Weeds AR Wild S5, Ep3: Rice Planting Progress and Weed Control with Dr. Jarrod Hardke (4/1/25)

For this episode, extension weed scientists Bob Scott and Tom Barber are joined by extension rice agronomist Jarrod Hardke to discuss current rice planting progress, seed availability and early rice weed control options.

Transcript

[00:00] Intro/Outro

Arkansas Row Crops Radio, providing up to date information and timely recommendations on row crop production in Arkansas.

[00:12] Bob Scott

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Weeds AR Wild podcast, presented today as part of the Arkansas Row Crops Radio. I'm Bob Scott, extension weed specialist with the University of Arkansas Division of Ag. And joining me today is my fellow host of this podcast, extension weed scientist doctor Tom Barber.

[00:32] Tom Barber

How's it going Bob? Morning. 

[00:35] Bob Scott

Today, Tom and I are going to discuss rice weed control, and, to help us get through this, we've invited our extension rice agronomist doctor Jarrod Hardke to join the discussion. And hopefully keep a straight and honest during this. Good morning, Jarrod.

[00:51] Jarrod Hardke

Good morning, guys.

[00:53] Bob Scott

Jarrod I'm going to put you on the spot right away. And here we are April 1st. And this is not an April Fool's joke, but I would like to know the status of how much rice is planted. I'm used to being behind as a weed scientist. We tend not to plant early. But I feel more behind than ever this year, and I don't know. Is that correct or what are you seeing out there? 

[01:16] Jarrod Hardke

Oh, definitely a little bit. Yeah. It's it's definitely no fooling where we're off to another good start after the, the 2024 you know really shot out of the cannon I would say we're not we're not quite to that degree this year a lot lot spottier progress. Some really launching into it, a few done already with with rice planting and happened some last year. Honestly. You know, it's hit or miss, you know just how far the official number for this week is just a little shy of 10%. It's probably more like 20% or so. Really. But again, you can drive up and down the road in the state and go through stretches where there's zero rice planted and stretches where there is a ton of rice planted. The, the weather and certainly the seed situation driving, large portions of those decisions going on right now, at least as far as rice goes.

[02:12] Bob Scott

So I know, oh, you mentioned the seed situation and we'll we'll just kind of go with the overview for a little bit before we get into herbicides. But so I know seed is tight. Are you concerned about plants in this upcoming rain event that we've got as we're recording this. Or they're calling for some pretty big rain the next couple of days. What are your thoughts on that?

[02:35] Jarrod Hardke

I'll put it as blunt as possible: Ain't going to be no replants.

[02:40] Bob Scott

I was I was afraid you were going to say that.

[02:43] Jarrod Hardke

That's that's as straightforward as it can be. From a long grain seed situation. I mean, hybrid seed is spoken for other long grain varieties nearly all. And we know we've been told understood. They're gone. I mean, that's it. I mean, when you start talking about already short on seed, that it goes all the way down not only from field seed but levy seed. So, I mean, the stretch has been on for supplies of everything, pulling to cover all of our needs and there's not going to be much of anything left. So nobody should depend on it. And I'm not saying nobody will get their hands on any seed at all to replant, but better not be expecting it. And and I think that is a big part of the lack of rice planting progress so far, add in the dry weather, how dry fields have been.

[03:37] Bob Scott

Right.

[03:37] Jarrod Hardke

But I have heard from multiple growers that, quote: no do over seed, I’m not in a hurry.

[03:47] Bob Scott

Yeah. I mean, that's that's kind of how we feel about it. We we leave it in the barn until we know we're going. You know, by the time we put out all our pre's and all these treatments and things, you don't want to redo those, those tests. So I. I'd kind of relate to that. Tom, Tom, you and I were discussing, you know, unlike using atrazine in corn, if we do have a worst-case scenario and we got a punt and plant beans, there's not too many things we can do with our rice herbicides that would prevent us from planting beans back in those fields.

[04:19] Tom Barber

Yeah, that’s I guess a positive out of it if we have to replant. I was just really pumped because this is the first year that, we've been on the heavy ground down there at Rohwer before June. So I was like, wow, we're going to get planted on time this year. Well, probably not. If we get ten inches, it'll be a pond again. So.

