New rice variety developed for Crawfish farmers Crawfish farmers will have a way to improve the diets of their crustaceans, thanks to a new rice variety just released by the LSU AgCenter. By Rick Bogren "Ecrevisse," French for crawfish, provides more biomass-or vegetation-throughout the crawfish season than current varieties, according to Steve Linscombe, rice breeder and director of the LSU AgCenter's Southwest Region. Ecrevisse is intended for crawfish farmers who raise crawfish only rather than double-cropped with rice harvested for grain. "Farmers who double-crop usually stock their crawfish in a rice pond after the rice crop is planted," Linscombe said. "After they harvest the rice, they flood the fields again. The stubble and whatever regrowth comes from it provide the basis for a food web that feeds the crawfish." Though rice is part of the crawfish food chain, crawfish don't eat it, said Ray McClain, aquaculture researcher at the LSU AgCenter Rice Research Station in Crowley. Rather, the decaying green plants provide the food for insects and small water organisms that make up the bulk of the crawfish diet. One of the drawbacks of rice varieties grown for grain is their susceptibility to winterkill-which means they don't grow back in the spring. Ecrevisse, on the other hand, has better cold tolerance and can have regrowth in the spring to produce good vegetation that provides the environment where crawfish thrive, McClain said. Linscombe said farmers who raise crawfish in monoculture often continue harvesting the mudbugs well into summer and, without good vegetation, the crawfish stop growing and remain stunted. Field trials with Ecrevisse as part of the crawfish's food chain produced more large, high-value crawfish than did fields with common rice plants, McClain said. "Under commercial conditions, the use of this variety may produce higher yields of crawfish," Linscombe said. Copyright © 2004 by Louisiana Business Inc. All rights reserved by LBI.