Charley Mathews Jr. , who with his uncle and father, grows rice and runs a commercial drier near Marysville, Calif., is still recovering from the sticker shock associated with a recent double-digit electricity rate hike.

By renting diesel generators to power a portion of their operation, Mathews figures they’ll be able to dull the sharp edge of high electrical costs.

Nevertheless, Mathews says they’ll probably have to raise drying charges from last season’s $100 per acre to $120 per acre for this season to offset higher energy prices. And they’re not alone.

"Everybody’s raising their drier rates, too," Mathews says.

With that in mind, watching your grain moisture levels becomes even more important this year to avoid the higher charges for overly wet rice.

Even if you send your rice to a drier that hasn’t raised rates, such as Riceland Foods, harvesting within the proper moisture range can help you avoid drying charge penalties as well as maximize your milling yield potentials.

And if you have on-farm storage, harvesting within the optimum range means you won’t be paying for additional energy to run fans needed to bin-dry exceptionally wet rice.

Optimum harvest moisture range

Extension recommendations vary slightly among states about the optimum moisture range to aim for when harvesting the crop. But most state Extension guidelines agree that harvesting much over 22 percent grain moisture results in too many white, chalky immature kernels. As a result, head rice and total rice may be reduced.

You also may be paying more to dry that wet rice. Riceland’s drying charges are based on a sliding moisture scale. From 13.6 percent to 18.9 percent moisture, you pay 30 cents a bushel. From 19 percent to 21.9 percent, you pay 35 cents per bushel. Above 22 percent moisture, the rate climbs significantly, and you pay 50 cents per bushel.

Mathews, whose family runs a Sacramento Valley commercial drier, also charges significantly more for high- moisture rice.

"When you start getting above 22 percent, you really have to watch that," Mathews says.

But if you think you’ll save on drying charges my letting the grain field dry below about 16 percent, you could end up losing more in reduced milling yields than you gain in drying charge savings. If rice is allowed to field dry to moisture levels less than about 16 percent, rapid rewetting from rains or heavy dews could cause stress cracks or checks in the kernels, reducing head rice yields.

The University of Arkansas recommends a harvest range of 17 percent to 21 percent moisture. And plan your combine capacity to be able to complete harvest by the time the rice reaches 16 percent.

Money in your pocket

Jim Thompson, a University of California Extension Agricultural Engineer, has studied commercial data from the past two seasons to determine the harvest moisture levels that optimize grower returns. The studies involved California medium-grain varieties.

What he found was weather and cultural conditions play an important part. Because they vary from year to year, his results did, too.

During 2000, harvesting at 19 percent to 22 percent moisture would have made the grower the most money. And some growers had very high returns even at 17 percent moisture. During 1999, the optimal moisture level was 21 percent to 25 percent.

Regardless of the year, Thompson recommends harvesting below 24 percent moisture.

"High energy costs will force us away from high-moisture rice," Thompson says.

Drying costs climb

Mathews knows first hand about high energy costs. He, his father and uncle farm in Northern California, which is served by PG&E. The financially strapped utility recently increased electricity rates anywhere from 24 percent to 40 percent, depending on the type of program you’re on.

The Mathewses use propane to heat the stack drier but rely on electricity to run the fans for the bin driers as well as other machinery within the operation. Mathews estimates about one-third of their drying is done with heated air whereas two-thirds is done with ambient air.

The entire facility uses 2.5 to 3 megawatts of power. By renting diesel generators that produce 1 megawatt of power, Mathews believes they’ll be able to reduce their energy costs. Before the rate hikes, they were paying about 8 cents per kilowatt hour. Power from the diesel generators will run about 9 cents per kilowatt hour. That compares to 14 cents per kilowatt hour Mathews figures they’ll pay under the new rate hikes.

Higher costs in Texas, too

Like Mathews, Dick Otis, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Rice Belt Warehouse Inc. in El Campo, Texas, is trying to budget for higher energy costs. He’ll present his budget analysis, which includes projected drying costs, to the board of directors at its June meeting. But he says increases in drying and storage charges are likely.

"I don’t see how it’s going to be avoided," Otis says. "There’s a 3 to 5 percent decrease in [rice] acreage in Texas again. Last year we had phenomenal yields--the best yields we ever had--so how do you repeat that? Odds are you’re not.

"We think there will be a reduction in yields, and we are based on volume, just plain and simple."

Although natural gas prices, which power the actual driers, have climbed, it’s the electricity that has taken the biggest jump.

Electricity is used to power everything else at the drying facility, from the conveyors to the office air conditions to aeration fans in grain bins.

Through Dec. 31, 2000, Rice Belt’s energy budget was already 20 percent to 25 percent ahead of where it was at the end of the fiscal year on May 31, 2000. And the facility still had five more months to go. Otis predicts the energy budget will end up about 35 percent more than the previous fiscal year’s.

This comes despite a facility-wide campaign to reduce energy use.

"We have control systems in our bins that have analyzers that send impulses back to the control rooms," Otis says. "We try to get the managers to use these ‘hot-spot’ indicators much more often. When rice is cooled, cut the aeration off. When you leave at night, turn off all of the lights."

The good news is the facility has moved about 95 percent of its rice as of late March, so Otis won’t have to worry until this season’s harvest begins about energy required to keep large lots of rice aerated.