Over 400 people gathered at the LSU AG Center Rice Research Station on Wednesday to discuss the future of the rice industry.

Attendees took tours through the rice fields, learned about the research done at the station and listened to guest speakers such as Senator David Vitter and Former Louisiana Lt. Governor Scott Angelle. With the constant heavy rainfall in Louisiana, rice farmers are expecting a smaller crop this year, and a smaller crop means less money.

“Two weeks we caught fourteen inches of rain so I lost a thousand acres of rice.” says Jeffery Sylvester, a Ville Platte rice farmer, who also says all of the rain washed away the pollen needed to harvest the rice seeds. Sylvester says he attends the rice station field day every year to learn. “The research that they do over here makes us a better farmer. When they came out with Cypress it made all the farmers a better farmer because our yields went up fifteen percent and we didn’t do anything different we just had a better product to plant.”

LSU Agricultural Economics Professor, Dr. Mike Salassi, says the 2015 national rice crop price is down since last year for several factors including excess product in the market and rainfall. However, he says Louisiana’s rice industry is still doing well. “Last few years we’ve had record yields. Our average yields now are over seven thousand pounds an acre. That’s really the primary thing that keeps growers in business.. This station here and the research they do is so important”

The station has been doing research on the how to grow rice for one hundred and seven years to help Louisiana farmers. The farmers help fund that research and the station by contributing five cents for every 100 pounds of rice sold… creating a continuous cycle for both parties.

“This is an opportunity for all of us to allow for all of the rice industry people to come in whether its producers, consumers, millers and some of our end users to kind of give them an overview of all of the research we’ve been doing.” says Dr. Steve Linscombe, Director of the Rice Research Station.

In addition to educating farmers on topics such as weed control, insect control and disease control. The rice station has released 50 varieties of rice in it’s history, 30 in the past 25 years.