[04:39] Jarrod Hardke

Some of these bottomland fields. Same thing, even lower lying fields. I've heard all we normally never get in them until May. And we got them planted now. And now we're calling for maybe 10 to 15in of rain within a week. So, we may be looking at some unplanted fields here in another week.

[04:56] Tom Barber

So, you know, to me, right? What you said. Bob's right. I mean, if we've got atrazine down and we've got a corn replant situation, you know, we can't come back at least immediately and plant soybeans in that situation with most of our rice residuals that we put up front. You know, the number one being Clomazone or Command, that one's labeled in beans. No issues there. Back when all the technology was coming out, whether it was Enlist technology or Xtend technology, we did some tests, with all the different auxins and how those technologies respond to that so Facet was in that test. And one thing that was surprising to me, even though we can use Facet as a residual for barnyard grass in rice, if beans are fairly tolerant, as we know, as we've seen, you know, drift rates tail out across the field or whatever. But that that holds true on the pre-emergent side as well. I'm not saying they won't come up and look, cupped up, that typical auxin type symptomology. But we never had trouble getting a stand of beans where we had put facet out in that test all those years ago. And so, I feel pretty confident, especially after we get all this rain they're talking about, that if we had to come back and plant beans, if we're just talking about command or facet, I think we're going to be fine, in that situation and do that. The one that we do have to be careful of, that, has got a lot of traction over the last several years is Gambit. So I know a lot of growers may be using gambit out at planning or Pre-emergent. And most of that's going out in an ounce to an ounce and a half, I think. Not much more than that. But even at that, we, we have to come back with, at a minimum, an STS soybean if we're going to try to plant. Now, we did some tests last year, with STS compared to Non-STS, two years in Gambit and a bunch of different half lives. And the moral of the story is that's STS bean will still come up and look injured. It will be yellow, it will stunt. It'll look like it's sick. But, in our data last year from our test last year, it all recovered on the STS side. As long as it’s an STS line. It should recover from that and give eventually, a high yield potential. Now, if it's not STS you'll be replanting for a third time. So know for sure what you're putting in there. And there is another technology out there Bob called bolt. I know you and I talked about this a little bit before we got started here. Bolts even more tolerant than STS. So if we've got to replant situation and gambits on the field, at a minimum, we need  STS technology, bolt would be better. If you can find a bolt bean out there that fits your soul type and growing conditions.

[07:52] Bob Scott

You know, the only thing I'd add to any of that, Tom, is every week that you delay planting beans behind some of these things. I mean, facet has got an inflated plant back to soybeans. I think that's everybody kind of knows that on the label. But every week you wait and every rain you get, it's a little bit safer with everything. And, you know, that kind of came up. Jarrod just backing up a little bit and our burndown, we kind of missed the window to talk about burndown in rice. But I do think it's worth mentioning because I got a lot of calls this year about select and even 2,4-D plant back windows, to rice. And there was a lot of folks that were, you know, I think the early planning date kind of caught up with some late decisions to do a burn down. And, there's a lot of ryegrass out there and a lot of broad leaves and things that needed the 2,4-D or select, in there. And those plant backs are real, you know, on those products. And we had to I know you did too. We had to tell a lot of people that this year. So yeah.

[08:58] Jarrod Hardke

Tell them to slowdown. Yeah.

[09:01] Bob Scott

One other thing on burned down that I'll mention and that this this week I've gotten a lot of calls on this and I, I would imagine this varies area to area. But right now, we're in this golden time when the rice is in the ground, but not up, and in some cases we have levees pulled. And I had one call about some grass that was already up, a burn down that didn't work very good. The rice is already in the ground. I had another call on row rice that had Bermuda grass on the beds already kind of greening up. And in my recommendation in all of those situations was a quart of RoundUp I mean, that's a that's $1 million treatment. It's like spraying your yard right before your yard greens up. You just can't beat that treatment. But there's a lot of resistance out there from the aerial applicators to putting that in a plane. And so that that's tough because, you can even throw some prowl with that for the light green. It's a very good treatment in rice and I hate to hear that there's resistance to putting that out, this time of year, but, but I am hearing that. Are you are you experiencing that, too? Or maybe it's just me.

