Horizon Ag's Clearfield medium grain rice variety CLM04 offers farmers strong medium grain option in 2020

Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Texas have planted medium grain acres each of the last 10 years for an average of about 250,000 acres per year.

Arkansas and Louisiana made up the majority of medium grain acres at 78% and 18% respectively. Southern medium grain rice traditionally is priced higher than Southern long grain rice, and the leading medium grain variety for several years, Jupiter, has excellent yield potential.

Clearfield® medium grain rice has been commercially available since 2010. In traditional medium grain areas in Arkansas, the Clearfield technology has been used minimally and is very effective against red rice and grass. Evidence of this was seen in side-by-side fields of CL272 and Jupiter in 2019.

CL272 on the left and Jupiter on the right near Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 2019

Horizon Ag is excited to launch its fourth Clearfield medium grain variety, CLM04, in 2020. CLM04 descends from popular medium grain varieties Bengal, Neptune and Jupiter.

Developed by Dr. Xueyan Sha at the University of Arkansas Rice Research and Extension Center, CLM04 has shown tremendous yield potential and stability, improved blast tolerance compared to Jupiter, and milled grain characteristics that are similar to those found in Jupiter and Titan.

Most of Horizon Ag’s CLM04 seed production was in the Jonesboro, Arkansas, area in 2019, and it performed very well across large acreages. Some seed was also produced near Crowley, Louisiana, and as challenging of a year as it was across all varieties and hybrids, CLM04 performed the best of all Horizon Ag seed production fields.


In particular, farmers saw the outstanding potential of CLM04 in seed production this past season. For instance, when Nick Thompson, a rice farmer near Jonesboro, was asked about his experience growing CLM04 in 2019, he said, “CLM04 was grown in conjunction with Jupiter and Titan on our farm this year. Not only was CLM04 the cleanest from a weed control standpoint, but it also out-yielded the other two varieties by a minimum of 5 bushels per acre.”

This is a testament to the fact that CLM04 can provide industry-leading grass and red rice control without sacrificing yield potential.

To summarize:

CLM04

• First Clearfield medium grain variety released by University of Arkansas
• Yield potential similar to Jupiter
• Very good grain quality
• Improved blast resistance compared to Jupiter
• Height of 42 inches

For more information about planting CLM04 in 2020, please reach out to your Horizon Ag District Field Representative.