It’s cool watching plane drop rice seed in flooded Sacramento Valley field

In shallow-flooded fields north of Sacramento, planes flying at 100 mph are dropping rice seed as another growing season begins.

It takes 150 pounds of seed to plant once acre, according to the California Rice Commission. About 9,000 pounds of rice will be produced from that one acre. The rice commission says that one acre will feed 350 U.S. consumers for one year.

This is the time of year rice growers run water into their fields to a depth of 5 inches. After the shallow flooding, the seeding begins. The heavy seeds sink into the furrows and begin to grow. By early August, the rice will start to flower. The fields will be drained later that month, and the crop harvested around September or October.

As a byproduct, California rice production will provide birds and other wildlife with 500,000 acres of habitat.

The video above shows the seeding at Montna Farms near Yuba City, CA.

This story was originally published May 9, 2019 at 8:36 AM.