By Susan Collins-Smith
Although Mississippi rice producers planted fewer acres this year than is typical, it was a good production year overall.
“Yield reports were positive for the majority of our fields,” said Will Eubank, rice specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. “We had some outliers, of course. But compared to 2024 and 2025, which were pretty bad years for yields, we had a good year. It wasn’t great, but it was good.”
He estimated 90% to 95% of fields had been harvested as of Sept. 30. Producers planted 48,000 acres of rice, down about 70% from 2025’s 162,000 acres.
Producers experienced favorable weather during planting season, and about half of the state’s acreage was planted between March 15 and 20.
Then, a period of dry weather hit that affected germination.
“We got a lot of rice planted during that early window, but around early April, we had a month and a half of very dry weather that caused uneven germination,” said Eubank, who is stationed at the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville. “We were chasing moisture or waiting on a rain.”
Once growers began flooding fields, the uneven germination meant fields ended up with more mature rice in the lower parts of fields while rice in the upper parts were less developed.
Source : msstate.edu