Tropical Storm Francine slows harvest, impacts quality for Arkansas crops

By Sarah Cato
U of A System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — “It’s going to be a long fall.”

That’s how Cross County Extension Staff Chair Jenna Martin described the agricultural aftermath of Tropical Storm Francine. The storm hit Arkansas last Wednesday, dropping up to 9 inches of rain and crop-damaging gusts of up to 35 miles per hour.

The wind and rain mean that Arkansas row crop growers are facing a longer harvest and lowered quality for rice, cotton, soybeans and corn.

SPROUTED — Many soybean growers in eastern Arkansas are faced with beans sprouted in pods after extensive rainfall from Tropical Storm Francine. (Photo by Christopher Cato.)

“While we’re fairly fortunate compared to some who got a lot more wind, we have some rice and corn leaning and other fields look like you took a flat roller to them,” Martin said. “Impact on yields and quality are major concerns.”

"We received 6 to 7 inches over four days,” said Matthew Davis, Jackson County extension staff chair. “Our largest concerns are the sprouting of crops in the field, loss of quality, and poor field conditions.”

Rice

“There was not as much rice damage as I had feared when I made my way across counties in the northeast yesterday,” said Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “There are fields with heavily lodged areas, but the majority of rice is still standing.”

Lodged, or flattened rice takes longer to harvest. This, paired with the yield loss associated with sprouted rice, means rice growers are facing their already thin profit margins shrinking even more.

Hardke said parts of Poinsett, Cross and St. Francis counties seem to have taken the hardest hit.

“In some particular hotspots there is more significant lodging and rice sprouting on heads in the lodged rice,” Hardke said. “To a limited degree there is even some rice sprouting on standing rice.”

Doubling harvest time

“There’s a lot of economic impact to having downed rice,” said Nick Newberry, program associate for the Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center in Harrisburg. “Your harvest time in some situations doubles. The combine’s still rolling and you’re still burning diesel, but the acres you cut in that time is cut in half. If you even had a positive margin to start with, it’s now a break-even or a negative.”

Newberry said they were fortunate to get almost all rice at NERREC cut before the storm.

“Most of what we’ve got left is pretty much flat. It’s not very pretty,” Newberry said. “If this had just come two weeks later it would’ve been better, but that’s the risk you run in this industry.”

Cotton

“The hardest hit areas seem to be around Jackson and Poinsett counties,” said Zachary Treadway, extension cotton and peanut agronomist for the Division of Agriculture. “In these areas it was pretty common to see plants on the ends of rows laying over or at least leaning.”

Treadway said leaning plants should straighten up with time, but for plants completely blown over, those bolls can be expected to rot. As for open cotton bolls, Treadway said most of it is still pickable.

“Of the cotton that is open, I saw a fair amount of fiber drooping out of the bolls, but not a lot on the ground, surprisingly,” he said. “We can still pick that cotton as long as it is hanging on to the bolls.”

However, harvest may be further away than initially anticipated due to field conditions after the rain.

“I expect harvest to be a little delayed now,” Treadway said. “For producers who are ready to pick, they’ll have to wait for the ground to get dry enough to get pickers out in the field. For producers who are defoliating, they’ll either have to wait for the ground to dry enough to get a ground rig across it or hire a pilot to apply defoliants. I think this is going to push everything back.”

However, Treadway said the forecast sunshine will “do us a world of good if it shows up.”

Soybeans

Jeremy Ross, extension soybean agronomist for the Division of Agriculture, said the majority of the damage came in the form of sprouted soybeans.

“I was on the phone with county agents, farmers and crop consultants from the southeast to the northeast corners of the state about soybean seed sprouting in pods,” said Ross said. “Most of these calls are in fields that were ready to harvest prior to Francine, but I had a few calls about pods that are still green having sprouted seeds.”

Fortunately, Ross said this is isolated to just a small portion of pods on the soybean plants.

“Some fields with taller plants that haven’t reached maturity have lodged to some degree,” Ross said. “These fields could have some quality issues due to matted foliage and lack of air movement.”

Ross said the main focus now is to get these fields harvested, but harvesting in wet conditions brings issues of its own.

“We need to get these fields harvested as quickly as possible to avoid additional sprouting and dockage due to moldy seeds. To do this, some fields will need to be harvested before they are dry enough to avoid rutting the fields,” Ross said. “Fields that will be rutted will cost more once they dry out to get back into shape for planting next spring. Some will stay rutted until next spring, delaying planting.”

