This season will go down as the most unusual I’ve experienced since I planted my first rice in 1985. Because of the cool, wet weather, nothing in the planting or crop development was normal this year. Harvest normally takes me from 11 to 15 days and I am wrapped up by mid October. This season I didn’t even start until October. When you harvest rice later in the fall, the hours you are able to work each day become shorter and shorter. It takes more time and resources to finish the job.
It looks like my production will be off a bit from normal, but considering the strange nature of the season it could have been a lot worse. My heart really goes out to those growers who still have rice in the field.
We’re getting water in the fields to help decompose the straw, which will be welcome news to all of those beautiful migrating birds and other wildlife in the area. It’s also a time to get all of the harvesters and equipment back in, including any repairs and tune up work that may be necessary.
It’s nice to have harvest completed and have the pace slow down a beat, but I can’t help but think we’re only about 90 to 100 days away from starting this process all over again. This year certainly required a lot of patience to let Mother Nature take her course.
Punch Haskell grows rice in Colusa County and is part of a family farming operation that began approximately 60 years ago.
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