[10:18] Jarrod Hardke

Yeah. I'm not getting much on, on that front, but but it's there. It's scattered and it's still the, the limited conversations I've had. Yeah. I mean, try to get roundup out there and still one of my favorites is, you know, what about, you know, will new path or preface get that Bermuda grass or whatever, you know, and I’m like, are any of your turn rows dead? And they’re like, no – well there’s your answer.

[10:40] Bob Scott

They’re actually labeled on Bermuda grass at various rates and things. And then we went down the list of things that might work on Bermuda, you know, provisia and high card is good. If you've ever used a quizalafop around your yard for, you know, like, select to control grass and edge with and stuff like that is same kind of the same activity, Clinchers kind of weak on it, but has activity. You know, there are some things that will that will work, but you add a new layer when it's, not going to be flooded because you're not gonna you're not going to kill it in the flood. In that scenario.

[11:22] Tom Barber

Well, and, regardless of the crop we're talking about, I've had a lot of calls on Bermuda, and, I actually sprayed my yard this morning. So if you haven't sprayed your yard yet, know your Bermuda has greened up and is growing very lush right now.

[11:37] Bob Scott

Big time.

[11:37] Tom Barber

Yeah. Personal service announcement right there. Public service announcement, I guess, on that. But, you know, Bob, you can't stunt that Bermuda back good. Where you don't have to mow it unless you start late with the roundup. So that's where I'm at on my yard. But, you know, I think we're going to have to look more at some of these, you know, trigger and some of these fall applications to target Bermuda right before a freeze or something. Maybe it'll store some roundup or other things and down in the rhizomes and prevent it from coming back. But I'm getting constant Bermuda grass calls right now, regardless of what we're planting. So it's definitely, definitely a big issue. I think statewide.

[12:19] Bob Scott

I think any time you reduce tillage, I think our guys are doing a good job. It's probably a good, agronomic practice. If you can reduce the trips across the field and that sort of thing economically is probably good. But when you don't disturb that soil regularly, that that's when Bermuda can, can creep in. And then when you don't flood, especially,

[12:44] Tom Barber

Well, the good news is, if we have it on the side of the fields, that's our grass filter strip. Right. So that that helps us with the ESA.

[12:50] Bob Scott

So that may help us down the road for sure. I thought I'd just real quick, I would also mention, you know, cut ground. I love it when I get calls about what's your standard herbicide for rice on cut ground. And my, my answer is, well, you're asking me to give you a recommendation on something that we don't recommend. Which is to plant rice on cut ground. Right. Jarrod. Am I off on that.

[13:18] Jarrod Hardke

We're just limited in what we can do. It's it's great for establishing newly cut ground because we're not messing with the slope at all, but I, we tie our own hands.

[13:29] Bob Scott

So, you know, most guys know what they're getting into. They know that first year rice on cut ground is a crapshoot and probably not going to be good odds. But the treatment that I just talked about a while ago, which is an old treatment that used to go out more but a RoundUp, Prowl delayed pre, well-timed, is a pretty good treatment on cut ground. And you can, you know, maybe ease back into using some more conventional chemistry. You know, as you see how that rice is growing, if the rice is not sick, you can probably just put normal stuff on there. And you you may want to avoid things like facet, Bolero, some of your phenoxy’s to avoid that.

[14:13] Jarrod Hardke

Clomozone being a no-no, remember that.

[14:19] Bob Scott

Clomozone says do not on label and you will smoke it and there's not really a safe rate on especially on silt loams, to use it. So you're kind of painting yourself into a corner. I think clear fields a good option to give you a couple more herbicides and probably, probably Provisia.

[14:37] Jarrod Hardke

I mean, my my recommendation is try to put clear field or full page rice on that field and lean on that chemistry. And then you've got Prowl and Bolero as kickers in there. And until I get to three leaf rice and know that it's healthy and uniform, I'm not playing with any of the testier herbicides at all out there. If you grow conventional rice, I mean, your hands are tied. I mean, I'm down to I got Prowl, I got Bolero, okay. And then some of our just post you know, propanil, what's it going to get? some of that.

[15:15] Bob Scott

Clincher’s pretty safe. May not kill your weeds either. Nowadays, but, but.

