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Lundberg Family Farms

Albert and Frances Lundberg came to California from Nebraska during the time of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. They bought land in Richvale, about 20 miles south of Chico, and started growing rice in 1937.

Today their four sons farm 3,500 acres and the business employs about 150 people, including 15 family members. The Lundbergs also have their own mill where they process rice from their farm as well as rice they buy from 25 other family farms. Those 25 families have total of about 10,000 acres. The Lundbergs are one of approximately 2,000 rice growers in California, most of which are family-owned.

In May, CalMAX interviewed grandson Bryce Lundberg, Vice President of Agriculture for the family business. He also owns and operates a 1,500- acre farm with his brother, Eric.

Lundberg had not intended to go into farming. He studied political science at UC Davis, thinking he would become a lawyer. “I did an internship working with legislation at an environmental lobby and questioned whether law was the right field for me.” After completing his degree at UC Davis, there was an opening in the family business, so he took that position. In 1985, he was able to get his own farm started through a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that helped new farmers.

“Our family tradition is to farm sustainably,” explains Lundberg, “After moving to California from Nebraska, my grandparents used what they called wise farming practices; they knew it was important to take care of the soil. They ploughed the rice stubble back in and they used cover corps and crop rotation. Although in the past few years burning of the rice fields has been phased out (except for certain circumstances such as disease control), we completely stopped burning in the 1960s.”

The Lundbergs raise both organic rice and what they call “eco-farmed” rice, which uses both organic and non-organic methods. Of the family’s farmland, about 55 percent is eco-farmed and the rest is organic. Of the total acreage from which they buy rice, about 75 percent is organic and 25 percent is eco-farmed. “We started experimenting with organic growing in the 1960s,” explained Lundberg. “We had successes and failures. In a sustainable farming philosophy, it is essential to consider the environment’s and society’s needs as well as the farms’ financial needs.

“There were periods in the 1970s and 1980s when organic rice farming was not financially sustainable for us. Prices for organic rice did not make up for the lower yields, which were mostly due to difficulty controlling weeds. We developed the eco-farmed concept because it was what we could grow sustainably while we worked to improve our organic rice farming methods.”

They sell organic rice to Canada, Japan, Europe, and in the United States, explained Lundberg. “They all have some standards which are similar and some which are different. We want to meet a combination of the strictest organic standards from around the world so we can sell our rice to all of our customers. It is not practical for us to try to grow some rice that meets one set of standards and some that meets another. While the U.S. and Japan require organic seed to be used to grow organic plants, they also allow exemptions for non-organic seed. Europe does not. Europe also has standards regarding the raising of animals that impact the Lundberg’s rice production. For example, we can’t use chicken manure unless the animals were raised without cages and in lower densities.”

The eco-farmed rice is sold in the U.S. to many of the same customers as the organic rice. “We have displays that explain what eco-farmed means, so that our customers can understand how it is grown,” notes Lundberg.

Of the rice they produce, about 23 percent is sold in California and 57 percent in the rest of the US. Twenty percent is exported, half of which goes to Canada and the remainder to Europe and Japan. Through distributors, they sell 14 varieties of rice, including long, medium, and short grains; sweet rice, basmati, jasmine, wehani, arborio, and wild blends.

The Lundbergs specialize in brown rice, but they also produce white rice. They also sell various processed products made from their rice, including rice milk, chips, rice cakes, rice side dishes, flour, pasta, hot cereal, and syrup. The rice side dishes and rice cakes are made at their mill; the other products are made for Lundberg by other companies.

Building the Soil

The rice season begins with seed bed preparation at the end of March or the beginning of April, explained Lundberg. Planting starts at the end of April or beginning of May and is finished by June. The rice is harvested from September to November. As part of the soil sustainability efforts, after a field is planted and harvested in rice, it is prepared for intensive waterfowl use or cover crops.

For waterfowl, the rice straw and stubble is left in the field and the paddy is reflooded. At least 500 acres are flooded for birds in a typical winter. Since they are in the Pacific flyway, Lundberg explains, large numbers of birds will come to feed and nest. He also noted that they start preparing the fields again before the eggs are hatched, so they work with a local effort to collect many of them. The eggs are then incubated at a hatchery near Marysville, and the birds are released to the wild.

For cover crop planting, the rice straw is chopped and incorporated into the top 4-6 inches of the soil with a chisel plough or disk. Cover crops are planted in October and grow through March when they are mowed and disked into the field before the rice is planted.

