EASTERN ARKANSAS — The rainy spring means a drop of acreage in Arkansas’s rice crop.
Jarrod Hardke, rice agronomist for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, said that’s just one factor weighing on the minds of the state’s rice farmers.
“We’re in a position of given our dramatic delays and we know we’re having a big reduction in planted acres over what was forecast back in March. The March prospective plantings report had us over 1.4 million acres planted,” Hardke said. “At this point, 1.1 million and some kind of change is probably where we’re going to end up. Planting this late into early June we know we have a reduced expectation of performance.”
Hardke said it’s a critical time for business decisions for rice farmers.
“We’re really in a situation of weighing our options of risk/reward in the very early part of June, depending on what’s your alternative. Prevented planting, going that route or planting soybeans. What is your yield potential on beans for your farm,” Hardke said. “There still is upside for a lot of guys to go with rice at the moment compared to some of those other options. They’re running the numbers and pinching pennies on what’s the best possible outcome.”
Hardke added this week is a big week for rice farmers.
“As we reach the end of this week, that really shuts down the potential reward from continuing with rice. Especially in Northeast Arkansas after the first handful of days of June, the risk goes up quite a bit,” Hardke said. “Gears will shift from there, but we’ll see this continuing here for at least a couple more days until the rains shut us down this weekend.”
© Copyright 2025 The SSResource Media.
All rights reserved.