Furrow Irrigated Rice Final Report

Over the last four years, MSU has conducted forty-nine “on-farm” furrow irrigated rice trials.  Yield data was reported from all forty-nine locations, while water use data was collected on twenty-eight locations from 2017-2019. Producers were required to have two adjacent fields planted at the same time with the same variety. One of the fields was furrow irrigated and the other irrigated conventionally utilizing multiple inlet and alternate wetting and drying irrigation management. The producers managed the furrow irrigated side utilizing irrigation instructions from the researcher as a guide. The researcher made the irrigation decision on the furrow irrigated field based on the Pani tube measurement triggers. During the 2019 year irrigation timing was implemented utilizing water depth measurement sensors relaying water depth information to the grower’s cell phone.  All agronomic practices in both fields were controlled by the producer and his consultant. Presented are the results.

As presented, producers are doing a good job of controlling water use.  Yields over the four year period resulted in an 8.1-bushel yield decrease.  Even though the averages across years continues to look promising, the 2019 data indicates “proceed with caution”.  Here is a look at the 2019 summary.

Water use in 2019 continues to look promising but yields decreased substantially.  When analyzing the yield data, a number of variables present themselves.  Excessive rainfall and loss of nitrogen is expected.  Fifty percent of the locations in 2019 were grades greater than two-tenths contributing to the possible loss of nitrogen.  The good news is, Dr. Bobby Golden has a graduate student evaluating all the parameters in furrow irrigated rice production.  Their continued research may glean some answers to the 2019 results soon.  For now, here are our recommendations.