Rice in Arkansas

October 29th, 2015

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Driving south through Missouri, it was pouring rain, and then into Arkansas, it kept up, and all along Hwy. 67, the fields were flooded, water in the ditches too.  But I noticed that there was irrigation, but just a pipe into a field, and there were berms around a field.  Much harvesting was done, but there were also fields full of green, and given the temps here, that makes sense.  But what were these things that looked like a lot of little corn plants, maybe a foot tall with pretty thick leaves?  DOH!  They grow rice here!

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What’s the scoop?  Kind of surprising!  48% of US grown rice is grown in Arkansas! Or 45% depending who you ask.  I’d remembered that lots of it was grown here from delivering big bags of rice for D.A.N.C.e Warehouse, but about 1/2 of U.S. rice is pretty amazing for such a small geographic area.

Here’s the How-To for Rice:

Rice Crop Timeline for the Southern States of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi

Heading to Mt. Nebo State Park today, it is beautiful.  Here’s today’s view from the office, sunny warm day, don’t miss the Minnesota snow one bit!

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