Departments

At certain times of the year, gusty winds howl across California’s Sacramento Valley, known for its rich adobe clay soil and home to the Sutter Buttes, described by many as the smallest mountain range in the world. For generations, farmers have grown rice in this area of the state, and producer Frank Rehermann is no exception. In 1972, fresh from the Navy, Rehermann began his journey as a California rice farmer with the assistance of his father-in-law, Ron Harrington. One piece of property that they farmed was owned by the Righero brothers, who originally began the process of wrestling the unleveled ground with sloughs running through it into good, farmable rice fields. Later, using an old D-7, Rehermann continued straightening the levees throughout the property to achieve greater efficiency. Today, he knows those fields well and has used that knowledge to help shape his rice production strategies. Rehermann has to be mobile because his operation is spread out, encompassing property at Live Oak, the Riceton area and the White Ranch – located on the other side of Richvale – that he began leasing from Minnie May White in 1973. In all, Rehermann farms 900 acres of rice, planting 50 percent to M-206 and the remainder to M-205.

LOUISIANA Dr. Dustin Harrell Extension Rice Specialist dharrell@agcenter.lsu.edu You could not ask for two consecutive rice production seasons better than we have seen in the past two years in Louisiana! Record yields were achieved in 2013, and 2014 yields were not far behind. The...

In 1961, representing more than half a century gone by, the United States severed all ties with Cuba, and U.S. rice began disappearing from Cuban dinner tables, grocery store shelves and restaurants. Prior to the embargo, Cuba was one...

by Jake Onstott PCA, Growers Ag Service, Inc. Yuba City, Calif. I grew up as the third generation in a family of crop dusters, but my love has always been to “play in the dirt.” After deciding that I wasn’t going into...

MS Farm Bureau Internship Opportunity Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation (MFBF) is offering a summer intern program for students who carry at least 12 credit hours and have a minimum junior classification in an agricultural field of study for the 2015...

Bo Hanneken Christy PCA, Wilbur-Ellis Company Colusa, Calif. I grew up in Missouri where my FFA agronomy team placed at many different competitions, including State and the Purdue Invitational Crops Contest. I moved to California when I was 17 and...

Arkansas farmers share their recipe for success The main ingredients for their operation's success, according to fifth- and sixth-generation Arkansas rice farmers Paul and Gil Dreher, include choosing the right varieties, investing in a grain management system, managing their water...

USA Rice works to keep existing markets open and free of barriers as well as find new ones for U.S. rice. All indicators are pointing to a robust rice crop this year despite the devastating drought gripping parts of rice...

Winner, Winner! Cannon Cummings, son of Marc and Ashley Cummings, was the proud winner of a $25 Academy Sports + Outdoors gift certificate at the 2014 RiceTec Field Day in Harrisburg, Ark. Congratulations, Cannon! Marc is a rice consultant in...

By Danny May Southeast Coop Qulin, Mo. I remember that the first rice field I ever scouted as a college intern was north of Marks, Miss. Later, I spent time scouting in northeast Louisiana, North Carolina and Kentucky. In 2009, Mike Galloway...

CRC partnerships help fuel conservation in rice fields By Paul Buttner, Environmental Affairs Manager, California Rice Commission This was another eventful year as the California Rice Commission (CRC) successfully helped deliver programs to growers who willingly engage in wildlife conservation. It...

Dr. Jarrod T. Hardke Arkansas Rice Extension Agronomist University of Arkansas, Cooperative Extension Service jradke@uaex.edu Strange is the New Normal Arkansas rice farming in 2014 was a lot like a line heard often about playing cards: it wasn't necessarily a matter of holding good cards,...

In the case where the rice customer is the beholder, then as the old Ford slogan once proclaimed – "Quality is Job One." An emphasis must be placed on quality by every segment of the marketing chain. The world market is not static, and dramatic changes are affecting markets at our doorstep. The best example is our top market – Mexico. The U.S. share of the Mexican market was 99 percent as late as 2010, but we have fallen to just 78 percent in the first nine months of 2014. Thankfully, the U.S. industry is addressing the problem to find and implement solutions. We've taken a long-term approach, establishing a protocol to evaluate potential new U.S. rice varieties, looking at parameters such as bran streaks, chalk, kernel color, uniformity of length and overall appearance. The parameters are graded by mills on a number scale that will prevent substandard varieties from making it to market. While the program is voluntary, I would encourage all plant breeders developing new rice varieties to participate in the protocol for maximum impact. And, of course, we're putting great emphasis on rice research to provide growers with high yield varieties that meet the quality demands of the customers.

Years ago, when I became editor of Rice Farming magazine, I knew I had a lot to learn in order to do a good job of communicating the mission of "profitable production strategies" to our readership. The best way...

While there is always a chance of a few surprises, it appears that 2014 was a good production year with aboveaverage yields and good to very good quality being reported. Now the focus will be on finding enough demand for rice supplies that are estimated at nearly 10 percent higher than the previous year. Based on USDA's October 2014 supply and demand estimates, demand is expected to increase by seven percent for the 2014/15 marketing year. While positive, this increase isn't expected to be enough to keep ending stocks from experiencing a sharp increase – nearly nine million hundredweights (cwts), a 27 percent increase from last year and five percent above the five-year average. While domestic rice usage and total rice exports are expected to increase during the 2014/15 marketing year, the slow start to export sales has placed a cloud over the market. The reported good quality of the 2014 crop and the current lower prices should help continue to support domestic demand. The struggle with demand has been in the export market. To this point, total rice exports are down 13 percent from a year ago. With exports for the 2014/15 marketing year expected to be up by 10 percent, this market will need to see a significant improvement in export business moving forward to meet those expectations. And while it is still very early in the marketing year, the slow start is concerning. This is especially true for longgrain milled rice exports, which are currently running 27 percent behind last year's pace. Without some improvement in export business, there seems little to entice mills from moving from current price levels.