Texas rice country still getting soaked, but south Lousiana remains dry

The rice production areas of Texas continue to receive rain, and some locations are up to 20 inches since late last week. Some of the heaviest amounts developed Monday. Many fields are still flooded, and that has lead leading to a host of concerns about damage to levees and the crop.

“In the areas where it’s rained, the least I’m hearing about is two inches, and there are places that have received 18 to 20 inches of rain since late last week,” says Garry McCauley, acting Rice Extension Specialist in Texas. In Jefferson and Chambers Counties a fair amount of rice is under water. Most of those areas got 15 inches or more. Liberty County also has submerged rice, and the Trinity River may still be coming out of its banks.”

The trick, McCauley adds, will be to patch levees as the water subsides and try to maintain a flood. Close attention to disease scouting will be necessary, too, he says. “Plants probably will be stretched a little and you don’t want to put too much N on that rice if you’ve still got another application to make,” McCauley advises.

Heaviest amounts fell east of Houston and west of El Campo. A strip up and down the Colorado River pretty much missed any of the rain, McCauley says. The Weather Channel noted earlier today that the Victoria area has received twice as much rain since Monday as it has in the rest of 2006 up to that point.

“We’ve been really dry,” he notes. “Now, we’re back up to our annual average for this time of the year, but most of that came this week.”

This succession of showers has still pretty much played out before reaching the southern parishes of Louisiana, which sustained heavy salt contamination from Hurricane Rita last September. That part of the state also is in a prolonged drought. For the period starting in April 2005, rainfall totals in parts of south Louisiana are running as much as 25 inches behind normal.

“We could have used six inches of rain this week without any trouble,” says Johnny Saichuk, Louisiana Extension Rice Specialist. “Most people, though, just got a few tenths.”