[15:20] Jarrod Hardke

I did want to throw in here. Well, I know we're on the cut ground, but we've talked about it. I mean, even, like the roundup Prowl, you know, delayed pre and some of that. Our our March 18th planting date I walked yesterday on March 31st. There's green rice up out there. Okay? That fast. So, I know we're about to run into a flood and you know some of this, but some of this rice is going to be up faster than everybody thinks it is, because this ground's been warm enough long enough for what's been planted over the past week or two. So as we come out of this rainy period and you're saying, oh, we're going to clean some stuff up and it you, you likely we'll have rice up after that’s cleared out of the way and your hands are going to be tied real fast. So be very careful.

[16:02] Bob Scott

I saw a lot of consultants. Yeah. I saw a lot of consultants posting their soil thermometer pictures on Facebook and other social media. And I thought, oh man, that's, it's warm. I mean, it's going to come up, you know. Yeah, it's ready to go. You know, one of the things I noticed last year, Jarrod and I famously took a little vacation for about six years. And so I'm back in weed science. We had a great year last year in the plots. And it mirrored what was happening in the field. We just had excellent conditions for residual activity, really. I think across the state, I'm sure there were areas that didn't, but man, overlapping pres, which used to be a little bit of a struggle to get guys to do that concept. I was really pleased to see everybody seems to have adopted that concept now, and we really need to. When you look at the, weed resistance that we have out there and that sort of thing. So hopefully and I don't know what you're hearing, but I hope we're set up to do that again this year.

[17:05] Jarrod Hardke

We’re trying, we're set up and, you know, here come some of the rains. That's what benefit us. Last year we we started it stayed wet for too long, obviously, to, to have us exactly where we wanted to be, made for some early struggles, but for we get just dry enough to sling another pre before more rains came. But I mean, there was just no chance for anything to get through. It was beautiful. It opened a lot of eyes last.

[17:30] Bob Scott

Year. I took a lot of credit for it. Coming back, I came back and straightened a lot of things up, haha.

[17:39] Tom Barber

I, I think it goes back to that survey we did several years ago. I mean, if the barnyard grass comes up, these guys know they're just, the the options are limited to control it, you know, especially in a, conventional or even a clear path, or Clearfield, type system. So I think, you know, we're getting more bang for the buck on our residuals than we are post right now, just as a whole. 

[18:05] Bob Scott

You know, Tom, that maybe the best point we make here today in the economics this year are tough. And the it's that old saying worst herbicide treatment is the one that doesn't work. And you’re absolutely right. We can throw, when we have a failure we can start throwing a ton of money at rice post. That's where these big herbicide bills always seem to come in, is when something doesn't work. Well, I was going to also mention, a little bit on a weed resistant update. You know, one of the, we had our normal, weed sampling the program this past year, and, I've talked about it at the meetings a lot, and I know you guys have seen the data already, but I think it's worth mentioning that our number of red rice samples that came in for testing for both Clearfield and provisia not only doubled, but actually tripled, this year, we've been seeing about 20 to 25 samples. And I think, Jason, Norsworthy said we had 70 something come in this past year. You know, first of all, just that jump in numbers is an indication that there's a problem. But the other thing was a very large percentage of those were Clearfield resistant. And so it's become obvious in, in the past few years, that problem has really grown. And about 10% of those were also resistant to quizalafop, the active ingredient for high card and provisia. So that's a little bit scary. That's our you know, that's our last line of defense really against red rice, isn’t it Jarrod? I don't really know what to tell guys. I mean, crop rotation is the answer for those fields. If you were one of the guys that. Oh, and by the way, all of the samples that were provisia resistant were also Clearfield resistant. I mean, 100%. And, you know, if you're one of those guys, you really need to be getting out of rice. There's there's not a good. We're back to the old school. Get the red out solutions to that problem and and really a soybean rotation, which I know for a lot of guys is not very practical. But I don't have any answers beyond that.

