‘Rex’ (Oryza sativa L.) (Reg. No. CV‐136, PI 661111) is a conventional, southern, long‐grain rice cultivar developed at the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Delta Research and Extension Center, Stoneville, MS, and officially released in February 2010. Rex is a semidwarf cultivar with good straw strength, good standability, and good milling, and it exhibits exceptional and stable yield performance. Rex was tested in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas in a total of 35 environments from 2006 to 2010. Averaged over the 35 replicated trials, Rex had an average grain yield of 10.16 t ha−1. Its consistency in grain yields across production sites and years can be contributed, in part, to its excellent straw strength as shown by a lodging incidence of less than 1% over the same number of environments. Furthermore, Rex averaged a whole milling yield of 579 g kg−1 and a total milling yield of 692 g kg−1. While Rex is susceptible to rotten neck blast [caused by Pyricularia grisea (Cooke) Sacc.] and sheath blight disease (caused by Rhizoctonia solani J.G. Kühn), its level of field tolerance has permitted its overall field performance to match or numerically exceed the performance of other similar susceptible varieties. Rex should be well adapted to the growing conditions found in the southern USA.

‘CL162’ (CV‐135, PI 661110), a Clearfield long‐grain rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivar was developed by Mississippi State University Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville, MS, and jointly approved for release by Mississippi State University and BASF in 2011. The population from which CL162 was derived began as a single cross of CFX‐18 (‘CL161’)/‘Priscilla’ (PVP 9800212) made in 2001. CFX‐18, later named CL161, contains the gene for resistance to imazethapyr and imazamox, which are used in the Clearfield rice production system. CL162 was tested at 14 locations in Mississippi in 2008–2010 and in the Uniform Regional Rice Nursery conducted in 2010 Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, and Mississippi, where it had an average grain yield of 9.9 t ha−1 compared with 10.0, 8.9, and 10.7 t ha−1for the comparison cultivars ‘Cocodrie’, ‘CL131’, and ‘CL151’, respectively. Its consistency in grain yield across production sites and years can be attributed, in part, to its excellent straw strength, as shown by a lodging incidence of 3% over the same number of test locations and years, compared with 17% for CL151 and 4% for CL131. CL162 averaged 84 d to 50% heading and 120 d to maturity over all tests from 2008 to 2010 compared with Cocodrie, which averaged 85 d to 50% heading and 119 d to maturity. CL162 is rated as susceptible to sheath blight (caused by Rhizoctonia solani J.G. Kühn); moderately susceptible to bacterial panicle blight (caused by Burkholderia glumae), rotten neck blast (caused by Pyricularia grisea Sacc.), and straighthead disorder; and moderately resistant to leaf blast (caused by Pyricularia grisea Sacc.).

‘Bowman’ (Oryza sativa L.) (Reg. No. CV‐137, PI 663863) is a semidwarf, long‐grain rice cultivar developed at the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Delta Research and Extension Center, Stoneville, MS and officially released in March 2007. Bowman has good straw strength, which results in minimal lodging. The yield potential has proven to be high and stable. Bowman exhibited good milling and had unique cooking and processing quality because of its extra‐high amylose coupled with the Dixiebelle‐type rapid viscosity analysis profile. Bowman was tested in a total of 40 location‐year environments from 2003 to 2006. When averaged over trials, the grain yield for Bowman was 9.7 t ha−1, while its milling yields (the ratio of whole kernel to total milled rice as g kg−1:g kg−1) was 554:685. Bowman had an average apparent amylose of 24.9% and an alkali spreading value of 4. Cook type for Bowman is extra‐high amylose with a rapid viscosity analysis type of Dixiebelle. Bowman is similar to many commonly grown cultivars in the southern USA in that it is susceptible to blast disease [caused by Pyricularia grisea (Cooke) Sacc.] and sheath blight disease (caused by Rhizoctonia solani J.G. Kühn). Bowman should be well adapted to the growing conditions found in the southern USA.