Rough Rice – From Seed To Harvest

We planted the seeds in the spring and cared for them all summer.  The past few weeks I have prepared the office and the grain bin complex for incoming grain.  Our crew at the bins has completed repairs and swept the concrete so much they are bored stiff.  Our crew in the field has turned wrenches and checked wear spots on combines, headers, and grain carts.  The truck drivers have inspected the trucks, changed the oil and filled up the fuel.  So when the combine pulls out of the shop headed to the field EVERYONE has a sense of excitement!  Here we go!!

View of a mature rice field from the combine

Rice harvest has officially started!!  Well kinda…  Getting started is always slow.  We completed one field late yesterday. It was a new variety called ARoma17 from the University of Arkansas.  Maybe you guessed it from the name but it is an aromatic variety developed to compete with the increasing demand for jasmine type rice in the US.  This is a picture of the field earlier in the season with University folks John Carlin, my dad Marvin Hare, Dr. Nathan Slaton and my husband, Greg, discussing the condition of the field and prospects of the ARoma17 variety for the future.  The harvest dry yield was better than expected!

The next fields aren’t quite ready yet meaning the moisture of the grain is too high to harvest.  This indicates that the kernels of rice are still a little green and not fully the beautiful golden brown we like to see.  But sometimes the decision to harvest or not isn’t as easy as it may seem.

We have many weeks of rice harvest ahead of us.  The earlier we can get it out of the field and out of the weather and into grain storage the better it is for the rice.  Heavy rains or winds could blow the rice kernels on the ground and be lost.  The flip side is to harvest it too early and suffer yield loss from lighter, immature kernels, problems in storage and higher costs to dry the kernels to optimum moisture content.  So like many of the decisions in farming its a toss-up!

Patiently waiting on the turn row

For today we have decided to wait.  The combine gets parked on the turn row or what we call the road around a field.  It looks lonely there just sitting.  We will wait a day or two and see if it will help dry the kernels to a lower moisture content and allow the rice to mature.  I know from experience that quickly it will all hit and everything will be ready at once.  But in the mean time I think we may start corn harvest!!  So back to being excited about harvest!  I will keep you posted!

-Jennifer