Cover crops include oats, barley, fava beans, and vetch. Vetch and beans are nitrogen fixers, explained Lundberg, oats and barley add carbon to balance the nitrogen and improve soil tilth (the ease of working the soil.) They have also grown safflower, which is a good cover crop, notes Lundberg, because the roots go deep and help loosen the soil.

“The cover crops in fields to be left fallow are usually harvested for seed production,” he explained, “we use most of the cover crop seed for ourselves, but we do sell some. “

In between rice crops, they also will leave land fallow without flooding. This is sometimes done when fields are in transition from eco-farmed to organic. Both the intensive waterfowl use and the cover cropping add fertility to the soil. For the eco-farmed fields, chemical fertilizers are also added, explains Lundberg, but in amounts that will also maintain soil health rather than maximize yield. In the organic fields, fertility is increased by adding compost, chicken manure, or pelletized organic fertilizers.

While Lundbergs have produced compost in the past, they decided it made more operational sense for them to buy it, noted Lundberg. They currently buy compost from a company in Sacramento that makes it from wood shavings, rice hull ash, dairy manure, chicken litter, and feather meal. Compost added to the organic fields has to be approved for certified organic farms which means that all source material for the compost must be certified. While supplemental fertilizer is an option for organic farming, it is expensive, explained Lundberg. Normally all organic fertilizer is applied before planting.

To illustrate the impact farming has on the soil, Lundberg provides this calculation: “In non-organic agriculture, if you harvest 8,000 pounds of rice per acre, you have about 6,000 pounds of straw per acre as well. If you burn the straw, then have you have taken 14,000 pounds away from the soil. If you work the rice straw back in, then you are only taking out the 8,000 which you can help to make up if you add a cover crop. In organic, if you have 5,000 pounds of rice, there are about 4,000 pounds of straw. With the cover crop and compost, you not only eliminate the deficit, you actually build the soil.”

Weeds

Weeds can be a major problem for rice, explained Lundberg. There are two types of weeds, grasses and broadleaves. In organic rice there are also two different methods to control weeds: the deep water/dry up method, which is the most common, and drill seeding.

Water grass grows taller and matures earlier than rice. If left in the field, it falls over and pulls the rice down. Having a few grass weeds can be okay, noted Lundberg, but a large infestation can devastate the rice yield.

In the deep water/dry up method, Lundberg explained, the idea is to try to drown the grass. This is done at the beginning of the season. “The grass will generally drown if it is under water 22–26 days. During this time it is necessary to keep the weeds covered with water because if they get above the water surface, they can get air and survive. You have to have good control of the water to have control of the weeds.

“This method requires close monitoring because the rice can also drown. In most varieties, there is a 48-hour window between when the grass drowns and when the rice drowns. When the leaf on the grass starts to corkscrew or tip a little, it has stopped pushing up, so you can stop adding water. The rice will show the same symptoms and they look very similar, so you really have to have a good eye to distinguish between them.”

The drowning method does stress the rice, Lundberg notes, so they have to assess how heavy the water grass infestation is. When they do use this method, they also plant one-third more seed per acre in organic to offset the rice loss from stress.

“If a field gets water grass and it can’t be drowned,” explained Lundberg, “you either have to live with it, or dry up the field and disc it up. If there is a bad grass problem, it can persist for many years, so it may be better to take the loss and disk the field to try to kill the weed seeds and reduce the pressure for the next year.“

Lundberg explained that the most common broadleaf weed is the rice field bulrush. Uncontrolled, these weeds can number in the hundreds of thousands per square foot. They crowd out the rice, also ruining yields.

“In the water/dry-up method, after the water grass is drowned, we let the rice get established so it can stand on its own; this takes about 30-40 days,” said Lundberg. “Then it is time to let the water down. The fields need to dry 2-4 weeks in order to kill the broadleaf. In clay soils where the water percolates more slowly, more water may have to be let off the field to expedite the dry-out period. The process of drying out the rice can stress it so that it goes into reproduction prematurely.” Lundberg uses some non-organic herbicides for weed control on the eco-farmed rice.

Another method for controlling weeds is drill seeding, explained Lundberg. In this method the field is not flooded but prepared by discing in the cover crop and adding compost or other organic fertilizer. They use a special drill seeder that drills about a 1–2 inch deep hole, plants the seed, covers it with dirt, and waters it. If the weeds, which grow faster than the rice, start to come up, they till lightly over the top of the soil, cutting them off.

Part of the challenge, Lundberg explained, is that the rice needs to be planted deep enough so that it is protected from this light tilling. However, it cannot be planted too deep, otherwise the rice has difficulty germinating. They are using a Global Positioning System (GPS) to plant the seed so they can cultivate with precision between the rows without hurting the rice. Some elements of this system are still experimental, notes Lundberg, but they show promise for the future.

