Forecast predicts 11 percent increase in rice production

By TIM HEARDEN

Capital Press

WILLOWS, Calif. -- Rice growers in California have scrambled to finish their harvest in the past couple of weeks with the knowledge that winter weather was on the way.

Sunny skies in late October allowed farmers to make quick work of getting rice out of the fields after rain earlier in the month had slowed things.

With the promise of a cooler and wetter November, growers who had finished were helping their neighbors last week.

"I had one of my neighbors come over and help me finish off," said Larry Maben, a rice grower here who finished on Oct. 31. "I was awfully glad he showed up."

Gary Enos, co-owner of Carriere Family Farms in Willows, said farmers he knows were pooling their equipment together to finish up.

"We had farmers help us, and now we're helping other farmers," Enos said on Nov. 2.

"It was a struggle," he said of the harvest. "We had wet ground and lots of lodging, where rice is laying down. It's just harder on all the equipment."

Rice production in California in 2011 was forecast at 49.4 million hundredweight, up 11 percent from the previous year, according to the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service in Sacramento. The anticipated 8,400 pounds per acre would top last year's per-acre production by 5 percent, according to NASS.

Mild weather statewide gave way last week to winter-like conditions with chilly temperatures, widespread showers and even a foot or more of snow in the Northern Sierra by the weekend, NASS noted in its weekly crop report.

Among other field crops, according to the agency:

* Nearly two-thirds of the cotton crop was harvested as of Nov. 6, as producers continued to make progress and some had advanced to their second picking.

* Alfalfa producers continued with their final crop of the year, and some producers continued cutting Sudan grass.

* More than two-thirds of winter wheat has been planted and nearly half has emerged, as wheat crop conditions were rated mostly good to excellent.

Though their harvest is wrapping up, producers remain busy baling rice straw. Mild weather helped Marysville area grower Charley Mathews finish ahead of the rain, he said.

"Everything turned out well," said Mathews, chairman of the California Rice Commission. "I think everyone's pleased with their yields."

Leo LaGrande, a grower in Williams, said he and others pulled what they would call an average crop.

"No barn-busters, but it ... was where we wanted to be," he said. "No complaints. Now we're just waiting for the market to move."

Online

USDA NASS Crop Progress and Condition: http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/California/Publications/Crop_Progress_&_Condition/index.asp