Is Row Rice in your Future?

Row rice or furrow irrigated rice is once again being investigated by the MSU Irrigation team as an alternative to conventional flooded rice production.  Some of you may recall Dr. Joe Street and Dr. Ted Miller worked with Clarksdale’s Leon Bramlett in the late 80’s exploring the agronomic’s of row rice. Mr. Bramlett wanted an alternate crop to raise on his traditional cotton farm. Being too hilly for conventional rice, the idea of row rice was born. This was long before the introduction of the “new” rice herbicides Facet, Command, Newpath, and Clearpath, and issues with weed control ultimately led to the abandonment of the concept.

Last year Jeremy Jacks and  brother in law, Trey Koger  had a hilly field, traditionally planted in soybeans, adjacent to a large tract of conventionally grown rice.  Faced with all the issues of herbicide drift if soybeans had been planted, the team decided to plant the already rowed up field in row rice. The earlier discussed weed issues were tackled with a split Command, Command/Newpath, followed by Clearpath program approach.  No other real production issues surfaced for the team.  Having had a successful first attempt,  in 2016 the team expanded their row rice plantings.  On the news of their success, a few other Delta Farmers decided to explore row rice on some of their hillier fields. The MSU Irrigation team is monitoring agronomic practices and water use on these farmer locations.

As part of the MSU Irrigation teams support and investigation of row rice, Jason Satterfield was hired to research row rice as his Doctoral project.  Jason worked under Dr. Tim Walker while completing his Master’s Degree later taking a position with Bayer Chemical in rice research. Jason has decided to pursue his PhD. after spending the last few years on the family farm.  Jason will research the effects of row rice on rice fertility, weed control, disease, water usage, as well as economics.  We look forward to his work to determine if row rice is a feasible alternate to conventional rice.

Here are some photos of the row rice across the Delta. All of these field are two tenths grade or greater.