Drive through the Sacramento Valley these days and you very likely will see and hear airplanes seeding more than a half million acres of rice. I was able to witness an entirely different seeding method at the Rice Experiment Station in Biggs, which has provided growers with important research and varieties for a century.
The Experiment Station works with so many varieties in a relatively compact space that aerial seeding is out of the question. The closest thing that mimics the aerial seeding process is seeding by hand. With 40,000 different breeding lines this is no easy feat!
For more than 30 years, extra help in the form of skilled workers of Sikh descent have worked with researchers at the station to plant millions of seeds. The entire process takes a little more than a week and is fascinating to watch.
One of the starting steps is illustrated here by Baldish Deol, as seeds are soaked and carefully loaded into vials.
Each vial has about 100 seeds, which represents one head of rice.
In addition there are 1,500 large plots, also planted with extreme care and by hand.
This work happens during an intense five-day period and is done with little outside attention but is part of the foundation of research that has helped this industry maintain its status as a reliable producer of premium quality rice.
Spring seeding is just one way the Rice Experiment Station maintains its role as an invaluable part of California rice production. It’s a job where patience is a virtue, as it takes about a decade for a new rice variety to go from its first planting to commercial use.
Jim Morris is Communications Manager for the California Rice Commission. Jim has worked in communications for more than 20 years. When he’s not on the job, he enjoys his family, faith, football, outrageous monster stories and running marathon
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