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It's now May and I'm just now opening up the last few fields for the first time. I should have my first fields planted in three or four days and we’re on our way to the finish line, albeit late as usual- the lateness being courtesy of April showers. Now we just need a good warm and dry spell so we can get this year’s crop off to a good start, and if someone wants to throw in May flowers that would be fine too.

I always enjoy working the fields for the first time. Most of the wildlife around our fields aren't expecting us when we show up, and we always catch them off guard. I'm very fortunate that I get to enjoy all of this first hand. It's certainly one of the highlights of my work.

One of the benefits of being a rice farmer is having winter off. Well not really off because we still do some work in the shop getting the machinery ready for the spring. But generally speaking it’s a very welcome, slow time of year. I particularly enjoy these few rainy days we've had- at home with my feet up and a fire in the fireplace.

The reason that these days are so enjoyable is because of my wife Melissa. She is the most important person on our farm, which is quite an understatement. How she manages to simultaneously take care of us and put up with me is a wonder!


She doesn't enjoy a winter off. Spring and fall she is almost, but not quite, a single parent. Summers are spent with our wonderfully exuberant children. Any parent will understand the last part. My worries about our farm are her worries, although it never shows. She just reassures, and encourages me. She is center of our family, making our house a home, and our farm growing.


I can't imagine it's any different across the farms of the Central Valley. Being the spouse of a farmer is very challenging. I just want to make sure it does not go unappreciated or unmentioned.

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Read more about Sean in Rice Farming magazine

What a challenging year! More so than last year I'd wager. This last weekend was the first one that I've had off since September and what a nice wet one it was.

These winter rainy days are one of the "perks" of being a rice farmer. The crop is in the warehouse, the equipment is back at the shop, the mountain of paperwork can be pushed off for a day or two, and you can spend the day at home with the family.

Not that the family isn't out in the fields with me. Quite the contrary, some of the best days of harvest season is when I forget my lunch and my wife Melissa and some or all of the kids bring it to me. Or if its a weekend and my son spends the day in the harvester with me, talking about all the things that second grade boys talk about. It's just that the winter is when you're able to relax a bit, unwind and not have to worry about much until, say.........March. As for now, let it rain.

Jeez, the days go by faster every year. We started draining the water off of our earliest fields at the end of last month. They are two of our earlier maturing rice varieties, M-104 and CM-101.


I like to plant these varieties first because it allows us to get the harvest going sooner. Rice is always easier to harvest in September as opposed to November! Even planting quick varieties up front in the schedule it still looks like we won't be able to start till maybe the 1st of October. That is a long ways away from our best start date ever, five years ago, on the 6th of September.


As you can see in the above photo, the front of our shop is crowded with harvest equipment in various states of repair. We usually start in on repairing or rebuilding the harvest machines in August, and no matter what we always finish just in the nick of time. Even as I'm typing this post on my phone, the guys are banging away on a stubborn old bearing that needs to be replaced.

We better hurry up, September moves even faster than August if memory serves me correctly.

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Read more about Sean in Rice Farming magazine