The planting season is about to begin in Northeast Arkansas, and the weather and international trade strife that have plagued the sector in recent years remains eerily similar in 2020. The trade war with China still hasn’t been resolved, and the winter weather pattern of intermittent rains with little or no drying periods continues to challenge producers.
When it comes to deciding between planting rice, soybean or other crops in 2020, it’s not just a question of markets and futures contracts. For many growers, it’s a question of when the ground will be dry enough to work, according to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Rice agronomist Jarrod Hardke said one bright, if ironic, spot may be that the mass of prevented planting in the 2019 growing season did at least leave some fields prepared for planting in 2020.
“If you see yourself a field ready for planting right now, chances are, that happened last summer,” Hardke said.
The wet weather has made it more difficult and time-consuming to provide accurate recommendations based on soil testing.
“A large percentage of the samples that came into the soil testing lab this year were pretty muddy,” Hardke said. “A big concern with a wet sample is that it’s harder to be precise in your depth. The process also takes longer, because those samples take longer to dry out before they can be tested.”
Kevin Lawson, Faulkner County Cooperative Extension chair, said growers throughout the Arkansas River Valley are particularly concerned about the flooding potential that has increasingly reared its head in recent years, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in crop losses.
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