By Shala Watson
Multimedia Writer
Rice harvest has started for some farmers in the Lone Star State, and by the first week of August, farmers should be in full harvest mode. The Texas crop has had a good season and managed to escape major weather events.
“It’s too early to know what yields will be like, but we will probably have a normal year,” Dr. Ted Wilson, director at Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Beaumont, told AgriLife Today.
Wilson said some areas with a lot of rainfall have experienced weed problems.
The Texas rice growing region encompasses more than 20 counties—mostly along the upper Gulf Coast and near the Oklahoma-Arkansas border.
Wilson noted soil types and rainfall amounts will impact yields.
“East of Houston, the rice growing area gets an average of 60 inches of rain a year and the soils are heavier, so the moisture lingers,” he said. “West of Houston, the rice fields get about 37 inches a year and the soil is lighter.”
Early yield reports west of Houston are “impressive,” Derrol Grymes wrote in Rice Tex’s update.
Grymes said farmers were cutting in the low to mid 60- to 62-barrel range.
Wilson noted the U.S. rice crop may have decreased about 500,000 acres from 2016 levels. He estimated Texas rice farmers planted 158,000 to 172,000 acres.
Wilson said heavy rains and flooding in Arkansas this year have impacted the drop in U.S. acreage. Suppressed prices have also pushed acreage in Texas down 10-17 percent.
Wilson said there is some indication that global carryover stocks of rice internationally are beginning to “settle out.”
If U.S. rice production is realized and acreage is down, Wilson said “we should see a rebound in U.S. prices soon.”
“Barring a tropical storm developing during harvest, we should have a normal year,” Wilson said. “We have phenomenal growers in Texas.”
Timothy Gertson grows rice in Colorado, Wharton and Fort Bend Counties.
Gertson said rainfall during this time of the year can damage a rice crop and lower the quality. He said farmers closer to the coast have been catching showers, but others further inland have missed the showers.
“We’ve had pretty good conditions,” Gertson told the Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) Radio Network. “If the weather will hold out for the week and we can keep those afternoon showers away, we’ve got some really good harvest conditions for everyone to get started in.”
Other rice growing states have struggled with harsh weather conditions during blooming and pollination, according to Gertson. Last year, the weather and rain during pollination impacted yields in Texas and caused blank grains and kernels.
“For the most part here in Texas, we’ve been spared from that,” Gertson said. “But rain can hurt you all the way up until the end.”
Gertson said they are expecting very good yields this year.
“The fields look very good,” Gertson said. “Visually it doesn’t look like we have a lot of blanks.”
Hear more from Gertson on the TFB Radio Network.