[20:28] Jarrod Hardke

Winter flood it and get it to beans. I mean, winter flood it to suppress them then bring it out and go to beans. Hammer it, you know, I mean, I, I hate to be this way. It's that argument of pre versus post, but almost like in those situations obviously I want a good, good pre in my beans. But actually I'll make an argument. I actually want to see a little bit of that break a little bit. And get some of that weedy rice actually up and, and smoke it once it's up and you know, make sure I'm getting it germinated and up and, and killed and get through some of that if at all possible. I mean it's again hit or miss, but, maybe that's more of the visual side of us all on weed control. I like seeing it die as opposed to never coming up. Don't know that that truly a difference. But the winter flooding we know suppresses weedy rice. Pre-clearfield, what was the standard recommendation? First of all was two years beans, one year rice, but also winter flooding all the time to suppress it and rot and get rid of that grain. So, I mean, a little bit of back to the future there. But for Provisia, Max Ace, they're not Clearfield fullpage technology. They'll never behave that way. We cannot do back to back years. We will have and and I've already seen out crossing that fast. It's a snapshot use and rotate to something else and move on. And, and we even have to be cautious how we rotate rice through because of that out crossing, you know, really, once I grow a provisia or Max Ace, I need to be in something else the next year. As in beans, corn, whatever. It just needs to not be any kind of rice the year following, or I'm asking for it.

[22:16] Tom Barber

Jarrod, have you heard how how many acres we may have of the provisia or max ace, high card system.

[22:23] Jarrod Hardke

You know, from, from the provisia standpoint, it's like has been around, you know, 2 to 3% of our acres. Again, not a large portion, but then probably another 5% or more of of max ace between that variety and the hybrid that's out there. So, you know, just call it ball parking, we're approaching 10%. That's in quizalafop tolerant, you know rice at this point. So we're definitely starting to, have been starting to expand out of the areas of, you know, just the absolute worst, you know, grass control, weedy rice control areas into to trying to fit into more normal production, with it. And that's some of the areas where, frankly, we've picked up some of the the first issues is not actually in the hot beds. You know, those are just worse holes, but actually out into some more normal production. So. Yeah.

[23:24] Bob Scott

So, Tom, you maybe worked on this a little more than I have, but let's just talk a little bit while we're on provisia and high card. There's a new rate structure on the label that was new to me when I came back. And that's, you know, there's there's 31oz. I don't know where they come up with these numbers when they're writing these labels, but it works out. The max use rate. Whether you're in provisia, or high card is 31oz a year. And so it was 15.5 twice. And we got pretty good results out of that. And now they've got this 11 10 and ten and ten, ten and 11 program. Have you had it? I've looked at it one year. Have you had much opportunity to look at it.

[24:05] Tom Barber

Yeah. And so we've looked at it I guess maybe three years or so, splitting it out with each one, whether it's provisia or, the high card, you know, for me, in a high card system, if you've got, if you're using that technology, I'd do the 15.5 twice. I wouldn't even try to split it. That's what our data says on the provisia side of things, the three application at 11, ten and ten is fine if you start early. And that means, you know, 1 to 2 leaf barnyard grass, not let it get very big. And I like that because it gives us more opportunity to put residuals out. Right. So if we're putting residuals out when we start early, that's good. But if you start late on bigger barnyard grass and try to take that out with 11oz, a lot of times we'll have some misses and escapes.

[25:03] Bob Scott

Yeah. We we had that exact thing happen at Harrisburg at the new rice station up there. It was on the field day. A lot of people saw it. We did not have perfect barnyard grass control out of either provisia or High Card, but we had some bigger barnyard grass when we started and especially the lower rates up front, they just didn't cut it. I mean, it wasn't bad. It was fine as far as yield and all that, but there was more than I would have liked to have seen out there. And, you know, it, it makes sense to me. I do know that that three, three way rate is on the high card label. But I'm with you. I don't really recommend it. And, you know, Jason, talking about Norsworthy again, you know, he saw me give my talk on that study, and he sent me a slide that he wanted me to add all my presentations this year, and I'll mention it now. And he said I should be recommending rogue post-flood on all this provisia. So I guess there's a chance there with the benzobicyclon that we'll get some control of certain bio types of red rice if they escape. Is that that the theory? 

[26:17] Tom Barber

I think that that is it, in theory. Also, it's been, just my observation in this, you know, it's probably not the case. It's just a coincidence more than anything. But I have never failed to have the worst annual sedge in my provisia or max ace type systems than anywhere else. And so I think the rogue helps on two fronts. I think you can get maybe some random red rice out there, but you can also, if we get it out at the right time, you can pick up some of that annual sedge. And that's a that's a pretty big benefit as well. The key to that is Bob, is, you know, we got it. We got to get it to the water. So we can't…

[26:57] Bob Scott

Yeah.