Their usual method of planting both organic and eco-farmed rice is to prepare the seed bed, add the fertility component (compost, fertilizers) and then roll the field to flatten it, explains Lundberg. They then flood the field and drop seed from a plane. The seed sinks and lies on the surface of the ground under the water. Rice farming requires fields to be very level. The fields are usually leveled with laser technology, creating a flat field or one with a small amount of slope. Lundberg currently farms some land with wild areas that have not been planted because they have not been leveled for farming.

Other methods of weed control include flamers, which burn the weeds. They also have a small heard of goats that eats poison oak and berries. The goats are moved around in a wagon to the areas they want cleared.

“We are always looking for ways to be more sustainable in controlling weeds on our farm,” notes Lundberg. “There isn’t an organic rice farming manual. Most of our breakthroughs have come from our own experience and working closely with the other 25 farmers in our group of cooperating growers.”

Pests

Two pests that affect rice are rice water weevil and tadpole shrimp, explained Lundberg. Adult water weevils walk on the surface of the water, but they lay their eggs on the soil under the water. Adult weevils scar the rice, but the larvae feed on the roots of plants and can really damage them. The Lundbergs do not automatically treat for the weevils. Rather they monitor their populations and if they start seeing high numbers, they will treat these self-fertile bugs.

In the eco-farmed rice fields, Lundberg will use the pesticide dimlin on the weevils. It is pest-specific, interfering with the weevil’s reproductive system. In the organic fields, they control for weevils if they do the dry-up method for weed control as the weevil larvae need water to survive.

A downside of drying up the rice fields is that it extends the growing season. This can be a problem if temperatures drop too low at night while the rice kernels are still forming Low temperatures can make the pollen sterile, so the kernels do not form. Also, they want to get the rice harvested before the rains, as rain can affect the quality and also make it more difficult to harvest. There is a positive by-product of the dry out, however, Lundberg notes. Roots will grow towards moisture, so when the fields dry out, the roots grow deeper and larger than normal, so they get more nutrition out of the soil control.

Tadpole shrimp can attack the rice plant and knock off the growing point when it is very tender, during the first five days after planting. Once the seedling begins to chlorophyll, it becomes flexible and the shrimp can’t harm it. Lundberg notes that there will always be shrimp in the water. They monitor for high levels because the shrimp can also loosen the root and cause a float which damages more rice. Copper sulfate, which is allowable as an organic pesticide in the U.S., works to reduce the shrimp population. However, it only works for 3-4 days, then the shrimp return, explains Lundberg. Another method of dealing with this problem is to plant more seed to offset the plants that could be damaged by the shrimp.

Scum is another problem that attacks rice, although in the early stages it can be controlled with copper sulfate. Often scum and tadpole shrimp are a problem at the same time; both are more of a problem when the water is warm.

Other disease pests include blast, stemrot, and sheath blight. Maintaining soil health helps keep down these pests, explains Lundberg. There are also exotic pests, like bakanae, a seed-born disease that came into California five to six years ago. It attacks the seed and promotes a response in the seedling, so it grows too fast and the plant dies. Some non-organic rice farmers also use chlorine to kill the bakanae.

Rodents can also be a problem as can mosquitoes. Lundberg has also put up owl and bat boxes because the owls will eat mice and rats and the bats will eat mosquitoes.

Storage and Milling

Once harvested, rice is still vulnerable to insects. They use no chemical fumigation for either their eco-farmed or organic rice, noted Lundberg, and instead use other methods. Their first step is putting the paddy rice through a screen cleaner to remove the chaff as well as any weed seeds and insects that may have come in with the rice harvest. “Some insect eggs may also be on foreign material, so by removing it, you also get rid of that potential next generation of insects,” explained Lundberg. “Also, rice dries more uniformly when it is cleaned well and you can store more in the bins because you are just storing rice and not extraneous material.”

The rice is then passed through a dryer before being placed into a large metal or concrete storage bins. Keeping the rice cool reduces insect pressure, explains Lundberg. After the rice is dried and the bin is filled, they cool the core with a large fan. They have also painted most of their storage bins white since this keeps them cooler. Lundberg noted that when the weather warms up and insects get into the rice, they pump food-grade CO2 into the sealed containers. That kills insects by drying them out; their remains blow away when the rice is milled.

Inside the mill and warehouses, they use a heat system rather than space fumigation. They heard about the heat system three years ago when they were looking for something more sustainable and effective than standard fumigation programs, explained Lundberg.
“There was a company in the Midwest offering training on using extreme temperatures. We attended the training and then worked with a consultant to set up a system for our facility.

