A field of rice
Just across the lane by our house is a field that has been growing rice for the last 5 months. I was lead to believe that farmers could get two rice crops a year from their fields. Having watched the field opposite us I can say that while they may be able to, no-one down here in the south does. Some farmers put red beans in between rice crops but most of the fields used for rice have remained fallow for the remaining 7 months.
The field was tilled with a trusty John Deere tractor back on the 26th of December and sown with rice seedlings 4 days later.
They grew steadily over the five months until it was harvested on the 17th of May.
I was not around for the final 5 weeks of growing and missed the harvest by one day on my return. (Also the reason for the lack of blogs)
But the plains between us and the Goaping river 5 kilometres away are all being harvested at the moment. A contractor arrives with his Japanese built harvester and removes a small field in about an hour. It is harvested green while the rice kernels are still quite moist. The final drying and husking is done and a community based threshing plant.
Though completely different from the wheat farming I grew up with in Western Australia it has the same lovely agrarian feel. Something about that pouring grain just takes me straight back to the summer of my youth.
Memories, Memories
Farming is so different around the world yet strangely similar.
What happens to all the water the rice was planted in at the start?
Nice lot of sequential photos. You’re doing really well with that fancy camera!
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Stephen reply on May 22nd, 2008:
Yes, it is all so familiar isn’t it. Remember playing in the truck with the grain raining down from the harvester above.
The water is another interesting blog some time. All the plains are irrigated with each field having access to a source and a drain. Notice the harvester has rubber tracks. The field is still wet mud.
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[...] Shan Ding Lu on harvesting rice. [...]
Nice, I’ve always wanted to do a time lapse of a rice field.
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Stephen reply on May 27th, 2008:
Thanks Lief,
Unfortunately I missed the last 5 growing weeks. And also the actual sowing. But it still covers the interesting stages.
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