Wild rice coming up early?

Greetings! Plans for the upcoming Wild Rice Meeting in Bemidji, Minnesota on Aug. 13 and 14th are coming together. Stay tuned.

Checking in with harvesters across the state the wild rice appears to be standing up a little earlier than normal in some areas. How's it looking in your part of the state? A lot of this rain came through when much of the rice was either in the floating leaf stage or just beginning to pop up. So far I haven't seen or heard about any loss of rice.

Another question popping up around rice country is in regards to processors. Are the number of processors declining? Are quality processors harder to come by? I'm hearing from those who harvest large quantities (1,000 lbs and up) that they are not, while the smaller harvester seems to be having a more difficult time getting their batches processed. Interestingly enough, over on the White Earth Reservation the bumper crop last year seemed to bring more processors out - out of retirement and was an opportunity for some of the younger generation to try their hand at processing.

Are there harvesters out there interested in learning how to process? Let me hear from you!