Two new rice varieties give growers more options

Despite the negative effects of California's four-year drought, there were many positive developments to highlight at the 103rd annual Rice Field Day, recently held at the Rice Experiment Station in Biggs.

The good news included the release of two new rice varieties, the possibility of an emergency approval of an armyworm insecticide and the establishment of an endowed chair for future rice research.

Hundreds of people attended Rice Field Day, which is sponsored by the California Cooperative Rice Research Foundation, the University of California and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The goal of the grower-funded research is to improve rice varieties, disease and pest management, grain cooking quality and more. It is also the annual meeting for the grower/owners of the foundation.

The ongoing drought in California has meant less water for growing rice. This year's crop is estimated to be only 325,000 acres, according to the Sacramento-based California Rice Commission. Water cutbacks led to a decrease of approximately 175,000 acres, or about one-third of the average half-million acres annually grown in the Golden State.

Growers are assessed 11.5 cents for every 100 pounds of rice they produce to fund research. The decrease in statewide rice production meant that the experiment station received less funding this year.

Fortunately, the station received another source of funding as a result of a tariff settlement with Colombia, which buys U.S. rice, according to RES Director Kent McKenzie.

Bert Manuel, chairman of the rice research foundation, said, "I am pleased to report that we have been able to continue our breeding and research activities without any reduction."

Seth Fiack, chairman of the California Rice Research Board, said, "It has been a challenging year to grow rice in California with our continued drought."

He noted the drought has led to increased weed pressure, heavy armyworm infestations and fallowing of fields due to insufficient water supplies.

"With harvest approaching and winter on its heels, we have increased hopes for the Godzilla El Niño. Chances are high for us to break this drought cycle and return to more full water allotments and normal plantings. Farmers are the eternal optimists. With these ideas in mind, we continue to look toward the rice research here at the station with Dr. Kent McKenzie and his impressive staff," he said.

Fiack encouraged people to read the research board's annual report, and noted new projects that are forthcoming: the utilization of rice straw for curing of concrete, understanding rice herbicide drift on walnuts, and improving rice yields through microbial fungi research.

In addition, Fiack announced that a new endowment fund has been created to fund research on improving rice production and quality.

"The Rice Research Board is proud to announce a pledge to the Regents of the University of California to provide a minimum of $500,000 for the purpose of establishing a UC Cooperative Extension Presidential Chair for California-grown rice," he said. "This is a matching endowment, which means the president of the UC is matching our pledge of $500,000, making it a total endowment of $1 million. This is a true endowment that will continue into perpetuity to support the rice industry."

Field day participants toured the station aboard canopied flatbed trucks to learn about the rice breeding program.

The experiment station's staff continues to work on incorporating improved agronomic and quality traits in medium-grain rice, commercially known as Calrose, the predominant type grown in California.

Virgilio Andaya, the station's director of plant breeding, said the CCRRF board approved the release of a new medium-grain variety this year: M-209, formerly known as the experimental variety 08Y3269. M-209 is an early maturing, high-yielding Calrose that may serve as an M-205 or M-202 alternative. He noted that it may suffer damage from cold-temperature-induced blanking if grown in cooler areas of the state. Andaya said M-209 was evaluated by milling and marketing organizations and was judged to have superior grain quality.

Stanley Samonte, short-grain and premium-grain rice breeder, announced the release of Calmochi-203 this year. It is a high-yielding, early maturing, short-grain waxy rice. Calmochi-203 may be an alternative for Calmochi-101, since the new variety addresses the low-yielding ability and undesirable seed pubescence of Calmochi-101. In statewide tests, Calmochi-203 had an average yield of 9,650 pounds per acre, compared to 7,590 lbs./acre for Calmochi-101, a 27 percent yield advantage.

Farman Jodari, long-grain plant breeder, noted two promising experimental varieties that are being tested in 2015: 12Y20 and 11Y1005. He said these two lines have shown excellent agronomic and quality traits. Experimental variety 12Y20 is currently under foundation seed increase, and both experimental lines are being tested in all eight statewide test locations this year.

UCCE entomologist Larry Godfrey discussed his research on controlling rice water weevils, tadpole shrimp, red-shouldered stinkbugs and other invertebrate pests.

"This was the year of the armyworm," Godfrey said, noting it was the worst infestation he has seen in 24 years. He said infestation usually occurs in August, but this year it began in June. He explained that armyworm larvae overwinter in the soil.

"This past year, with the warm, dry winter, all those larvae and pupae survived in the soil in the Sacramento Valley. They emerged in May and really hit the rice fields in June. Another factor was we had fewer fields, so they were concentrated in the fields that were available," he said. "We also found that the insecticides we have, the pyrethroid and Sevin, really are not effective enough for the levels we saw in June. So the Rice Commission is trying to get a product approved through a Section 18. It hasn't been approved yet, but hopefully it will be in the near future."

The Section 18 material is Intrepid by Dow AgroSciences. It is an insect growth regulator that controls worms and is available for a number of crops, but not for rice. He said the data are in place that would possibly allow the Section 18 emergency approval by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.

The Rice Experiment Station has a new plant pathologist, Paul Sanchez, who succeeded Jeff Oster, who recently retired. Sanchez was unable to attend the field day; therefore, Cynthia Andaya, research scientist in the DNA marker lab, reviewed the station's research on developing rice varieties with disease resistance to rice blast, stem rot and aggregate sheath spot. She said blast-resistance genes have been combined in M-206 to overcome single-gene resistance, as occurred in M-208. Efforts are already underway to transfer these genes to other varieties.

The field day participants also boarded buses to visit the weed research nursery at the station's Hamilton Road site. The RES has a new weed scientist, Kassim Al-Khatib. He succeeded Albert Fischer, who recently retired. Al-Khatib provided research updates on herbicides, herbicide-resistant weeds and weed control using different cultural methods including water-seeded, pinpoint-flooded and drill-seeded rice.

Farmers, agricultural businesspeople, agricultural scientists, government officials and others attended the field day for a variety of reasons.

Yuba County rice grower Roy Morello of Marysville attended the field day with his son John. He said he was interested in learning more about drill-seeding and weed control. He also came for the networking opportunities at the well-attended field day.

"We came to see if they have any new sprays to controls the weeds," Morello said. "These weeds get resistance—we never really kill them, we just slow them down."

Helene Dillard, dean of the UCD College of Agriculture, said, "I wanted to see it firsthand. It's really a chance for me to learn, since I've spent 30 years in vegetables and now I'm getting into the grains."

Pest control advisor Troy Giesbrecht of Colusa County Farm Supply said, "We work quite a bit with Kent McKenzie. We work closely with the rice herbicide work on Hamilton Road."

Giesbrecht, 22, is also a fourth-generation farmer at Giesbrecht Farms in Willows.

"This is my first time here at the field day," he said. "I grew up in Willows on our family farm, but we've never grown rice, so I'm learning a ton."

Rice Field Day concluded with a luncheon featuring rice and sushi prepared with rice varieties developed by breeders at the field station.

(Robyn Rominger is a writer in Winters. She may be contacted at robynrominger@hotmail.com.)