As mentioned in an earlier post on food plots, starting strong is always the best approach. In this post I will share a case in which lofty goals turned into failure, but resulted in success. Spring 2019 I planned on growing 12 acres using a new method of irrigation called "row rice". This is simply a furrow irrigated approach with no internal levees. During the process of drilling the rice seed the grain drill broke down. The parts required to fix the drill were several days away, but the rain was only hours away. After looking at forecast models, I elected to broadcast rice on the remaining acres. Because half the field was drilled and other half broadcasted, I was nervous to apply pre-emergent herbicide (exposed rice seed is susceptible to most herbicides). So I elected to wait for emergence and address weed control later. Weeks of rain prevented any activities in the field. I watched the young rice seed being engulfed by grassy weeds. Typically I am huge fan of grassy weeds in waterfowl food plots, but this was too early and too much. As soon as I was able to enter the field with a tractor, I applied a post emergent herbicide to control the broadleaves and suppress the grass. And it worked, well kind of... The broadleaves targeted were controlled, but most of the grasses were unaffected. Seeing my row rice experiment fail was upsetting but there was still hope to grow a great moist soil crop.
As the summer progressed I began to notice similarities in the grassy "weeds" to my plots of Chiwapa millet. I continued to fertilize based on my recommendations by the Extension Service for rice. I aborted the row rice techniques and held a sustained flood on the field per traditional rice practices. The grassy "weeds" competition began to change. The small seeded grasses such as sprangletop and cut grass grew weary and died. The robust "weeds" began to seed and were clearly volunteer Chiwapa millet from previous years crops. The Chiwapa rose high above in an almost perfect distribution. Below was a rice crop that surprised me beyond belief.
There are several takeaways from this failure. The first is something a rice farmer shared with me years ago. He said: "a failed rice field is the best duck habitat man can't replicate". The second take away is simply stick to your plan. Sometimes the methods must be altered slightly, but never fold a good hand.
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