New Blog- Learning the Lingo

By Maddie Dunlap

Rice tipping?? No, not cow tipping, rice tipping.  Growing up in Maxwell around agriculture I speak farmer pretty well, but working at the California Rice Commission I’ve learned a few new terms.  Last week on a media tour at Steve and Tom Butler’s rice farm I picked up some of the lingo.

The rice has “tipped” when the grains at the top of the rice plant begin to become fully developed and add weight.  This puts extra stress on the supporting piece of the plant and the plant begins to bend, or “tip”.  Farmers use this stage in maturation as an indicator that harvest is near and the fields are almost ready to be drained.  It is said that when a field is “two-thirds tipped” the water should be drained.

How do you know if the field is two-thirds tipped?  Good question.  The keen eye of the farmer is the only tool that can tell.  “If you want to get in a big conversation about nothing, drive around the fields in a truck with your daddy and decide if the rice is two-thirds tipped,” rice grower Steve Butler explained.

In fact at last week’s rice research forum, this very topic came up.  Is there a scientific tool that could be developed to measure the readiness of the field?  After much debate, it was decided that there were too many variables for such a tool to be developed.  Only the observant and experienced farmer can know for sure.

Another grower term I learned was “the rice is headed out.”  No, that is not to say that the rice will be uprooting itself and leaving the field.  “Heading out” is when the rice grains begin to fill in at the top of the plant.

Hopefully as the plant is heading out, it won’t “blank out.”  This phenomenon is caused by a variety of issues during the growing season and results in empty shells of grain.  The plant appears to be at maturation, but harvest will leave the farming wanting.

Rice growers will experience some or all of these scenarios as the crop approaches the end of summer and the start of harvest.  Next time you drive by a rice field maybe you can decide, is that field two-thirds tipped?

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Maddie Dunlap is a senior agricultural communication student with a minor in agribusiness at California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo. 
She is the eighth generation of Dunlaps born and raised in Colusa County agriculture.  

When Maddie isn’t studying hard at Cal Poly, she enjoys traveling throughout California, Giants baseball and attending county fairs.