LITTLE ROCK — Some Arkansas rice farmers who took advantage of 2012’s warm spring to get a jump on planting saw a rare opportunity this fall for a second harvest, called a “ratoon” crop.
However, farmers reported mixed results from rice fields that were allowed to re-emerge after the first harvest in late August and early September and some are now dealing with an added headache: concerns that second-growth fields might be considered “baited,” under federal hunting laws, which would prohibit their use by waterfowl hunters.
Jarrod Hardke, a rice extension agronomist, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Rice Research and Extension Center, Stuttgart, said the stubble in some fields was left intact — which allowed new shoots to emerge and develop heads.
Hardke said with several different crops ready for early harvest, many farmers moved to other crops once they cut their rice fields. In a normal year, they would have had time to roll the stubble back into the ground to prepare the field for next year’s planting.
“By the time they came back to their fields they did have a re-emergence of heads and some of them did let them go out of curiosity,” Hardke said.
But, frequently, fields experiencing a second growth failed to produce enough rice to harvest, resulting in the farmer deciding to roll or disk the crop back into the ground.
That’s where the headaches began, since many Arkansas farmers lease their fields to hunters as a way to bolster their income.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service strictly enforces laws forbidding waterfowlers from hunting over baited fields.
When many of the secondgrowth fields were rolled under to return nutrients to the soil — without being harvested — the Wildlife Service determined the practice could result in illegally baited fields — which can result in a fine of up to $15,000 for hunters. The law also provides for fines of up to $100,000 for anyone convicted of placing bait in a field.
Hardke issued an alert to farmers on Nov. 7, warning them that the Wildlife Service said ratoon fields with plants that developed heads could not be mechanically manipulated without being considered a baited field.
That prompted Arkansas’ Sen. John Boozman, a Republican, and Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat, to join with Mississippi’s senators to propose legislation earlier this month aimed at protecting farmers and wildfowl hunters from being penalized because of this year’s rare second-growth rice crop.
The legislation would give state Cooperative Extension Service agents final say on what constitutes “normal agricultural practices,” which are allowed and wouldn’t violate anti-baiting laws. The legislation was referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which isn’t scheduled to meet before the new Congress convenes in early January.
Last week, U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., submitted companion legislation in the House that immediately drew the support of the state’s congressional delegation, who signed on as original co-sponsors.
“The legislation will also give rice producers the ability to manage their land without the fear of losing hunting rights,” Crawford said in a statement.
Crawford spokesman Justin Gibbs said Friday that action on the proposal likely won’t happen until the new Congress meets in January.
Arkansas is nearing the end of the second split in the 2012-2013 waterfowl hunting season. The season, except for a two-day break on Monday and Tuesday, ends on Jan. 27.
Maj. Todd Callaway with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Enforcement Division, said no one has been cited this season for hunting over a baited field.
Callaway said farmers either knocked the second growth down and decided not to hunt that field or left the rice standing and flooded it, which makes a field legal to hunt.
“So far, we haven’t had a big problem. There were some that were discouraged that rolled theirs early that had pretty good heads on it but they just kind of left it alone and just used it as a rest area-type.”
Kash Schriefer, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, assigned to Metairie, La., said current law gives a state’s cooperative extension service a voice in determining what is a “normal agricultural practice” — but leaves baiting law enforcement to the Wildlife Service.
Federal law forbids hunting waterfowl using bait, which is the direct or indirect placement or deposit of grain, salt or other feed to lure or attract waterfowl.
However, if “normal agricultural practices,” such as flooding or rolling a rice field soon after harvest results in some grains going unharvested, then hunting is permissible.
The service doesn’t have an issue with farmers “manipulating stubble” after a harvest, Schriefer said.
“It’s when it’s no longer stubble anymore, when it regenerates a second head, whether that’s intentional or accidental,” he said.
For farmers, the issue is the definition of “normal agricultural practice.”
Arkansas farmers planted more than 1.2 million acres in rice this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistical Service. Arkansas produces nearly half of all the rice produced in the United States annually. However, Arkansas growing season typically isn’t long enough to allow for ratoon crops, which are routinely harvested in Louisiana and Texas.
Rich Hillman, who farms rice in Lonoke and Prairie counties south of Carlisle, said he was one of the farmers who experimented to see what would happen if he left his rice fields alone after harvest.
Hillman said he and other farmers were surprised to see the rice re-emerge and heads form while they moved on to harvest other crops, such as soybeans, which also matured early.
“It was nothing that the farmers themselves did,” Hillman said. “It was Mother Nature acting out of ordinary that precipitated a lot of this ratoon rice.”
It’s a “normal agricultural practice” for farmers to decide to roll or disk a field when it’s not cost-efficient to attempt a harvest, he said.
While the Wildlife Service views rolling or disking “manipulating” a crop, Hillman said rice farmers can’t wait until the spring to do it if a second growth occurs.
“We have to roll that stubble so Mother Nature can rot it for us. It’s very expensive to not do it and [then] deal with that straw in the spring when you’re ready to come back with another crop,” Hillman said.
Hardke agreed that it’s unusual for Arkansas farmers to see a second rice growth.
In most cases this year, farmers saw second heads emerge that were mostly “blank” — or grainless — and didn’t worry about harvesting it. Instead, they moved on to their other crops before returning to roll or disk their rice fields.
In many cases, “what they probably rolled or disked were blank heads or certainly immature kernels, things like that, that would have deteriorated and gone away,” Hardke said.
However, the Fish and Wildlife Service said that if heads emerged, it could be viewed as a “baited” field, Hardke said, which frustrated farmers since in many cases there was nothing to harvest.
“So, they’ve had to go to some hunters, refund money and tell them ‘I did something they’re telling me now it’s illegal. Here’s your money back,’” Hardke said.
Details about the extent of the hunting lease industry in Arkansas aren’t available, said Rebecca McPeake, a professor and wildlife specialist at the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture who works on agritourism issues.
“For some farmers, it can be a very important source of income,” McPeake said. While farming is the primary function, hunting is a side business.
McPeake said farmers often lease fields, run guide services themselves or join with other farmers to manage their land for hunting. However, once they get a clientele going, the farmers tend not to discuss leases.
Business, Pages 67 on 12/23/2012