics. From a grower standpoint, there won’t be any step backwards, farmers can just move right on over and start using the FULLPAGETM hybrids along with Preface and Postscript herbicides.
At another stop on the tour, the company introduced its new Smart Rice®, Powered by Aquarius Irrigation Automation System, which will be prototyped next year.
“This will allow growers to automate irrigation on their farm,” Ottis said. “Farmers essentially can set upper and lower limits for irrigation water and they can automate their irrigation. The system will turn the wells on and off based on preset limits so you don’t have any waste of water, you don’t water when you don’t need to, and it allows you to capitalize on alternate wetting and drying, and some of these new innovative water conservation practices.”
The third stop on the tour highlighted some of the new products by RiceTec, including some new high quality rice hybrids and a variety that RiceTec has been able to incorporate out of its South American program.
“We’re bringing some new traits in that will provide lower chalk rice with longer kernel length, higher amylose content, and lower gelatinization temperature,” he explained.
This rice was developed in the southern hemisphere, and will allow RiceTec to compete with rice from countries there like Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil.
“Everyone remembers the bad quality year of 2010. We’ve been selling these hybrids in South America for years; however, because of laws the United States has on the books we can’t import any seed rice, so we basically had to start the breeding program over here starting with these genetics,” Ottis explained.
“Now we’re at the point, eight or nine years later, where we have some saleable quantities of this seed to offer. Next year we’re planning to have 75,000 acres of seed available of FULLPAGETM and we’ll have a few thousand acres available of a couple of these high amylose, low gelatinization temperature hybrids,” he added. “These are going to be niche products that must to be kept separate (IP’d) because they will cook differently than a standard southern long grain. They’re going to cook fluffier and harder and be more suited for RTS (ready-to-serve) rice in a pouch and parboil rice. But they do have low chalk so they can be a white rice product, it’s just when you cook them they’re going to be a lot more fluffy with a firmer mouth feel.”
It will be something like a Jasmine, instead of mushy it will be a firmer product.
“If you have ever eaten parboil rice off of a steam table, it will be similar to that, whether its white rice or parboil and that’s because of the amylose content.
“The two big things we’re most excited about this year are the FULLPAGETM and then our move into the Smart Rice® irrigation strategy. RiceTec has had a Smart Rice concept that we’ve been talking about for years here and that is capitalizing on better water use efficiency, better nitrogen use efficiency, and lower greenhouse gas. So, with that in mind and incorporating irrigation automation with precision leveling and some of these other things that NRCS is helping growers with through our RCPP programs and others, we feel like this will be a perfect fit for growers that are really progressive and want to conserve water.
“Just by using alternate wetting and drying we can knock methane emissions back upwards of 70 percent and we can save upwards of 40 percent on water. So there’s a lot of neat things happening and we want to lead the way and be a big part of it. So we are continuing to revolutionize rice production here at RiceTec.” ∆
BETTY VALLE GEGG-NAEGER: Senior Staff Writer, MidAmerica Farmer Grower
Jeff Mosley, RiceTec Regional Sales Manager, speaking to attendees on one of the tour
stops at the Field Day.
Photo by Jack Thompson
|
|