Another rice harvest has come to a close in Arkansas on this next episode of Good Roots will explore its history, the economic impact and its golden future.
Then that brown rice.
OK, that's long grade?
Uh, yeah, this is the first long grain rice sale to China anywhere in southeastern United States.
But we're delighted that that market was opened in a family farm.
In Atkins AR, our initial shipment was to Northwest China.
It was in July.
It's about a 45 day venture.
Rice industry has been working on getting access to China for a long time, and now we've done it and the rosters have done it.
We're here to celebrate with them and make that announcement with the governor marketing Arkansas right there.
I like that that's a big deal for us.
I think it's a big deal for Arkansas.
Hopefully it'll start that process where other farmers and rice hills can follow behind.
When you start putting an entire crop.
And a 24 ounce package is, you know, it takes a lot of distribution to to move it through so.
Will play calling you.
This recent announcement from the Ralston's is just one more big step for Arkansas Rice, but it got us to thinking where did it all start?
We're here at the Museum of the Arkansas Grand Prairie to learn more.
So Gina there is a lot to see here at the museum.
But today we're here to talk about rice.
How did rice even get to Arkansas?
Well, we have stories of rice actually being part of Arkansas before was part of Stutgart.
There is evidence of a Native American woman having rice on a steamship going down the White River in Crocketts Bluff.
You can see pictures of barges loaded with rice going through the Mississippi River to go to New Orleans to be milled.
But that was not a significant presence in the agricultural.
Dynamics of Arkansas at all until Rice came to Stutgart Rice came to Stutgart because of some hunting trips in Louisiana for rice adventus staple for many, many years, and people thought you know what?
This is very much like like we have at home.
You know, if we just study what is happening in Louisiana, it'll translate really well to for our firm can do, and that's how it got here behind us.
We have got pictures of some of the people that were involved in that first effort.
Mr Fuller, Mr Morris.
Brother in laws, Mr Hope.
The rice seed in this vile right here is part of the first rice grown in the Grand Prairie.
The rice seeds were purchased from a man named Elias Moses, who was born in slavery in South Carolina.
He moved post war to Arkansas and he brought Rice with him.
That's Carolina gold.
That's the variety of rice.
This exhibit talks about how much rice did it takes to raise 65 million gallons of water to raise 100 acres of rice.
Rice does require a flood.
Now we're able to use a much more shallow flood and the growing season is so much shorter that you don't have to use as many floods a season to get a successful rice crop.
And there's so many steps being made right now all over this community to reduce the use of water.
It certainly is a very important to us in an agricultural community.
To this photo mural says day of delivery.
Tell us what's going on here.
Well, we all still gather at the meal.
Right now, you're seeing people bring their rice in bags on wagons pulled by horses and mules, but you'll see here, the the railroad is coming through, and so this is how the mill was working now.
It wasn't long, and farmers began to gather their resources and the Rice Growers Association.
So they were cooperative efforts, and so farmers are working together to to have a milling process.
That is to their advantage.
I'm Kelly Robbins.
I'm the executive director of the Arkansas Rice Federation and we're a nonprofit trade association that represents all facets and aspects of our state drives community.
Two of the primary markets for August, alright, is going to be Mexico and Haiti, our National Group USA rise helps promote rice in up to 25 countries.
There's well over 2000 Arkansas Rice farms.
96% of them are family owned and operated.
Each of those rice farms.
Have about $1,000,000 economic impact on their local communities and produce about 200 million bushels of rice each year.
That's about £9 billion of rice farm sale receipts for the actual rice itself is about a billion dollars a year.
The economic impact from those sales that anywhere from 4 to $6 billion a year that it makes an impact on our state's economy here.
Science and technology have been the driving force for this success here in the state.
The Whittaker's down just South of do Massara prime example of those taking advantage of these advancements.
My name is Jim Whittaker.
I'm a farmer in Southeast Arkansas phone my brother, Sam, our family's been here since the middle of 1800s, and the technology has evolved overtime.
Your ice is zero grade.
That means our fields are perfectly flat.
They've been precision leveled.
This helps us reduce water use by about 50%.
You know, cloud based technology.
All retractors are linked to the cloud, so we could sit on the iPad and monitor them.
We can analyze their efficiencies, see what they're doing every day.
How many acres they cover the bushels per hour.
So this field here that we're standing in is fully automated.
There's a sensor that measures water depth.
When we get to a low watermark, it turns the well on move water from field to field through the gates.
That is all hands free cloud based sponsor in the field 24 hours a day before technology didn't realize some of our inefficiencies and some of the some of the resources we're wasting with rice, especially rice has to be as usually harvested at higher.
Moisture in the computer.
There it's you know it's it's reading temperature and moisture throughout the band, so it's got.
It'll give us a 3D picture if we can see if we're getting a hot spot.
If we're getting if we've got some.
Some places were not able to get the moisture out of.
We had the solar system here and it's pretty well taken care of.
The energy needs for this facility right here in order to be sustainable, we've got to maximize all that.
We've got to be.
We've got to be really efficient with what we're doing, and in real mindful of those resources.
There are more than 2000 Arkansas Rice farms and more than 90% of those farms are family owned and operated.
This museum is a great place to learn more about its history, the long and the short of it.
The easiest way to show your support is to eat more rice for good roots.
I'm Lauren McCullough.
Major funding for good roots is provided by Arkansas Farm Bureau, Arkansas Farm Bureau advocating the interests of Arkansas's largest industry for more than 80 years.
Arkansas counts on agriculture, agriculture counts on Farm Bureau.
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