Rice producers from the Gulf Coast to the Mid-South are reporting high yields and great performances this year with RiceTec hybrid rice.

''In good growing conditions and bad, across the Mid-South and coastal rice regions, RiceTec hybrid rice is really putting on some memorable performances,'' says Van McNeely, technical services manager for RiceTec.

Perhaps no hybrid performance will be as memorable as David Murrell's CLEARFIELD*XL8 crop in Winnie, Texas. After hearing his neighbors talk about it, Murrell decided to plant hybrid rice for the first time on his farm this year. He drilled 247 acres on May 3 and 4 and then flushed the fields with water to start germination. The night of the irrigation, a rainstorm flooded 100 of the 247 acres, and the planted CLEARFIELD*XL8 seed remained submerged for five days. Once the water receded, there was nothing but bare ground to behold for several days.

''One day, we began to see little green plants sticking up in the drill rows,'' says Murrell. ''That night, we got another huge rain and this time, the 100 acres of rice seedlings remained under water for nine days. When the water finally receded, the rice plants were about eight inches long and laying over on the ground.''

Murrell waited a few days before making the first NEWPATH® application. Two days later, the hybrid rice began growing upward. Three weeks later, when the rice had recovered from the first two floods and was growing well, another big rain dumped enough water to flood the 100 acres for a third time. This time, 40 acres of the crop was completely under water and on 60 acres, the tops of rice plants were barely visible above the floodwater, which remained on the field for 11 days.

The water receded and the crop, not surprisingly, looked extremely bad, says Murrell. After about four days, leaves began to turn green and grow again. After a consultation with his RiceTec rep, he decided to apply 23 units of nitrogen to the acreage that had flooded and the crop ''took off.''

''It's probably the most amazing thing I have ever seen,'' says Murrell. ''I've cut two fields that flooded pretty badly and the first averaged 52 green barrels (187 bushels) per acre. On the second field, which is 102 acres, I have about 30 acres left to cut and I've already cut 4,000 barrels (14,400 bushels). I've had to sell rice out of my bins to make room for what I'm going to harvest with the hybrid.''

Murrell applied 150 units of nitrogen to all but 40 of his 247 acres of CLEARFIELD*XL8, which received a total of 173 units. This year was the first time he's planted hybrid rice, and he planted it on his worst, flood-prone fields.

''I will make more rice from the 247 acres of CLEARFIELD*XL8 than I will make from the rest of my 400 acres of CL121, which suffered no flooding problems this season,'' he says. ''I have never seen rice with as much vigor and desire to grow and produce as this hybrid and I've been farming nearly 30 years. I've never known anyone else's rice crop to go under water like mine and still produce like this hybrid has. If I had planted a variety rather than a hybrid on those fields, I would not have cut a crop from that land this year.''

Stress from being under water for days at a time was not an issue for Kenneth Hlavinka, but it was a rainy season with high disease pressure.
Still, Hlavinka's hybrid rice fields averaged 48 to 50 green barrels (173 to 180 bushels) per acre ­ a little above the average rice yield on his farm.

''I grow hybrids for the yield potential,'' says Hlavinka. ''The milling has not been quite as high as other rice varieties, but the extra yield usually makes up the difference, and in most cases, the extra grain more than makes up for any milling shortfall.''

Hlavinka applied 30 to 40 units less nitrogen to his CLEARFIELD*XL8 than his conventional rice varieties. Because it was a high disease pressure, he applied fungicide to his entire rice crop, including the hybrid. He says he believes a fungicide application can help milling yields. He plans to plant anywhere from 300 to 400 acres of RiceTec hybrid rice in 2005.

''I like to plant three or four different varieties from year to year because some varieties perform better than others in certain years,'' he says. ''But, it seems like the hybrids have yielded well consistently, and I like to have yield consistency on a portion of my farm.''

Gary Skalicky farms with his brother-in-law Larry Waits in Ganado, TX, about 20 miles west of El Campo, Texas. He planted 40 acres of CLEARFIELD*XL8 in 2003, and increased his planting of the hybrid to 128 acres in 2004. Early harvest results from this year's CLEARFIELD*XL8 crop has him thinking about devoting even more acres to hybrid rice in 2005.

