From the Fields

Much of the rice in the Sacramento Valley is now in the heading stage, right on schedule. In a few weeks, growers will begin closely monitoring their fields in order to decide when to drain them. Once drained, a field typically takes about three weeks to dry out enough for harvest equipment to be able to move in without getting stuck in the mud. Ideally, if a grower has timed it right, the grain has dried down to a proper moisture content right about the same time as the field is ready to support the harvest equipment.

Although we unfortunately had no rain in March or April, it did make it easy to get in the fields and get them all planted earlier than usual. I was all done by early May. I remember a few wet years when we didn't even start field work until then. Getting the crop in early was nice, but most memorable for me this spring was all the wind we had during and after planting, which made good stand establishment quite a challenge. We did get through it, however, and I think all the rice in my area looks pretty good. I'm optimistic that yields will be above average, but I say that almost every year, and thus, I'm wrong half the time.

The general consensus is that there are about 400,000 acres of rice in California this year, which is down quite a bit from the 515,000 acres we had last year—all due to the drought, of course. I see many rice fields in my water district that are sitting fallow right now, because those growers elected to transfer the water to growers of other crops, mostly tree crops. With the reduction of rice acres in 2021, growers are expecting a good price for this year's rice harvest due to the diminished supply that is expected.