California Rice Commission

The Causeway commute looks a little different this time of year. 🚗🚜

Harvest season is in full swing. Soon these fields will trade tractors for waterfowl migrating along the #PacificFlyway. #CARice

California rice is stored in silos until it’s milled and packaged, and inspected at every step for quality.

It’s a process built on precision, stewardship, and generations of experience. 🌾

At the dryer, rice is unloaded, cleaned, and prepared for storage.

Each load is handled with care to maintain quality and consistency.

Trucks then haul the rice from the field to drying and storage facilities, often within a few miles of where it was grown.

As the combine fills, rice is transferred into a grain cart. All part of a carefully timed relay that keeps harvest moving nonstop.

Inside the cab, harvest begins.

Modern combines use GPS and sensors to ensure efficiency and precision, cutting rice cleanly while minimizing waste.

Before cutting begins, growers make final adjustments to their combines — the massive machines that cut, thresh, and separate rice grain from the stalk.

Rice harvest is underway across the Sacramento Valley.

From golden fields to grain bins, here’s how California rice makes its journey from field to table. (🧵)

It's harvest time in California's rice growing season.

Combines cut the rice and separate the grains, all in one go. Farmers work fast to yield nearly 8,500 lbs. of rice per acre before the rain arrives!

It’s not all waterfowl in California rice fields. 🌾🐢

The Western Pond Turtle — the state’s only remaining freshwater turtle — is finding refuge here too.

Recess reading: new @ucdaviswater.bsky.social overview of the Conservation Footprint—how ~½-million acres of rice support birds, fish & snakes. 🌾📘 #CARice #CALeg

calrice.org/rice-footprint

Grants expand UC Santa Cruz-led drone workforce development programs for Californians Nearly $3 million in regional and state-wide grants will fund the ‘Drones Uplifting California Communities’ program, serving high schoolers, college students, and the ag tech industry.

Big news for California agriculture: $2.2M in new grants will expand drone workforce training —preparing the next generation of ag tech leaders & helping growers across the state adopt climate-smart tools.

news.ucsc.edu/2025/09/ducc...

The University of California feeds America Backed by UC expertise, agriculture has taken root as one of California’s most important industries, with farm revenues of more than $59 billion. The state’s farms and ranches are so productive that t...

The @ucdaviswater.bsky.social has been instrumental in researching and developing programs that transform ricelands into working wetlands benefitting wildlife, communities, and consumers.

UCs are a vital asset for CA agriculture.

www.universityofcalifornia.edu/feeding-amer...

⏱️August in California rice fields 🌾

"Heading" season. This is when the grain head pushes out of the stem, forming flowers. Those green clusters are the flowers that become rice kernels.

These weeks decide the harvest. #CARice

Record Amount of Food for Endangered Salmon Produced on California Ricelands A record-setting winter on California ricelands is delivering a significant boost to endangered fish populations, with 25,000 acres producing 147,500 pounds of essential food for species like Chinook ...

Winter-flooding 25k acres produced ~147,500 lbs of salmon food—fuel for millions of young Chinook. Scaling works. 🌾➡️🐟 #FishFood

norcalwater.org/2025/02/20/r...

The Korean burger chain @lotteria0burger.bsky.social just opened its first US location in Fullerton, CA.

Their menu features a Bibim Rice Burger?!? We will see you soon. 🤤

asianews.network/k-burgers-hi...

California’s ~500k rice acres double as pop-up wetlands, feeding 230+ species on the #PacificFlyway every winter. 🌾➡️🦆 #CARice #WorkingWetlands

45 seconds, one field, one year at McKenzie Farms:

In spring, open the ground & precision-level; add 5 inches of water; grow through spring–summer; harvest in fall; welcome winter habitat for the Pacific Flyway. 🌾🦆

Working farms = working wetlands. 👀🌾

CA Ricelands are critical to providing habitat for:

✅Black Tern - 473K ac
✅Sandhill Crane - 43K ac
✅Giant Garter Snake - 80K ac
✅Shorebirds - 374K ac
✅Ducks & geese: 500K ac

Dive into the numbers 👇

ucanr.edu/blog/uc-rice...

