Farmers say rice is nice

Joe Carrancho is enjoying the coins jingling in his pockets these days.

Good crops, good quality and good prices led to a banner crop for rice production in 2009, the Mid-Valley rice farmer said.

"It just came all at one time and it was kind of a bonanza for the farmers," Carrancho said. "I can never remember having this much loose change in my pocket."

Carrancho has not had such high yields in more than a decade, he said. His crops exceeded 100 hundredweight sacks per acre, compared to the state average of about 80 to 85 hundredweight sacks.

"It was not only excellent yield but excellent quality," he said. "I planted early, so rice came off quite well."

The year also brought perfect growing weather, Carrancho said.

"A lot of people think we have to have a lot of heat to grow rice, but you don't," Carrancho said. "This proves it."

Yuba County farmer Charlie Mathews Sr. agreed that good weather and no water shortages combined for a bountiful harvest and one of the highest yields per acre farmers have seen in years. Pricing is looking to be substantially less than in 2008, but most farmers are generally pleased with production.

"It turned out to be a very good year," Mathews said. "It never got too hot or too cold."

Those who planted earlier had higher yield and quality, but most growers fared well regardless, said Tim Johnson, president and CEO of the California Rice Commission. The varieties of rice available to plant are ideal for the Sacramento Valley, he said.

"Farmers have been very pleased with the yield from the crop this year," Johnson said. "While yields are always important, the total combination of yield, pricing and expense to grow that crop is the calculation that you do."

It is a little early to tell how good prices will be, since December is only four months into the marketing season, said Pat Daddow, a Sutter resident who heads the California Rice Exchange, a trade operation from which processors bid on and buy rice.

"But rice is still a profitable crop, even with prices down somewhat," he said.

Current pricing brings rice to about $20.75 per hundredweight, which is $14.25 per hundredweight over loan value and about $4 or $5 less than last year.

Factors knocking prices down include the high yield and a doubling of medium-grain rice acreage in the South. But California medium-grain rice is still of higher quality, competitors in the worldwide market are not exporting or competitive and the weakness of the dollar against foreign currency is attractive to outside markets.

Until a few years ago, Carrancho was just hanging on because of pricing, he said. Now everyone is making money and happy, but that may lead to problems down the road.

"Farmers are like a divorced woman," he said. "They want to be kept in a style they got accustomed to."

As farmers earn more, prices for fertilizers, tractor parts and other costs start to rise, he said.

If prices hold, everyone can get paid and have what they want, Carrancho said. But when prices fall, other costs will have to lower or farmers will hurt financially.

Farmers are looking toward 2010 for what factors may impact the next rice production season.

"Probably the unknown is the water supply," Mathews said. "That's Mother Nature."

Water worries are farmers' biggest problem, Carrancho said. They don't know what is in store, but one thing is for certain - they need water.

"I firmly believe there is enough water in this state for everybody, if they would let us dam up some surface water and do what's necessary," Carrancho said.

Regulations — for air quality, crop protection materials and otherwise — are the next thing on Carrancho's mind.

"California has got to be the most unfriendly state there is for business," he said.

But the California Rice Commission works to protect farmers'' interest, he said.

Most California rice is medium grain and of the japonica variety, so it is soft and sticky. Crops are typically planted from April 15 to May 30 and harvested from mid-September to late October.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted in November that 2009 California rice production would be about 8 percent above last year.