On June 21, farmers and crop consultants gathered at the Rice Festival Building in Weiner, Ark., to hear from Extension specialists on the 2024 growing season for soybeans and rice. Much discussion pertained to weather patterns and saturated conditions playing a significant role in oddities seen so far this year. 

Giving the update were Jeremy Ross, Extension soybean specialist and Jarrod Hardke, Extension rice specialist – both at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Farmers and crop consultants gathered at the Rice Festival Building in Weiner, Ark., on the first day of summer to get updates on the 2024 Arkansas rice and soybean crops. (Photo by Whitney Haigwood)

Ross, Hardke, and meeting attendees all echoed strange herbicide issues they battled earlier in the season. Fortunately, most of those anomalies have played out. Now the focus shifts to insects, crop disease, and fertility applications. 

Both specialists say we are sitting on a good crop in 2024. Of course, it all depends on the weather through August and the potential impact of warmer temperatures, along with a more active hurricane season in the forecast. 

Soybean progress in 2024

At the time of the meeting, 98% of the soybean crop had been planted in Arkansas. The crop was at 50% bloom, which Ross said is around 15% higher than the five-year average. 

Ross said Arkansas soybeans got another good early start in 2024, until rainfall settled in and made it a struggle to plant.  “I applaud everyone for getting the crop in early. I think we proved last year that an early crop can give us great yields. We still have some pockets that need to be planted, but we have a lot of beans at R3 going into R4 right now.” 

Related:Hydrogen sulfide toxicity in rice

In terms of insects, Ross said there are reports of stinkbugs in R3 beans; however, those will likely move out with nothing to feed on. Isolated areas of grasshoppers have also been reported. 

Grasshoppers are easier to control when they are small, and Ross said his main concern is hot, dry weather. “If we turn off hot and dry for several weeks, grasshoppers tend to blow up in those conditions, and they could be an issue in some areas.” 

Overgrown road ditches with high populations of insects are also a concern in those weather conditions. Ross added, “Once those ditches start drying down, a lot of those insects will begin moving into fields. Be aware and make sure to scout.” 

As for disease, Ross reported more early accounts of seedling diseases like rhizoctonia, due to wet conditions. In some cases, plant stands took a hit. As a rule of thumb, uniform plant stands at or above 75,000 per acre can maximize yield.  

“From our research, once you start dropping below 75,000 you do not have the volume of plants to produce and get your yield,” he said. At 65,000 plants per acre there is an 8 to 10% yield reduction. When plant stands drop to 55,000 per acre, you can expect about a 15% yield reduction. 

Related:2024 Midsouth crop progress: Planting recap

Extension Soybean Specialist Jeremy Ross discussed the research on plant stands per acre to maximize soybean yields. (Photo by Whitney Haigwood)

Reports are also coming in of septoria brown spot in a few soybean fields. Ross mentioned a discussion he had with Extension Plant Pathologist Terry Spurlock. Spurlock does not recommend an application for septoria brown spot until the disease reaches the top third of the soybean plants.  

In that case, growers are cautioned against using anything with the ingredient strobilurin to combat the disease. Ross said, “Terry wanted me to emphasize that you will not gain anything with strobilurin. You will get zero effect with that chemistry for septoria, frog-eye leaf spot, or any other soybean disease.” 

Rice progress in 2024

Arkansas rice acreage is hard to pin down in 2024, and Hardke said that is mostly due to saturated conditions and planting delays.  

“I have been surprised about how much rice continued to be planted, even this late in the season. It looks like rice acreage will be in the neighborhood of 1.4 to 1.5 million acres,” he said. “But I am as uncertain as ever about where it will settle, because of the differences in pockets throughout the state and the drag in finishing up beans.” 

Early on, saturated conditions in rice fields contributed to a widespread response to Acetolactate Synthase (ALS) herbicide chemistry including herbicides like Permit, Permit Plus, or Regiment. The most notable symptom is bright yellow flashing to the rice leaves, which can be mistaken for nutrient deficiency.

These same saturated conditions created an environment for delayed phytotoxicity syndrome (DPS), before some fields even went to flood.

Hardke said DPS injury usually appears after applications of certain herbicides like Facet (Quinstar, Prize) and others. Anaerobic fungi turn the herbicide into a toxic form and make the rice sick. 

While we have outrun DPS at this point in the season, saturated conditions have also led to another hot button issue, hydrogen sulfide toxicity (HST). For more information, read Hardke's comments and recommendations on Hydrogen sulfide toxicity in rice. 

Blast and rice stinkbugs 

Hardke cautioned that blast is another problem in 2024, and all medium-grain rice varieties like Taurus, Jupiter, and Titan are susceptible to leaf blast. On the other hand, long-grain varieties like Ozark and Diamond are more susceptible to neck blast. 

“If you have medium-grain this year, then you have leaf blast. It is out there somewhere with varying degrees of severity,” he said.  

Extension Rice Specialist Jarrod Hardke said heavy blast pressure in a medium-grain rice field poses concern for nearby long-grain rice. While the blast spores and inoculum do not impact the leaves of long-grain varieties as much, they can impact the neck and head of long-grain rice. (Photo by Whitney Haigwood)

Normally, Hardke is conservative and leans away from automatically spraying for neck and panicle blast, but not this year. Instead, Hardke recommends at least a one-shot fungicide application on blast susceptible acres. Where blast is more severe, Hardke suggests a two-shot approach. 

“That would be very late boot to very beginning heading for the first fungicide shot. Then apply the second shot when the head is about halfway out of the boot,” he said. 

Finally, rice stinkbugs have fired up. Hopefully their populations will cycle out as the rice starts to head, but Hardke said you cannot outguess an insect.  

“We have so much early rice, that I hope the timing spreads the stinkbugs out. It is the rice on the backend that I’m most concerned about this year. There is a lot of rice stinkbug on a lot of acres building up and heading your way,” Hardke cautioned.  

This year, a sufficient supply of Tenchu is expected to help farmers keep rice stinkbugs at bay. 

Tissue testing and soil fertility 

Fertility issues have also been observed in both the soybean and rice crops, likely caused by wet conditions and delays in fertilizer applications. Symptoms of nutrient deficiency have shown up in unusual ways at times, and the best means to confirm is through tissue testing. 

Hardke said, “Under these more saturated conditions, phosphorus and zinc have had more oddities. Of late, a lot more is happening with potash and stem rot in rice.” He also stressed the importance of taking tissue samples from both the good and bad areas of the field for the best comparisons.  

For soybeans, Ross said tissue testing results can be run through the potash calculator for application recommendations. “We feel very confident if you pull a sample at R2, we can tell you if you need additional potash to maximize yield. Then, we need to apply that potash before you hit R4,” he said.  

To learn more about tissue testing offered through the Division of Agriculture, contact your County Extension Agent in Arkansas.