“We have pheromone traps to monitor for insect activity. If we find activity, then we heat the building for 4–8 hours and this kills the insects. It required a significant initial investment, but is much more effective than spraying fumigants because it gets to all the spaces in the building. Fumigants can’t penetrate everywhere. Because no poison is used, workers can go inside while the building is being heated and check to make sure it is working. During the heating process, all of the rice is removed from the building because it would get too hot if it were left inside.”

Rather than water and chemical cleaners, Lundberg uses a CO2 blaster that uses food-grade dry ice pellets to clean inside the buildings.

They produce both brown and white rice. The brown rice milling involves putting the paddy rice through a sheller to take the inedible hull off, explains Lundberg; this sometimes takes more than one pass. The rice then goes through paddy separators, gravity tables, destoners, and indent graders. To make white rice, they polish off the layers of bran.

Energy

Lundbergs’ tractors, harvesters, and trucks run on petroleum diesel. They have not explored using biodiesel, Lundberg noted, but they did try an experiment making alcohol from rice by-products to use in the tractors. This did not prove to be feasible.

Thus far, they have been able to absorb recent increases in fuel prices without raising prices, Lundberg noted. They have also arranged their delivery system so that their trucks don’t run empty miles. When they deliver their products to the Bay Area, they bring back other products that their east coast customers are ordering. Then Lundberg will send a full truck east with both their products and other products.

This also means that the east coast companies don’t need to make small pickups in the Bay Area. “Those are difficult miles for them,” explains Lundberg. “Our truck is there anyway, so they pay us to do those pickups. There is a savings for all involved.”

Some rice farmers use diesel engines to pump irrigation water. This is a huge expense, especially as fuel prices continue to rise. The Lundberg farms usually don’t have to pump water, except in especially dry years, because their water comes from nearby Oroville Dam on the Feather River. However, a number of their rice suppliers must pump water.

Farming with cover crops does take more fuel, Lundberg noted. But the cost of fuel would have to be compared to the cost of additional fertilizer, which would be required if they did not grow cover crops.

Lundberg pays for green energy to offset all of its electrical needs through 3 Phases Energy, a company that buys wind, geothermal, and solar power and puts it onto the electrical grid through PG&E. “At this time green energy does cost more,” notes Lundberg, “but using and promoting green energy is consistent with our mission.”

Lundberg also has a solar project under construction that involves installing panels on a 2-acre field. It will come online this summer and provide 10 percent of their on-site energy needs, a total of 200 kilowatts. Lundberg explained that they chose to put the panels in a field rather than on a roof of one of their buildings because the buildings had not been constructed to support weight of the panels.

Lundberg used a 50 percent State-sponsored rebate program to fund the $1.5 million system, which has a seven-year payback. There isn’t enough consistent wind to do wind power where they are, notes Lundberg. But there is plenty of intense sun, especially in the summer.

Water

The rice fields use about 4 acre-feet of water per acre of rice from the Feather River. A small amount of water is not used up either by the rice or evaporation, explained Lundberg. That remaining water goes back into the Feather River system through their canals. They don’t test the water that comes in or leaves, although it may pick up copper from the chicken manure or from scum control. Lundberg notes that while their soil has 1 to 10 parts per million of copper, some European farms have 100-1,000 parts per million in their soil.

The waterfowl make the water muddy, notes Lundberg, but the rice also filters the water. Rice is irrigated until about 14-30 days before it is harvested, depending on soil type and stage of harvest, at which time the water is turned off.

Irrigation in the area started in the 1920s when ditches were dug to divert water from the nearby Feather River. In the 1960s the Oroville Dam was built and the water rights from the ditches were transferred to the reservoir. While, development pressure has raised land prices in other rice areas, like Durham, Chico, Gridley, and Yuba City, the availability of water gives the land in their area value beyond agricultural use. “There is likely speculation by certain interests that those water rights could be marketable at some time in the future,” notes Lundberg.

Waste

Rice chaff, hulls, and unripened kernels go back into the field as compost or are sold for animal bedding. Any rejected rice or rice cakes are sold as animal feed. A company from Chico collects their cardboard. Their main waste, explains Lundberg, which goes to the landfill, is film plastics from bags and shrink-wrap used on pallets.

Contact Information:

Bryce Lundberg
Lundberg Family Farms
5370 Church Street
Richvale, CA 95974
(530) 882-4551
Fax (530) 882-4500
info@lundberg.com
www.lundberg.com

Last updated: August 01, 2008