Episode 34: A Year Like No Other
Ingrained
California farmers are no strangers to drought, although the magnitude of this, , has widespread and significant impacts in Sacramento Valley rice country and nearby communities. A lack of adequate rain above Shasta Dam has brought historic water cutbacks to growers on the west side of the Sacramento Valley, with a major reduction in rice plantings. This contrasts the east side of the valley, where rice acreage is expected to be normal to potentially above normal. Full rice acreage won’t be known until later this spring. “We’re down to 25 percent of normal rice acreage,”...
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Episode 33: Unprecedented
Ingrained
Many travelers heading north on Interstate 5 or Highway 99 only get a fleeting glimpse of the Sacramento Valley. However, those who know this region understand and appreciate how unique and valuable it is. The Sacramento Valley is an impressive patchwork of farms and communities, living and working in harmony with the environment. A worsening drought has led to major water cutbacks. Farmers will grow less and the communities with agriculture as their foundation will be impacted. Local officials are concerned about how lost farm production will impact their communities. “Those impacts are...
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Episode 32: Momentum Grows for Sites Reservoir
Ingrained
A third straight drought year poses major challenges for California’s environment, cities and farms. While cooperation, collaboration and innovation are needed in the short term, many feel a major part of the long-term water solution is additional storage. A remote area on the west side of the Sacramento Valley could be a big part of the solution. Sites Reservoir has been debated for decades, and getting this critical addition to water infrastructure appears more likely than ever. One major development in getting this project completed is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier...
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Episode 31: How Rice Fields may help Salmon Runs
Ingrained
Since fundamental changes were made to the way rice straw is managed following harvest in the early 1990s, Sacramento Valley rice country has steadily grown as a vital rest and refuel stop for millions of birds. Local rice fields not only provide habitat for nearly 230 wildlife species, the value of rice fields for the environment is proving to be even greater during drought years, because there is less water on the landscape and fewer habitat options. What's next for the environmental crop? If promising research by the Rice Commission and UC Davis pays off, . The third year of...
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Episode 30: How California can secure a more stable Water Future
Ingrained
For all of the high-tech advancements California is famous for, one part of the state’s infrastructure – providing enough water for its environment, cities and farms – is lacking. It has been more than four decades since the last major water storage facility was built in the Golden State, and our total population has nearly doubled since that time. Proposed for the west side of the Sacramento Valley, provides an opportunity to dramatically boost water storage capability, which would help safeguard the state during drought, like what we are currently enduring. Sites would provide up to...
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Episode 29: Helping Fins and Feathers
Ingrained
A generation ago, it may have seemed far-fetched that Sacramento Valley rice fields could play a vital role for millions of birds. However, changes in rice growing methods in the early 90s – a shift from burning fields after harvest to adding a few inches of water to break down leftover rice straw - led to just such an occurrence. Area rice fields are now home to nearly 230 wildlife species, including 7–10 million ducks and geese every fall and winter. The "surrogate wetlands" are now crucial to migrati
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Episode 28: Time for Wildlife Refuges to Soar
Ingrained
Winter is approaching, and that will soon translate into the arrival of millions of birds to the rice fields and wildlife refuges in the Sacramento Valley. For many, including Suzy Crabtree, it’s a magical time. Suzy has visited Gray Lodge Wildlife Area in Butte County thousands of times over the years, to photograph the amazing array of ducks, geese, shorebirds, raptors and other animals there. “There’s so many things to see there,” she remarked. “We find it to be a place of refuge and solace.”
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Episode 27: The Birds
Ingrained
It took longer than normal, but fortunately it is happening. A shallow amount of water is showing up in rice fields throughout the Sacramento Valley – essentially a welcome mat for the 10 million ducks, geese and other wildlife migrating through our area for their annual Pacific Flyway journey. This year was the driest in a century in California. The water shortage led to about 100,000 fewer acres of rice planted in the Sacramento Valley.
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Episode 26: Water Planning in the Sacramento Valley
Ingrained
Water has long been a contentious subject in California. As the nation’s most populous state, leading the nation in farm production and a state dedicated to environmental protection, it’s easy to understand why. The severe, ongoing drought only puts a greater focus on water. While there’s hope for a wet fall and winter, Sacramento Valley water managers and other stakeholders are doing what they can to prepare for all outcomes. Teamwork and coordination are invaluable, especially during difficult times
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Episode 25: Go Time for Harvest and the Wildlife Migration
Ingrained
Even during difficult times like we’ve been experiencing, it helps to look for the positive. In Sacramento Valley rice country – two positives are unfolding. After a difficult year where drought left 20 percent of fields unplanted, harvest of America’s sushi rice is underway and early reports are favorable. Although acreage is down, initial reports on quality and yields look strong.
info_outlineIt’s an annual occurrence throughout the Sacramento Valley; something countless motorists have seen while heading north of Sacramento – skilled pilots flying high-speed, GPS-guided airplanes, planting rice over a half-million acres of fields.