''We harvest our rice and it goes straight into farm storage, so the yield is not weighed,'' he says. ''Volume-wise, it looked like about 52, maybe up to 53 (187 to 190 bushels), green barrels per acre. We're hoping to get about 50 to 51 (181 to 184 bushels) out of it, dry. It was the best yielder we had this year.''

Skalicky ratoons his rice and has not cut the second crop, but says ''it looks like it will be the best second crop we've ever raised, by far.'' The first crop from the CLEARFIELD*XL8 yielded much better than any of the varieties he planted this year. Skalicky has used the CLEARFIELD* weed control system and knows the benefits it offers. This year, he planted CLEARFIELD*XL8 on his worst red-rice ground and did not see any red rice plants in the fields during harvest, he says.

''Last year, our hybrid rice was not a bang-up milling yield, but was better than average milling yield,'' says Skalicky. ''If you can get a good, average milling yield, then it boils down to actual crop yield. We used forty lbs. less nitrogen per acre with CLEARFIELD*XL8 and we have economical red rice control. Overall, it looks like it will be a good fit for our farm.''

Big yields are on early harvest reports from the Mid-South. In Gould, Ark., Gregg Gassaway cut 18,772 bushels (5,214 barrels) from a 72-acre field of XP710, a long-grain hybrid from RiceTec that has exhibited exceptionally high yield potential on farms across the Mid-South.

''That's an average of 253.6 bushels (70 barrels) per acre at 13 percent moisture,'' brags Gassaway. ''I had another field that cut 220 bushels (61 barrels) per acre, dry, and another that cut about 215 bushels (60 barrels), dry. My overall yield average for XP710 will probably be 225 to 239 bushels (63 to 67 barrels) per acre, dry weight.''

It was an unusually cool growing season for his area of Arkansas. Lots of rain in early June, then frequent rains and good growing conditions throughout the rest of the summer. Gassaway says he calculates that at loan price, he made an extra $150 per acre with XP710 over all the other rice varieties planted on his farm.

''With a 180 bushel-per-acre yield on a conventional rice variety, and say it gets a 10-cent premium on milling grades, that's only an extra $18 per acre,'' he says. ''So, it's a no-brainer which is better for our farm. I have not had the XP710 milled this year, but last year it milled out at about the loan average. When you are making 220 to 260 bushels per acre, though, the 10- to 15-cent premium for good milling grades is insignificant.''

Fred Carter, who farms rice in Randolph and Greene Counties in Arkansas, cut an average of 244 bushels (68 barrels) per acre on a field of XP710. He has cut about 70 acres of XL8 and it was averaging 200 bushels (56 barrels) per acre.

''Last year was my first year to grow hybrids and I think they are great,'' says Carter. ''They will make so much more yield that it makes you want to grow more. Everything except my water-seeded land will be planted in hybrids next year. Hybrids are not any more expensive to grow than conventional varieties. The extra yield more than makes up for the higher seed costs.''

In an early harvest report from Sam Nicholson in Jackson County, Ark., both CLEARFIELD*XL8 and XL8 were delivering high yields.

''I have about 1,800 acres of CLEARFIELD*XL8 and XL8 and when I harvested them, I did not separate the two,'' says Nicholson. ''Together, the hybrids averaged about 205 bushels (57 barrels) per acre. That's a good yield ­ about the best rice yield I've ever made.''

Nichols says he's had a perfect growing season that helped his farm make more rice yields across all hybrids and varieties.

RiceTec, Inc. is an integrated rice company specializing in the breeding, development and marketing of high-value rice products. Headquartered in Alvin, Texas, the company operates the primary research center of RiceTec AG, an international rice technology venture. RiceTec, Inc. is the first company to commercialize hybrid rice seed in the United States. It is also a leading producer and marketer of specialty rice products, which are sold under RiceSelect brands in more than 20,000 supermarkets throughout North America.

CLEARFIELD and NEWPATH are registered trademarks used under license from BASF.