Colusa County rice crop seen as good overall

The early harvest did not show the yield that farmers had hoped for.

Mid-summer cuts looked a bit better, and the late fields have been, depending on whom is asked, producing very good yields.

Such is the annual rice harvest in Colusa County.

Colusa County Agriculture Commissioner Joseph Damiano said there are about 160,000 acres of rice planted this year, and the vast majority of it has been harvested ahead of the recent storms.

Statewide, about 575,000 acres were planted, almost all north of the Delta.

There are a few specialty rice crops, mostly short-grain varieties, still to be cut, but the crop is primarily with the dryers and millers now.

"Yield-wise, with all of our crops, the growers have told me it is all across the board," said Damiano.

"Even within rice, they are having yields that are considered normal and other yields that are down 10, 20 percent," he said. "They are saying that even some of the rice that was harvested late is a bit down."

But some longtime industry officials think this will be another very good year — the fourth straight for the county.

"I don't think the crop is that bad at all," said Dave Myers, president of California Family Foods, a rice processing mill and storage facility.

"The early rice didn't do as well as the late rice, but I don't think it was all that bad," Myers said. "I think, overall, the yield will be pretty good."

Growers also have expressed concern about the water content in the late harvest, especially after powerful north winds swept through the area.

If the grain is too dry, it can crack during the processing.

Some growers, however, were just plain concerned about getting the crop out of the field before the latest storms blew in late last week.

Instead of harvesters, though, fields were filled Thursday and Friday with tractors disking up the ground and incorporating the straw before flooding the plots.

Other growers were busy burning the 25 percent of their fields they are allowed to each year under the burn law enacted nearly 20 years ago.

Also visible around the county are the duck blinds sprouting up as more and more fields are flooded.

The biggest unknown seems to be the price.

Some growers are concerned with the decline. Given some of the international markets, most notably the devastated crops in Japan and in Southeast Asia, growers thought the prices would be up.

However, Australia has a solid crop this year to create some competition.

Damiano said he has not heard much about the price from the growers.

"But I think it looks like, overall, it will be another good year for Colusa County," the commissioner said.