Butte County Yield Contest

What better way to liven up a rice season than to add in the spirit of competition?  The University of California Cooperative Extension did just that this past rice season with a yield contest in Butte County.  We happily entered the fray, and are very proud to announce:  we won!

Our winning entry recorded a 126.9 cwt (that’s adjusted to a 14% moisture).  Keep in mind, that was our contest yield, not the yield for the whole field.  The yield for the contest was measured by 3 passes across one particular check (minimum of 10 acres).  Headlands and levee edges are removed from the equation.  It was all very carefully measured and weighed by UCCE staff.

Despite the floater seeds, algae blooms, and ever looming threat of army worms, we were confident the field would be competitive.  It’s historically been a high yielding field for us, and generally looked good from seeding to harvest this past season.

It was an honor to win the UCCE contest, and we look forward to an expanded version of the contest in the coming season.

For more details, check out Bruce Linquist’s article on the contest in Rice Farming Magazine.