Field Day At Rice Model Farm Highlights AgCenter Research

GABRIELLE BELLELO

KAPLAN, LOUISIANA

Comfortable early fall temperatures provided an ideal backdrop for a field day held Sept. 26 at Richard Farms in Kaplan, where attendees got a firsthand look at LSU AgCenter research projects focused on conservation practices.

Richard Farms, a rice and crawfish operation, is one of the model farms where AgCenter scientists are conducting research as part of a grant from the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation.

Brenda Tubaña, an AgCenter soil scientist and project lead, gave an overview of how the model farms began.

“The Patrick F. Taylor grant started back in 2019 with the idea of establishing these model farms where we can regularly implement conservation and best management practices, or BMPs,” she said. “Our goal is to increase crop yields while protecting our soil. I also want to point out that this project can be replicated not only in Louisiana but in other regions as well.”

Charlie Darnall, a master’s student at LSU, is using water quality monitoring to analyze changes in the various fields and compare the data.

“We look at pH, electric conductivity and total dissolved solids,” he said during a presentation at the field day. “We also focus on phosphates, ammonium and nitrate. So, as you can see, we cover a variety of water quality parameters that we monitor between the BMP and the conventional growing systems.” 

Donna Gentry, coordinator of the Louisiana Master Farmer Program, and Jeremy Hebert, AgCenter agriculture and natural resources agent, used a rainfall simulator to demonstrate how rainfall can affect soil and nutrient loss under different soil management practices.

“The soil on the left is from a conventionally tilled field while the one on the right is a sample of a native grass in a soybean field,” Gentry explained. “The grass sample represents a conservation-based approach to keeping the soil covered to protect it from erosion.”

After 100 milliliters of water was poured over the top of each sample to simulate rainfall, liquid began to leach out of the bottom into clear bins positioned beneath them. As the water poured over the bare soil, suspended sediment – or muddy water – was collected in the bin on the left while runoff from the grassed sample was nearly clear.

“The vegetation on top of the soil is doing its job,” Gentry said. “It’s filtering water and catching the soil. The root systems also help hold the soil in place. The other sample represents a freshly tilled field, and as you can see, a lot of it is lost in the runoff. If you have heavy rain and that land is not protected with some kind of vegetation, you are going to have erosion. If you have excessive amounts of soil loss, you will be losing topsoil, organic matter and nutrients with it.”

Tri Setiyono, an AgCenter assistant professor focusing on precision agriculture, conducted a drone demonstration to show how rice health can be effectively monitored using this technology.

“We try to implement sensors that will pick up what’s going on in the field,” Setiyono said. “A regular camera that takes photography from the sky can be useful to generate elevation data, but the resulting visible range information is not very helpful in deciphering crop health conditions, as it is prone to misinterpretation due to noise driven by sun angle and cloud interference.” 

Setiyono showcased the software’s functionality on a screen while the drone took flight above the onlooking crowd.

“If you want better data, you can switch to a remote sensor, as it contains an additional lens capturing nonvisible range of solar reflectance, namely near infrared and red edge,” he said. “These lenses are sensitive to plants’ growth characteristics, allowing effective characterization of rice crop health status and its spatial variability.”

Attendees heard from James A. Caillier, vice president and executive director of the Taylor Foundation and Mike Salassi, AgCenter executive associate vice president and director of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station.

Todd Fontenot, an AgCenter crawfish agent, encouraged crawfish producers to participate in a survey about their operations.

Kody Meaux, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, talked about cost-share programs for farmers.

For more information about the Taylor grant, visit www.LSUAgCenter.com/taylorgrant.  ∆

GABRIELLE BELLELO: LSU AgCenter