Corn and grain sorghum

Jason Kelley, extension feed grains agronomist for the Division of Agriculture, said that although corn fields fared better than expected, there was substantial lodging in some areas and grain quality is a concern.

“We’re at the tail end of harvest so the corn that was left had been mature for three to four weeks, with the stalks getting more brittle every day. Every field had some plants blown over,” he said. “Some sprouting of grain in the shuck has occurred and those plants that are laying on the ground will likely see substantial sprouting and loss.”

Kelley said fortunately 84 percent of the state’s corn acres were harvested prior to Francine according to Monday’s crop progress report.  

Although the majority of the state’s few grain sorghum acres had already been harvested, Kelley said there was substantial sprouting of the grain in heads.

“I think the full extent of the damage is still to be seen, especially in terms of grain quality. The level of discounts our growers will receive for reduced-quality grain is the big unknown right now,” Kelley said. “The forecast now looks warm and dry, so harvest will likely start up again in a few days.”

Kelley said wet field conditions and rutting of fields will cause an added expense for this crop.

Forage

There is a bright side to things, as Francine brought much needed rain for livestock and forage producers.

“Much of the state was at least abnormally dry. The rain this past weekend helped to green up fields and provide additional grazing days,” said Kenny Simon, forages instructor for the Division of Agriculture. “Some producers had already started feeding hay, which is about 45 to 60 days ahead of the normal hay feeding period.”

Simon said the rain is especially beneficial for producers that are stockpiling forages or have planted an annual forage.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Arkansas planned acreage falls slightly overall; corn and wheat see deepest cuts

By Ryan McGeeney
U of A System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — While overall intended crop acreage fell just 2.5 percent in Arkansas in 2024 to about 7 million acres, some crops saw significant shifts in acreage, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released Thursday.

SHIFTING ACRES — The 2024 Prospective Plantings Report, compiled by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, found that acreage for most of the country’s principal row crops will likely only shift a few percentage points one way or the other this year. The report is based on self-reported planting intentions from growers across the United States. Nationally, projected crop acreage fell about 2 percent in 2024, to about 313.3 million acres. (Graphic courtesy USDA.)

The 2024 Prospective Plantings Report, compiled by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, found that acreage for most of the country’s principal row crops will likely only shift a few percentage points one way or the other this year. The report is based on self-reported planting intentions from growers across the United States. Nationally, projected crop acreage fell about 2 percent in 2024, to about 313.3 million acres.

Arkansas corn and wheat acreage take a nosedive

Arkansas intended corn acreage fell sharply, down 27 percent, from 850,000 acres to 620,000 acres. Wheat acreage also fell significantly in the state, down 41 percent from 230,000 acres to 135,000 acres. Nationally, corn acreage fell 5 percent to about 90 million acres, while producers said they planned to plant nearly 47.5 million acres of wheat, about 96 percent of what was planted in 2023.

Jason Kelley, extension wheat and feed grains agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said that the significant drop in corn acreage was no surprise, given that the state was coming off a near-record-high year for acreage.

“Our acreage goes up and down every year,” Kelley said. “Last year, 2023, was the second-highest acreage we’d had since the early 1950s.”

He said profitability was likely the main driver for growers moving away from corn throughout the region.

“It looks like the whole Southeast was off quite a bit — 15 to 27 percent,” Kelley said. “The Mid-South was down 20-27 percent. So, it looks like most of our surrounding states had the same mindset.”

Similarly, wheat acreage was down in the East, falling in all but seven states.

Hunter Biram, extension agricultural economist for the Division of Agriculture, also said the drop in Arkansas corn acres, paired with a rise in soybean acres, was expected.

“Two factors that typically influence this shift are crop rotations and expected margins, with expected margins likely the driving force behind any acreage shifts beyond normal,” Biram said. “Last year, corn margins were far more favorable compared to soybeans, and that showed up in not only the Prospective Plantings report but also in the Crop Acreage Report released last June.

Over the past 20 years, soybean and corn acreage have both grown in the United States, with corn typically leading by as much as 50 percent some years. Over that span, however, soybean acreage has tightened the gap, actually tying the national acreage in 2017 at about 90 million acres each.

“This year, soybean margins appear more favorable, albeit not by much compared to corn,” Biram said. “Last year, the favorable margins were mostly driven by a relatively high corn-to-soybean price ratio, meaning corn prices were much higher relative to soybean prices. This year, there isn’t a crop price to get too excited about, but prices for key fertilizers have fallen to levels similar to the period prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

Projected Arkansas hay harvests appear to be keeping pace with the previous year, with growers expecting to harvest about 1.15 million acres, 99 percent of 2023’s total.