Rick Richter of Richter Aviation in Maxwell, Colusa County, has been seeding rice fields since 1979. It’s not only his profession, it’s also a great passion for him.
“It’s so rewarding to see that rice come up,” Richter remarked. “It’s a beautiful green within a week or two after you plant it, and the whole area turns into just a magic carpet. You watch it all summer long, and then it comes to a golden yellow/brown at harvest, and you just get that feeling that I did this. I provided part of this 500,000-acres in this valley for people around the world to use. It just hits home, I’ll tell you.”
May is a spectacularly busy month for rice seeding in California. Pilots frequently work before sunup and after sundown to keep up with the workload.
One of the biggest advancements in this effort is Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, which provides tremendous accuracy for the pilots, who often exceed 100-mph while seeding fields.
Safety is a crucial element for ag pilots, who operate under strict state and federal regulations. Richter said an extremely helpful program is the Professional Aerial Applicator Support System (PASSS Program), which has been running for more than 20 years, and has proven to lower accident rates.
The role agricultural pilots play in farming is huge. Rice grower Kurt Richter relies on the pinpoint work of his cousin Rick and Rick’s son, Nick, to seed his rice fields.
“The pilot plays a huge role in the quality of the product that you’re going to put out at the end of the season,” Kurt said. “The seed application just in and of itself is one of the most important applications of the year…. A good quality pilot can definitely make or break any particular crop.”
Here are more comments from Kurt on the important role agricultural pilots play:
For more information on agricultural pilots, here’s a link to the California Agricultural Aircraft Association.
Episode Transcript
Jim Morris: California rice holds many surprises. Whether it's the vital wildlife connection, the scale and efficiency of growing and milling rice, or the billions of dollars this industry generates for our economy, the impacts are huge. One of the most surprising facets of California rice is happening here in mid spring, planting the crop via airplane, and it is an amazing process.
Jim Morris: Welcome to Ingrained, the California Rice Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Morris, and I've been helping farmers and ranchers tell their story for 30 years. I'm in the Sacramento Valley today covering an important part of the rice growing season.
Jim Morris: I'm in Colusa County speaking with Rick Richter of Richter Aviation, and you've been an ag pilot for more than 40 years. Let's start with the early days. What was your background and what interested you in this profession?
Rick Richter: Well Jim, I started out with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture from Chico State College. It was just so hard back then to try to get into farming, which was what I wanted to do. I had a passion for aviation, so I learned to fly while going to Chico State. When I got to Maxwell, I was looking for opportunities to work and my cousin had just started this business here east of Maxwell, crop dusting business, in 1976. It was perfect timing for me. I talked with him, Paul Richter, and he made a spot for me and we started loading airplanes, and from then it grew to flying their planes, and, three years later, in 1979 was my first a year as an ag pilot.
Jim Morris: And so 41 years in, that's an amazing run. How many flights or hours would that be in the air?
Rick Richter: Jim, that's about 22,000 hours to date, counting all my flying, which isn't much in the general aviation side. It's mostly ag flying.
Jim Morris: Do you ever have dreams about flying when you're resting or can you leave the 9:00 to 5:00 at the office?
Rick Richter: It's tough. It's tough. This is our life this time of year. We do five months out here from May to August in the rice business. It's a every day, 4:00 in the morning until dark. Sometimes in the summer, usually around the 4th of July, we'll get a break and start getting Sundays off, so it's kind of a treat for us.
Jim Morris: It is a busy time right now in the spring. Tell me what an average day looks like in terms of seeding the rice fields.
Rick Richter: Well we're up at 4:00 in the morning, we're here at 5:00 to 6:00, the crews roll in, we're out on the jobs by 6:30 and from then until dark sometimes we're out, depending on the workload.
Jim Morris: What happens when they're seeding? You have a pre-germinated seed. I mean, just walk me through some of the major steps in it. It's fascinating to see that seed being loaded. They're working like an Indy pit crew, I think.
Rick Richter: Oh yeah, we pride ourselves on the speed that it takes, that we can get the load out. The seed is soaked for at least 24 hours prior to our applications. It's brought to us in bulk trailers, bulk semi-truck trailers, to the airstrips, usually the closest strip within two miles of the field so we can make our turnarounds quicker and get more done.
Jim Morris: What speed can you travel? What's the highest speed and what's the lowest altitude you might be traveling depending on the circumstances of each rice farm?
Rick Richter: Well, we're probably seeding rice about 30 feet in the air, depending on the wind. The windier conditions require a lower altitude, but spraying, we're within 10 feet of the crop and going about 120 to 130 miles per hour on some of the more modern turbine aircraft. Some of the faster ones will go up to 150, and that's moving fast compared to the old days when it was just 100 miles an hour in an old Ag Cat. The professional ag pilots that we have nowadays don't leave anything for granted. We take pride in what we do and we want to be there for our children and our families at the end of the day.
Jim Morris: Talk about the change in technology since when you started and the importance of global positioning system, GPS.
