May 12, 2023
At a Glance
- Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station releases high-yielding Clearfield rice variety.
- CLM05 yielded 192 bushels per acre in statewide and regional trials.
- Seed will be available from BASF Agricultural Solutions through Horizon Ag in 2025.
By Brittaney Mann, U of A System Division of Agriculture
The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station has released a new high-yielding medium-grain Clearfield rice cultivar at a time of elevated U.S. demand for medium-grain rice.
The new rice variety is called CLM05, and it averaged 192 bushels per acre over two years in statewide trials. It outperformed current commercial cultivars CLM04 and Jupiter in grain yield, disease resistance and lodging resistance, said Xueyan Sha, professor of rice breeding and genetics for the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
During the 2022 rice season, the state average yield was 164.7 bushels per acre, according to the 2023 Arkansas Rice Quick Facts, published by the Division of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service.
Xuyan Sha, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture rice breeder at the Rice Research and Extension Center, Stuttgart. (Fred Miller, U of A System Division of Agriculture)
Medium-grain rice typically makes up 10 to 15% of the state’s rice acreage, Sha said. It is primarily used by companies like Kellogg’s and General Mills for snacks and table rice. It is also exported to Southeast Asia — especially Taiwan and Turkey.
“This is going to be a replacement showing lots of promise,” Sha said.
Limited availability
The Division of Agriculture is producing foundation seed of the variety this year, and a limited amount of seed will be available next year, said John Carlin, director of the division’s Arkansas Crop Variety Improvement Program. Horizon Ag will increase seed production, and it should be widely available in 2025.
“We’re hopeful that it’ll give Mid-South producers a solid yielding medium-grain variety that they can use in a weed-controlled program with the Clearfield Production System,” Carlin said.
“CLM05 has a similar disease package, but it outyields CLM04 by quite a bit,” Carlin said. “So with the increased demand in medium-grain due to California’s water issues, it has a really good fit in the Mid-South market.”
California typically accounts for around 75% of U.S. medium- and short-grain rice acreage, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s October 2022 Rice Outlook. But because of a “severe and prolonged drought, low reservoir levels and water restrictions,” California’s total rice harvested area is the smallest it has been since 1958 to 1959, the report said. According to the final rice harvested acreage numbers released by the USDA, California rice production fell to 254,000 acres — a 37% decrease from the rice harvested area in 2021.
Sha said he is hopeful that this variety will offer a higher-yielding medium-grain variety for Mid-South growers.
Product of a partnership
“We are very pleased with the introduction of CLM05 to the Clearfield medium-grain rice varieties that are marketed by Horizon Ag and their approved retailers,” said Frank Hardimon, Rice Licensing Account Manager for BASF Agricultural Solutions. “CLM05 has performed very well in university and pre-commercial trials. It will help fill a growing demand for high-quality, medium-grain rice varieties in 2025 for Arkansas rice growers, as well as rice growers throughout the Mid-South.”
Tim Walker, Horizon Ag general manager, also expressed confidence in the variety’s ability to help meet medium-grain demands.