Farmers in the nation’s top rice-growing state worked into the night and through the weekend to overcome rain delays and inch closer to completion of planting.

Rice was 93 percent planted and 82 percent had emerged, according to Monday’s report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

“There’s not a lot of progress left to be made in terms of rice planting,” Jarrod Hardke, Arkansas Extension rice agronomist, said Monday (May 9).

“Those with much left worked all the way through the weekend to get fields in that were anywhere close to dry enough. Some were even planting as it started to rain some last evening.

“The move now turns to rice fields going to flood starting this week where the rice is older and the ground is dry enough to fertilize properly. The next dry period we get after this week will see many put the finishing touches on rice planting and a very large amount of acreage will be ready to go to flood.”

Hardke is forecasting that Arkansas farmers will grow 1.6 million acres of rice this year. 

The NASS report covers the week ending Sunday. NASS is part of the United States Department of Agriculture.

For more information on crop production, visit www.uaex.edu, http://arkansascrops.com, or contact your county Extension office.