Cornell University Rice is an important crop in the Texas Gulf Coast and is seriously impacted by diseases. I conduct an active educational program involving meetings, publications, and field days for rice producers and rice industry personnel. Much of the educational material is generated by on-farm research addressing critical issues facing the farmer. Because of an increasingly difficult financial burden facing Texas rice producers, my efforts have concentrated on improving the economics of rice disease control and seeking new alternative, low cost disease management strategies. One research thrust has been to study the economics of fungicide use on rice for sheath blight control and to better define conditions under which an economic return on investment could be expected.
Work is in progress to re-evaluate and refine the economic thresholds for fungicide use on rice.
A second thrust involves evaluating cultural practices, such as alternative row spacing, as a means of suppressing disease development without curtailing yield. Much of the material used in my extension educational efforts within the turfgrass industry is derived from my research. I am responsible for diagnosing diseases of the field crop and turfgrass samples submitted to the laboratory. Selected Publications Krausz, J.P., Frederiksen, R.A., Rodrigues-Ballesteros, O.R., Odvody, G.N., and Kaufman, H.W. 1993. Epidemic of northern corn leaf blight in Texas in 1992.