Arkansas long grain rice surges, medium grain falls back

Arkansas intended rice acreage shifted only slightly, growing 1 percent over 2023 acreage to 1.45 million acres. However, grower sentiment appeared bullish on long grain rice, jumping 11 percent from 2023 acreage to a projected 1.36 million acres, while pulling back on medium grain, falling by 58 percent to just 90,000 acres.

Nationally, planned rice acreage grew 1 percent to more than 2.93 million acres.

Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist for the Division of Agriculture, said the report’s outlook for rice was in line with spring estimates.

“Long grain rice appears to be a profitable option, but seed supply issues are hindering further increases in acres,” Hardke said. “Medium grain is in lower demand for this year with few contracts or pricing premiums available in the wake of high acres and production last year.”

Biram added that the ambiguity of global markets is likely affecting acreage decisions.

“Among many drivers in rice acreage, one could be the possibility that India reverses their export ban on non-basmati rice, which was put in place in July 2023,” Biram said. “While that proved to be favorable for rice prices in the short run, with some cash prices reported at over $8 a bushel in the post-harvest window of January and February, the new crop futures contracts for rice are already indicating prices could land around $6.75 per bushel or lower. This is because when export supply is reduced in the global market, prices increases.

“Conversely, when export supply increases due to a lift on an export ban, for example, prices fall,” he said. “Perhaps producers were able to lock in price guarantees through area crop insurance, such as Enhanced Coverage Option or Margin Protection, trying to capture the tail end of a months-long price rally driven by the export ban. Otherwise, I suspect crop rotations and less-favorable corn margins are driving the increase in long grain rice acres.”

Arkansas soybeans rise steadily

Arkansas soybean acreage grew slightly, rising 4 percent over 2023 to 3,100 acres. This puts the state’s growers slightly ahead of the national soybean acreage outlook, which rose 3 percent to about 86.5 million acres.

Jeremy Ross, extension soybean agronomist for the Division of Agriculture, said it was no surprise to see Arkansas soybeans return to the “plus side” of 3 million acres.

“Historically, we’ve been above 3 million acres for the last several years, other than 2018-2019,” Ross said. “That’s when we had a lot of rainfall — the fall of 2018 and progressing into 2019. We had a lot of flooding issues, and 2019 was the lowest soybean acreage we’ve had since 1960.

“I think all of it points to China,” Ross said of the high acreage numbers. “China is our No. 1 destination for soybean exports. As their population increases, the demand for soybeans increases.”

He said much of 2023’s outstanding soybean yield was due to growers taking advantage of the early planting window, and that he foresees a similar fortune this year.

“Beans have been planted for almost a solid month in Arkansas,” Ross said. “Some of them look good, some not so good, mainly due to cooler weather. We had pretty much the earliest start ever last year, and we had record yields. I think some guys proved that when your beans are planted earlier, the yield potential is a lot better than delayed planting.

“Over the next seven days or so, it looks to be warm and dry, so I think there’s going to be a lot of land prep, and maybe some more beans planted,” Ross said Thursday. “I’m anticipating another good year.”

Peanuts hold, cotton grows

Arkansas producers appear to be holding steady, again planning to plant 35,000 acres of the legume, the same acreage as 2023.

Travis Faske, extension plant pathologist and acting peanut agronomist for the Division of Agriculture, said that peanut acreage throughout the state will likely be higher than the reported intentions.

“I still think we will be a few thousand acres north of 35,000 acres by the end of planting season, as the two primary peanut buying points in the state have indicated an increase in acreage,” Faske said.

Planned Arkansas cotton acreage grew 6 percent over 2023 numbers to 540,000 acres. This exceeded the national outlook, which grew 4 percent to more than 10.6 million planned acres.

“I suspect the reason cotton acreage increased by 6 percent is because cotton lint prices are more favorable compared to last year, but nothing like what we saw in 2021-2022,” Biram said.

“While crop rotations can explain most of the corn-soybean rotation, cotton acreage can likely be explained by the fact that a cotton farmer is going to farm cotton regardless of the price, due to the lack of versatility in equipment used to produce cotton,” he said. “The cotton lint price may shift acreage, but the degree of that shift will depend on what the cotton lint price is.”

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.