harveyc

Though not a significant use in quantity, those snake-looking erosion control rolls you see along contruction sites are typically made from rice straw. That's a nice use for something that might otherwise get burned. They do still use it for ethanol production, I believe, and co-generation. We don't see nearly the amount of burning we used to, mostly because of air quality restrictions.

The only time I've burned in my fields was when I burned wheat straw in preparation for laser land-leveling where we needed a free clear of debris. Otherwise, I prefer it to go back into the soil for tilth and nutrition.

A friend who I partner with in some of my farming has a fairly good size project with a state water quality district where he will plant rice shortly on ground owned by the state. Fortunately for him, all of the funds for the project are already paid out by the state to some local district which disburses money to him while this broke state has shut down other contracts. Anyways, I help him on various tasks and will be interested to see with how they handle the straw. Rice has not been farmed right in my vicinity in the past though another farm has grown it for a few years just about 8 miles east of me as part of a wildlife project. There, they just flood the fields and let the waterfowl feed on it, a win-win situation.

Harvey

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