Fresh read on UC Rice Blog: a recap of our Conservation Footprint shows ≈ 470k-500k acres of rice is needed to support conservation goals for waterfowl, shorebirds, threatened cranes, and Giant Garter Snakes.

@ucanr.edu @pointblue.bsky.social @ucdaviswater.bsky.social

ucanr.edu/blog/uc-rice...

YouTube video by RiceNews The Role of California Rice Fields in Giant Garter Snake Conservation

When 95 % of the Valley’s wetlands disappeared, California rice fields stepped in. Today ≈ 80,000 acres of ricelands keep the federally‑threatened #GiantGarterSnake hunting, hiding and thriving. 🌾➡️🐍

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M22s...

Record Amount of Food for Endangered Salmon Produced on California Ricelands A record-setting winter on California ricelands is delivering a significant boost to endangered fish populations, with 25,000 acres producing 147,500 pounds of essential food for species like Chinook ...

This winter 25,000 acres of California ricelands produced 147,500 lbs of zooplankton—enough to help 3.5 million young Chinook double their weight before the ocean run. 🌾➡️🐟

norcalwater.org/2025/02/20/r...

#FishFood #ICYMI #CAWater

Research shows it would take over 426,000 acres of ricelands to sustain Black Terns above 1,000 individuals — the threshold for long-term survival.

In 2023, rice fields supported more than 3,200.

Rice is helping keep #BlackTern flying.

#ItsInOurNature #BirdsofBlueSky

Black Terns aren’t just visiting rice country — they depend on it.

Research shows that without flooded rice fields, California's Black Tern population would face serious risk of local extinction.

watershed.ucdavis.edu/project/cons...

📸Credit: Brian Baer

Black Terns have lost more than 90% of their historic nesting habitat in California’s Central Valley.

Today, rice fields provide nearly all the remaining breeding habitat for this species of special concern.

#ItsInOurNature #BlackTern #CAWildlife #BirdsofBlueSky

Fighting for Floodplains: Evaluating Benefits of Floodplain Habitat for Juvenile Chinook Salmon in Changing Climates - FISHBIO | Fisheries Consultants Floodplain habitat provides valuable benefits to juvenile fish, offering shelter from predators and increased nutrient availability and prey abundance. These benefits are especially critical for juven...

Reviving floodplains like Yolo Bypass boosts natural growth and resilience—for rice crops and threatened Chinook salmon. Healthier floodplains mean stronger harvests and healthier fish populations. 🌱🐟

fishbio.com/fighting-for...

Landmark BirdReturns Partnership Celebrates 10 years of Creating Habitat for Central Valley Birds Comprised of Audubon California, The Nature Conservancy and Point Blue Conservation Science, BirdReturns has provided over 180,000 acres of much-needed habitat through partnerships with wetland...

For 10 years, BirdReturns has shown what’s possible when rice growers and conservationists work together. 180K+ acres of habitat have supported millions of migrating birds.

A win for working lands and wildlife.

@audubon.org @pointblue.bsky.social @nature.org

audubon.org/california/p...

Greater Sandhill Cranes are among the oldest bird species alive today, with North American fossil records dating back 2.5m years.

In the absence of historic wetlands, they rely on California’s Sacramento Valley rice fields for essential winter roosting and feeding grounds.

#Conservation #Birding

The Greater Sandhill Crane can stand 5 feet tall with a 7 foot wingspan.

A threatened species in California, the GSC relies on over 43k acres of flooded rice to serve as roosting habitat.

#Conservation #GreaterSandhillCrane #BirdsOfBluesky

A New Chapter for Lundberg Family Farms - Comstock's magazine A pioneer of organic farming passes the torch to the fourth generation

🌾 Brita Lundberg left CA's rice fields for NYC publishing—but family roots called her back.

Now she's sharing Lundberg Farms' legacy of organic farming, regenerative practices, and wildlife conservation. A great CA rice story.

Read more: comstocksmag.com/web-only/new...

#FamilyFarming