Rainy Weather Spells New Challenges for Rice Farmers After Last Year’s Historic Drought

Story by Alena Maschke 

On a blisteringly hot Wednesday afternoon on the Stelly family farm near Kaplan, barrels worth of golden rice kernels pour into a container to be hauled off for processing. After days of rain, fifth generation rice farmers Sandrus and Adlar Stelly are glad to finally be ramping up their harvest. 
 
“Everybody is in the fields harvesting right now,” said Ronnie Levy, Louisiana rice specialist at the LSU AgCenter. Levy has been making his rounds to four farms in Acadia, Allen, Jeff Davis and Vermilion parishes to help farmers improve their operations and test out the AgCenter’s research in real-life conditions. 
 
This year, Louisiana farmers planted more rice than last year, but slightly less than expected due to very wet conditions during planting season. In total, 475,000 acres of rice were planted across the state this year, compared to 462,000 last year. 
 
The acreage fell short of the 500,000 acres anticipated by the AgCenter, largely because heavy, consistent rain prevented farmers in North Louisiana from planting rice. Almost all rice in the northern part of the state is drill seeded, Levy noted, a technique that doesn’t work in very wet conditions. 
 
“North Louisiana was so wet that a lot of that rice didn’t get planted,” Levy said. Instead, farmers there shifted to soybeans, despite rice being the preferred crop because it fetches higher prices. In southwest Louisiana and Texas, Hurricane Beryl caused some damage to existing rice fields. 
 
Overall, this year’s weather conditions have been a mixed bag for farmers. While last year’s extreme drought with sudden, short bouts of rain lead to decreased milling quality due to grain breakage, this year’s heavy rains have delayed harvesting. 
 
“Last year, around this time, we were praying for rain,” Adlar Stelly said. “We sure will watch what we wish for, because He will deliver.” A week and a half into their usual harvesting period, the Stellys anticipated they had harvested roughly 30% of their 3,000-acre crop of conventional rice varieties, compared to the usual 50%. 
 
While the dry season last year was challenging for the farm, especially with regards to crawfish production, it had its long-term benefits. Less fungal spore carryover from the previous year has meant less disease pressure on this year’s crop. In turn, the rain this year is starting to cause some issues with disease, according to Levy. 
 
“Humidity increases the fungi spreading on the plants,” Levy said. Recently, Levy and his team have seen an increasing number of Cercospora infections across the fields they visit, a disease that leads to empty hulls or “false grains”. While it’s difficult to determine how much the spread of the fungus will affect this year’s yield before the rice is processed, Levy anticipates that 10-20% of this year’s crop is affected by the disease. 

​Disease prevention and treatment is one of many things Levy and his team at the AgCenter help farmers in its Louisiana Rice Research Verification Program with. The program aims to improve the economic and ecological sustainability of the participating farms while also verifying whether the findings of the AgCenter’s research are useful to farmers. 
 
The program also collects data on the increasingly popular rotation of rice and crawfish. 
 
“Drainage is probably one of the biggest things that we see problems with,” Levy explained. 
 
“We can’t really rotate with many other crops because rice likes soils that have almost no drainage.” Those aren’t ideal growing conditions for most other crops which, in addition, can carry over disease to the rice crop. 
 
This has made crawfish a recommended rotational crop for rice, but there’s less long-term research on how this rotation can be optimized. “We still are trying to determine the long-term effect of rice-crawfish rotation, because it’s a relatively new rotation system,” Levy said. “We are still learning.” 
 
The Stellys are currently in their second year of participating and say they’ve seen increased yields as a result of the collaboration. “It sure helped me and him a lot,” Sandrus Stelly said. “It showed us a few newer techniques. And we even brought back some older stuff that we were doing years ago and reminded us of that we’re actually bringing up yields with a little less cost,” his brother Adlar added. 
 
Cost-savings are key at a time when farmers are facing economic pressure from all sides. Inflation has driven up the cost of labor and parts, and high interest rates have made crop loans more costly. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reports the average interest rate on all types of farm loans topped 8% in 2023, the highest in 20 years. Rates have climbed for eight consecutive quarters. 
 
“We’re doing everything we can in the field. We’re seeing better yields, and we’re working on trying to cut down on costs, but one of the main things we’re facing right now is inflation and interest rates,” Adlar Stelly said. 
 
The verification program, Levy hopes, can help alleviate some of those pressures by testing and implementing sustainable practices and growing yields in a way that is cost-effective. 
 
“Every week, when we go out and look, depending upon what’s in the field, we try to make economic recommendations,” the rice specialist said. “Sustainability is kind of a buzzword, but we’re looking at practices that improve sustainability.”