Two Brooks Farm by: Kieran

 Sorry for the posts being out of order. We have had some long days and short nights!

Good day everyone and welcome back,

 This is day 4 of the 2022 Riverview High School FFA agriculture tour of the southern states of North Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Our last stop for day 4 was Two Brooks Rice Farm in Minter City, Mississippi. Mr. Lawrence was kind enough to show us the process of growing rice and harvesting it. Let’s do this from the field to the table, shall we.

 First, we went to the rice fields. Here in Mississippi, the planting time for rice is April. The first thing I noticed was that there was a lot of water in the field. This is important for the crop because rice is a semi-aquatic plant, and requires consistent irrigation all season to grow. It also has to do with preventing weeds from growing with the crop because the weeds require sunlight to grow and the submerged water decreases the chances of them having access to sunlight. The aquifer is the water tank that has the rain water that is filtered into drinking water. Using the aquifer is a last resort because that’s your drinking water source. The only time you should use the aquifer to flood the rice fields is that if the drain water is evaporated. Rice is 50% fertilized by crop dusters (planes that fly over and dispose of fertilizer). The other part is provided by the waste from birds, crawfish, and other mammals that spend time in the fields.

Now we’re into the harvesting season. Harvest for rice is in September-October. Rice is harvested by using this machine called a combine. A combine is typically used to harvest other crops such as wheat, oats, corn, and soybeans. Next, it goes into the mill. The mill pretty much takes off all of the rice hulls (aka, rice husks) from the rice. The mill also removes all brans (pieces of grain husk separated from flour after milling) and germs. That’s how your rice becomes white.

After milled, it’s bagged and placed into a refrigerator. The purpose of the refrigerator is to prevent bugs from coming into the facility. It’s then inspected by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) to be inspected for impurities and bugs. After it’s inspected and finally packaged, it’s shipped to your local grocery store.

Then, you eat and enjoy that fresh rice. Rice is life!

 Before I check out here, I want to state some fun facts, 

1. Did you know that 45 lbs. of rice is considered a bushel?
2. Did you know that some of the rice produced in Mississippi is also shipped to Mexico?

 

Combines are huge! This is what is used to harvest the rice.

Black rice is not very common, but they say it is the healthiest.

The processing facility!

This is Kieran checking out from the Ag Tour 2022 blog and I’ll see you in the next one.