Crawfordsville, Arkansas | Txtractorboy - 1/17/2026 07:00
Lol. Goes to show how much farming differs by region. Definitely agree, pure sand holes don’t work for rice at all. That said here in South Texas I would say 80 percent of the rice ground left is sandy. But it’s because you hit solid yellow clay about 6-8 tenths down. Holds that water like crazy. Our family has been leveling rice in the area since the 80’s. It’s both a blessing and a curse to have dirt like that, holds water very well but if you don’t flip the sand when you level it that field is never the same again
My county borders the MS river. For the most part it’s either sandy cotton dirt, black gumbo for rice and the rest is rough stuff that my grandfather always said its purpose was to hold the earth together.
I’ve grown rice in sandy dirt. Pumps never shut off and you never get caught up pumping. This fields will grow 240 bu corn and 3 bale cotton but with rice about 175-180 is all it’ll do.
Crowleys ridge is about 45 miles west of me. It’s basically the shutoff from our aquifer on the river here. On the west side their dirt is lighter. Almost a white dirt. Not necessarily sandy though. Lots of rice grown there and yields are good. Soybean yields aren’t the greatest as it’s pretty drought prone.
Haven’t seen last years numbers yet but I know rice acres were down but in years past Arkansas was over 50% of US production. Impressive since about half the state isn’t fit for rice.
I know this map isn’t 100% correct. A few rice acres in west TN last year and extreme S Illinois. Missouri doesn’t look right either.
Edited by Detroit 1/17/2026 09:56
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burning fields
