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Rice in Arkansas (6)


*By Holly Hope

(Cont’d)

Rice combining

Methods and machines for harvesting rice went through several transformations with the ultimate goal of reducing labor costs and eliminating some of the myriad threshing procedures. Other issues that were addressed through ongoing modernization of rice harvesting were the eradication of potential weather damage to the rice, loss to hungry blackbirds and ducks, reduction of shattered rice and more efficient drying of grain. Efforts to address these needs began soon after the early twentieth century introduction of commercial rice farming in Arkansas and subsequent unsuccessful experiments were made in the 1920s. To ensure premium rice, cutting of the grain took place when the moisture content was at a much higher level than that considered safe for storing. Thus, the rice needed to be artificially dried before storage, which required increased financial output of the planter and added to the harvesting time. Because of those factors most farmers stayed with the traditional binder in the field and new harvesting machines did not become prevalent until after 1940. By the mid-1950s binders and threshers were almost wholly replaced throughout the state.

Farm labor shortages and growing demand for rice in the 1940s led to the increased use of self-propelled combines, which had previously been used effectively on Midwestern grain crops. Under combine usage the farmer was able to cut and thresh at the same time. Tractorpulled grain carts would be situated beside the combine on solid ground to receive the rice, then a power-driven augur would propel the rice from the cart to a truck. The crew requirements for combining rice were a man on the combine, another on a tractor and grain cart, which transported the harvested grain to two more men and two trucks that ultimately hauled the rice to the drier. Arkansas had limited drying capacity so most trucks encountered long lines at the few commercial driers in existence by the late-1940s. Arkansas rice planters also used tractor-drawn combines, which utilized fifty percent more labor per acre than self-propelled combines but used less than one-third the labor of the binding method, demonstrating the benefits of such an advance in the field.

Drying

Under the combine method of harvesting the step of curing, or drying rice in shocks was eliminated. When wet rice was stored longer than 24 hours the farmer ran the risk of heat damage resulting in dark brown kernels that lessened the quality and price of milled rice, so the process of artificial drying was introduced. Commercial drying in Arkansas was implemented in 1944 and by 1946 driers were situated throughout the rice sections of the Arkansas Delta. Individually owned driers were most common in 1946 but corporate driers handled the most rice in that year, while farmer-owned co-operative driers organized by the Arkansas Rice Growers Co-operative were second.

After the rice was weighed in the grain carts or trucks to determine payment of the farmer using the services of the drier, the rice would be unloaded. The front wheels of rice trucks would be driven onto a frame that elevated, allowing the rice to filter out the back of the truck bed via gravity into a hopper. From the hopper the rice made its way by gravity or by a conveyer screw to elevating equipment, which transported it to the head house at the top of the elevator in buckets attached to a continuous belt. Once at the top it would be propelled to one of three locations: to the cleaning equipment, the drier receiving bin, or to storage bins.

Some rice would be cleaned by the planters before shipping in order to remove straw and mud but most often it would be cleaned at the drier to ensure adequate market value and to make the drying process easier and more efficient by removing the danger of straw clogging the bin spouts. Machines such as the Monitor, Scalperator and the Millerator utilized air separation, suction and roughing screens to remove weed seeds, dust and unthreshed heads. Bins called receiving or garner bins positioned above the drier equipment served as a receiving point and temporary storage for grain prior to drying.

There were several types, designs and categories of rice driers in use by the mid-1940s but the columnar type using gravity, screw-type conveyors and heated air was the most common. Berico and Hess driers were examples of continuous flow, columnar types, both of which operated by moving parallel columns of rice downward through drier equipment as they were subjected to forced heated air from outside the columns (Berico type), and from within the columns (Hess type). Bin driers were another type often used on in-farm operations. Under the bin drying method rice typically used for seed would be dried inside round, metal storage bins using unheated air.

Storage Facilities

When the threshing operation was performed by crews the rough rice would be stored in bags at commercial warehouses or in private, planter warehouses until it was sold; a method that became problematic to farmers because of rodent damage and the cost of bags and labor. Due to the once-a-year harvesting of rice and high moisture content, the grain had to be stored under ideal environmental conditions prior to milling in order to assure a stable product. The first bulk storage of rough rice in Arkansas was located at the Standard Milling Company in Stuttgart in 1917; however, these initial facilities did not address the concerns of moisture levels, turning intervals and effects of weather. By the mid-1940s the operation of commercial drying occurred soon after harvesting but all other processing operations were spread out over the year requiring the proper storage facility. The USDA reported that rice storage bins could be composed of any material that would provide a dry, cool, pest-free space with aeration and stirring capabilities for long-term storage. By 1946 storage bins at commercial driers containing hopper bottoms for grain removal were composed of concrete blocks secured with steel rods. A survey of Arkansas rice farms in that year recorded the presence of wooden receiving bins and galvanized steel bins over wood frames in addition to the concrete structures. Such facilities in Arkansas were referred to alternately as elevators or driers. Lynn Staton, former chief engineer of Riceland Foods and a Stuttgart resident, stated that both names were used to refer to any tall, rice processing building.

(to be cont'd)


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Photo: This is rice harvesting activities in Stuttgart, Arkansas as I returned to the “Rice Capital of the World” two weeks ago.

*For farmers in under-developing countries, I hope this serial useful.




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