rice harvest
I saw this Gleaner header on my way home from work just after Easter, harvesting one of the very few rice crops grown in the Riverina this year. The rice crops were eaten by locusts and ducks, damaged by the very hot weather (rice likes it hot but not too hot) and it was generally not a bumper year. That's rice dust not smoke around the header.
posted by utw at 8:55 pm
2 Comments:
Interesting to know you grow rice there. I always thought rice was grown in wet conditions, such as "rice paddys". We have some rice growing down in the South Carolina. In Connecticut, we are not much of an agricultural state any more. We do still have tobacco farms in the Connecticut River Valley and are know for producing "wrapper" and "binder" tobacco for cigars. My grandfather was one of the first tobacco farmers in the area.
Yes, rice is grown in wet conditions here* too but because of the continuing drought (we have had rain but well below average) since about 2002 our irrigtion water allocation has been drastically reduced. We used to aerial sow the pre-germinated rice seed into flooded bays. First we cut back the rice area then gave up altogether. Farmers have chosen to use their water on a winter crop (wheat, barley, oats), pasture for cattle/sheep, sell it on the temporary water mart (most profitable option if we can't grow rice) or sell up and do something completely different.
* Our clay soil and climate make this an ideal rice growing area - all we need is the water... when it rains again and the storage dams fill, we may grow rice again.
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