Rick Richter: GPS is the biggest breakthrough that's ever come to this industry, and it just changed it forever. It's amazing we can get within three feet of our swath and multiple swaths at a time, the fields all laid out for us, hardly any problems. It's just amazing what it did. It took away the job from the flaggers and the crews that we had to position on each field, and it allowed it for much more efficiency in the operation.
Jim Morris: The term crop duster comes up a lot, much more than the term ag pilot. What's the name that you think is most fitting?
Rick Richter: Crop duster is just an old moniker from the back of the old days when they dusted crops. But nowadays they're professional pilots. We are required to have training, continuing education every year, licensed by the state, licensed by the Federal Aviation Regulations as commercial pilots. And the operators are actually licensed as commercial ag operators. So there's plenty of regulation in our business. We take it in stride. We understand that we need to have that to keep our skills honed and to protect the crop protection materials.
Jim Morris: You have the good fortune of working with your son. When did that start and how does that make you feel, because you're getting closer to retirement?
Rick Richter: It just makes me feel great. He's such a major link in this operation. We're getting in the process of turning it over to him. It's kind of hard for me to let go of the reins. The good thing about it, he understands that, and he's taking that in stride. He knows that someday it'll be all his to worry about.
Jim Morris: This is Nick, and you have a traditional looking yellow airplane and he has a white one that looks a little different. Now I'm no aviation expert. Tell me the difference of what you fly and what Nick flies.
Rick Richter: Well I'm flying a 1979 biplane, and he's flying a 2011 Thrush S2R with a Pratt Whitney engine on it. It goes faster. It carries the same amount of speed, but it's a sleeker, modern-looking airplane, probably the wave of the future. The old biplanes are kind of being in a thing of the past, but they're good, strong, sturdy airplanes and they're more suited to our country where the fields are maybe smaller. You can get a tighter turn out of it. But he enjoys that speed and the wider swath that he gets with the larger wing on that airplane.
Jim Morris: With the COVID-19 crisis, agriculture has rightly been deemed an essential industry. And, of course, it's easy here in Maxwell to see that with farms and farm-related industries. But what's your comment about the value of agriculture to California?
Rick Richter: It's worth so much to our economy here in California. I'm not sure of the numbers, but just the rice business alone contribute so much to the local economy. Everybody's job in this area depends on rice.
Jim Morris: How do you feel when people are eating a rice bowl or risotto, paella, sushi, et cetera, you had a hand in that?
Rick Richter: Well, I sure did. I've been to restaurants in the South that have used California medium grain rice in their sushi. I tell them all about it. I say, "Hey, I know where that came from."
Jim Morris: Rick, tell me a little bit about your level of pride. You're coming to the end of your career. You've done a lot. You and other ag pilots have done a lot to keep rice on tables.
Rick Richter: It's so rewarding to see that rice come up and, it's beautiful green after you plant it within a week or two, and the whole area turns into just a magic carpet. You watch it all summer long, and then it comes to golden yellow-brown at harvest. And you just get that feeling that I did this. I provided part of this 500,000-acres in this valley for the people around the world to use. And it's just, it hits home, I'll tell you.
Jim Morris: Farming in California is all about family and there are connections even between growers and pilots. I'm visiting with Kurt Richter, rice grower. Tell me your connection with Rick Richter.
Kurt Richter: Well, Rick is a cousin of ours. We share a common ancestor that was actually our original immigrant to California from the area that's now known as Germany. Rick and my father, Paul Richter, were connected from childhood all the way up. Rick has always done all the applications for our family's farming operation.
Jim Morris: How important are the pilots to what you do?
Kurt Richter: A pilot plays a huge role in the quality of the product that you're going to put out at the end of the season. The seed application just in and of itself is one of the most important applications of the year. For the application to be done in a nice, even way where it's spread out, no skips, no overlaps, no bunching coming out of the bottom of the airplane, so a good quality pilot can definitely make or break any particular crop.
Jim Morris: Planting season's never easy. There's always hurdles to clear, but how are things going?
Kurt Richter: It has definitely been a year of hurdles. We faced water cuts early and made it past that hurdle. Then we faced aqua shortages and we've now passed that hurdle. And now we've got rain, so it's just, any given week, any number of issues that can crop up, but we're used to this in California rice. We've battled out the weather many times in the last few years and all these other problems are things that come up from time to time. And so you just have to have contingency plans and a strategy for how to work around those issues. And, for our operation at least, I feel like we've done pretty well. We're on track to be wrapped up here very soon.
Jim Morris: After planting, it does not take long for the rice plants to emerge. So, throughout the summer, when you're heading north of Sacramento, keep an eye out for those beautiful green rice fields. That wraps up this episode. Thanks so much to Rick Richter of Richter Aviation and Kurt Richter of Richter Ag for their insight. A reminder that there's much more at podcast.calrice.org, including photos and video of rice seeding. Please subscribe to our podcast and send us your questions and comments. Thanks for listening.