One of the foes of the rice farmer is the red rice weed. The red rice weed reduces the rice yield, and if severe lowers the price received per bushel. To combat red rice the farmers utilize a yearly 50% crop rotation plan. In other words, rice is planted on 50% of the rice land, and the other 50% is planted in soybeans. The next year, soybeans are planted where rice was planted in the previous year, and vice versa. When severe red rice exists the farmer is forced to plant an additional year or two of soybeans; with extreme outbreaks of red rice the farmer can be forced to plant soybeans three years in a row. This reduces farm income since more money can be made with rice than soybeans.

     Planting soybeans instead of rice helps to eliminate red rice weed problems because herbicides can be used to fight the red rice weed that does not hurt the planted soybeans. Until just a few years ago it was not possible to use a herbicide on the red rice weed in a rice field without also killing the planted rice.

     We now have a new weapon in fighting the red rice weed. A new conventional (not gene manipulated) rice seed called Clearfield Rice allows the red rice weeds to be eliminated in a rice field with the herbicide Newpath without hurting the planted rice.

     However in order for this new combination to work a farmer must be able to flood the Clearfield rice field very quickly after applying the herbicide Newpath . Red rice weeds cannot germinate under water. Once the herbicide Newpath kills existing red rice plants the farmer floods the field quickly, not allowing new red rice seed to germinate. Thus precision land formed fields are necessary to allow the farmer to flood the fields quickly . Conventional land formed fields are not suitable unless they have been corrected and optimized to allow for quick flooding.