By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor

One thing the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t slow down this year: Texas’ rice crop.

With the help of timely rains and temperate weather, rice farmers like Tim Gertson are pulling in their biggest harvests in years.

“We had great success mostly due to the weather this year. We didn’t have an overly hot summer, and the rice looks really good. We’ve had great weather over the past few weeks,” Gertson said in an interview with the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. “It hasn’t gotten too cold, and it stayed warm enough for the rice to continue to ripen. The rain’s held off, so we’re in there cutting a second crop right now.”

Rice is a ratoon crop, which means the roots and stems will regrow a second crop after the first cutting. Yields are expected to be even higher on the second cutting, he said.

“We’re seeing second crop yields in the 2,000 to 3,800 pounds per acre range. As we get into our better stuff, we’re expecting that to go up into the 4,000 to 5,500 pounds per acre range,” Gertson, a Wharton County Farm Bureau member, said. “That’ll give us a total two-crop yield touching on the 15,000 to 16,000 total range, which is an exceptional year. That’s not a good year, that’s a great year for the Texas rice crop.”

He’s not the only one having an above average crop year, either.

“It’s been a great harvest across the board. I wasn’t a one-off,” he said. “In fact, there are some farmers who’ve done even better than me. Some who are older than I am, who’ve been farming for 25-30 years, and they’ve had the best yields of their entire life this year. So, it’s just been a really good year yield-wise.”

Rice harvest in the Lone Star State will likely continue through the end of the year, according to Gertson.

“It depends a lot on the weather. If it cools off, that could start prolonging harvest because the ripening will slow down. We will probably be harvesting through Thanksgiving, and that’s just on my farm,” he said. “I wouldn’t doubt there’ll be other farmers cutting a second crop well into December.”

Once it’s harvested and milled, Gertson’s rice is used in restaurant kitchens to tabletops in homes.

“I grow 100-percent long grain rice, and it gets packaged under a variety of brands. Almost any brand in the store that you buy could possibly be rice from my farm. We sell to a lot of different buyers,” he said. “Right now, a lot of it is getting bagged up and going into grocery stores. More of it usually goes to restaurants, but that business is a little bit slower just because of the pandemic. The industrial or commercial side doesn’t quite have the business that they’re used to. But on the consumer side, the rice that you buy in the grocery stores, those markets have grown some.”

No matter where the rice ends up, he’s proud to have grown a high-quality product for families to enjoy. And he encouraged shoppers to buy Texas rice when possible.

“If you want to support Texas rice farmers, go to your grocery store and look for the Go Texan badge on the bag when you’re buying. We greatly appreciate that,” Gertson said.