UC Rice Blog

Lower limit 55 F, upper limit 100 F May 1 to August 1 Nicolaus 2009 1513 2010 1335 2011 1278 Durham 2009 1469 2010 1350 2011 1236 Colusa 2009 1600 2010 1413 2011 1344 To date 2011 is about 4-6 days behind 2010 and about 10-12 days behind 2009, depending the average number of degree units accumulated...

Last year we had a bad blast year - several fields that had never experienced blast got the disease and some reported yield losses. This year growers and PCAs are paying more attention to try to prevent the disease from causing damage.

Released June 30, 2011, by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Agricultural Statistics Board, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Rice: Area planted to rice in 2011 is estimated at 2.68 million acres, down 26 percent from 2010 and the lowest planted acreage since 1987.

Here's the beginning of the 2011 rice season in three graphs*: Degree day (DD) accumulation over the developmental threshold of 55 oF (starting May 1st) during early May in 2011 was similar to 2008 and 2009.

The last couple of weeks we had some unusually cold weather. Some days, daytime temperature was 20 degrees below the average for this time of the year. The graph below compares average maximum daily temperatures with actual 2011 maximum daily temperatures during April and May in Colusa County.