[26:57] Tom Barber

You know if we're late to the flood and we've got a lot of canopy, you know, we might get mixed results out of that rogue in those situations. 

[27:07] Bob Scott

Not going to work on row rice. It's not going to work where you got a four inch well, on an 80 acre field or something and you can't keep a solid flood, that's for sure.

[27:18] Jarrod Hardke

I mean, you're yeah, you're talking zero grade and and straight looking fields. I mean, that's that's the fit. And, you know, really, I think the, the label says like 4 to 5 leaf when to go, I mean honestly you can you can probably, again off label or you know stretching the label recommendation on on timing. But you know you start getting to six leaf rice or so. I mean, you still have a lot of open water at that point, but the longer you let it stretch, the the less water you're, you're hitting to get it active. When, when we've done I bring this up because when we've done like canopy looks at rice over time and some of that I mean you'd be shocked when you do that straight down view of a canopy shot. You know, out there at Six Leaf rice. I mean, you still have like 10% ground cover. You know, out that far even though, you know, you look across the field. Oh it looks pretty covered. You look straight down. It's not, you got 90% open ground. So, still opportunity. But, man, the problem is, for me, when you talk about that's that's immediately before flood, when you have to get the fertilizer out and take the days it takes to get the flood established, as soon as rice catches that nitrogen and takes off, that that openness enclosure disappears so fast. And so a lot of times it's seven days post flood before your flood's stable and say, okay, now we can put rogue out. Well, now might be too late. We finally got it stable and look. So just echoing your point Tom, I mean, you might be planning to run that, but for the cost of that treatment, that's worth a. Oh, no. I mean, the majority of this is hitting a plant. It's it's not getting to the water that it may be the time to pull it out. So shooting for going to flood earlier at 4 to 5 leaf. So that you're still in that less tiller, less canopy window a week after you start going to flood, be able to get it out would would be the push for me.

[29:20] Bob Scott

So I'm, we're getting kind of close on our time. I did want to mention I'd like to end on a positive note. I'm very excited about some of the new, chemistry that's coming. I wish it was available this year, but we're probably looking at 2026. There's one we can talk about the FMC product Dod-hi-lex or Dodhylex, I'm sorry I said that. Yeah. Tetflypyrolimet if you want a tongue, tongue teaser there for that one. But we got a few we can't talk about. Still coming. But one thing I will say is you know, back to this discussion on provisia, you know, any new red rice technology really in the very near future pipeline, there's some being talked about, some being developed for sure. But it's going to be a while. So we need to protect these modes of action that we have. But but I will say that I am excited about, a couple of the new products that we have coming. 

[30:29] Tom Barber

Me too, Bob. I mean, I think, you know, rice, weed control was what keeps me going as a wheat scientist. Everything else is just boring. So I'm glad y'all let me play in rice a little bit, because that product is one that's been exciting to watch over the years. And, you know, I think we're going to be able to look at it, a little more this year and some programs hopefully. And, and so, looking forward to the registration.

[30:55] Bob Scott

I like Jarrod that Tom said that. While he's got a big cotton thing in the background. Yeah. Nobody can see it on zoom right now, hahaha.

[31:02] Tom Barber

Hahaha, I'm not you know I'm I'm not. Yeah. We all know that cotton is the Lord's crop. Everybody knows that. But, you know, I'm having a lot of fun working in rice right now.

[31:12] Bob Scott

Anybody, anybody got any final thoughts this year? You want to make sure and get out there on rice? We've talked about overlapping residuals. Jarrod's already mentioned the rice is up. So it’s going to be time for early post here pretty soon. Any other comments?

[31:29] Tom Barber

Yeah. If I could slide just one thing and I just thought of this and probably should have brought it up earlier in the cut ground talk. But you know, we've done a lot of work with command as a fall residual. And I'm getting a lot of questions now, if I put command out in the fall, can I come back and put command out pre. And what's the rates and what does that look like. And and first of all command has done again for the fourth or fifth year we've done this, very good. It's one of the more effective control programs for Italian ryegrass in the fall. And a lot of other weeds as well. And our command plots are still clean to date. And so we put them out in October. Still nothing coming up. And that 16oz on a light soil. So there's still some activity out there. We've got a lot of early planning obviously to Jarrod's point, maybe, up to 20% or something. And so, getting a lot of questions, how much command. Our experience, we were supposed to plant into those plots today, but we caught a little bit of that rain and couldn't get to it. Now, after ten inches, I don't know if we're going to get to it or not, but, you know, in our experience, the last couple of years, if I put 16oz out on a silt loam soil and I try to plant in March, I'll still get some activity and still have some activity out of that command. So I would watch that right in the beginning. And never, you know, I would not go above that one to gallon to ten or whatever it is, the 12.8oz, right on those light soils. You know, if it's a heavier soil, you've got a lot more flexibility there. So I'm not near scared. Once we hit some of the clays, I think we can come back with our normal clay rate and be fine. But, with these lighter silt loam soils, we just need to be careful. On our command now, as we move into April, we can start going back to our normal rates. What we normally use, because we're going to, you know, likely this week, especially after this rain, we're going to lose, whatever command we have left is going to be gone. So anyway, just real quick on that.

[33:38] Jarrod Hardke

Yeah, I would just echo sticking with our pre programs and going last year we ran into the combination of a prolonged wet period. But above average temperatures. So herbicide stayed extra active. Tons conversations about this rice looks sickly, whatever, it was still growing all fine. The herbicides were just staying extra active. But that's part of why it was such a clean crop.

[34:02] Bob Scott

So clean.

[34:03] Jarrod Hardke

Yeah, so? So don't be pulling back, in normal, not Tom the kind of situation you were talking about, I mean just kind of normal situation. You know, don't be pulling back on rates and stuff like that just because things were a little more active last year, they may have been a little bit more active but they worked. Rates we've been using for years. Again, everybody has their slight tweaks to their own command recipe and some other stuff. That's fine. But last year was a little extra active. Well, that's that's fine. That worked well. Don't start pulling back now and then we're going to end up leaving ourselves short this year. You know running out of time, getting stuff breaking early. So, just just stick with the program. That extra plane trip to get another overlapping residual that's going to be a cheap expense compared to some of the bombs that we frankly, won't be able to afford to throw later this year. I mean, Bob, we talked about in the winter, you know, kind of weed free periods and this early part, my big emphasis past couple of years has been we're going to have some escapes if we're trying to be efficient in our weed control program, you're going to have a few things escape understanding what is a yield limiting population of a grass is important. And when I look at some barnyard grass blowing through the canopy at mid-season, way too often I pull the canopy back. It'll look ugly and pull the canopy back. And I'm like, this is only a few tillered barnyard grass plants. It's like one per ten square feet. It needs to be like one per 1 or 1 per two square feet to to be yield limiting. I don't want to look at it, but don't dare spend any money, you know, on this stuff. Plus it’s too big to kill.

[35:41] Bob Scott

I mean you give the rice 8 to 10 week head start, or even 6 to 8 week head start. And then that spindly stuff that comes up later is really not going to impact yield. And, and I think I think a lot of consultants are, you know, going to have to earn their keep this year. And make that decision. Do we pull the trigger on a post-flood clincher or, you know, load up propanil and facet to try to go after some of these escapes or do we look at the economics and say, we're going to have to get that grass next year? It's not going to interfere with harvest. It's, you know, you want to make sure it's not enough to make the rice go down for sure. Yeah. And, that sort of thing. But I I'm with you. I talked more about weed free period. And then then making a call later, whether we need to spend that money or not, because I want everybody to be in business again next year. Yeah, we're having the same discussion, so. Well, I tell you what, I really appreciate, you guys’ time today, and, I'll wrap things up if you guys are good. I'll wrap it up by saying that, all three of our programs are funded by the Arkansas Rice Research and Promotion Board, as well as the Division of Agriculture. And without all that funding, we wouldn't be able to do the work that we do and have this podcast. So we greatly appreciate their, their support. And as always, if you have a question, contact your county agent, for more information. All this weed control information can be found in the MP44. And a lot of it can be found in Jarrod's production Rice Production Handbook, which is updated. And those are available at uada.edu or at your county office. So with that, thanks for listening to the art to the Weeds AR Wild podcast, right here on Arkansas Row Crops Radio.

[37:40] Intro/Outro

Arkansas Row Crops Radio is a production of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. For more information, please contact your local county extension agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.