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Best Time To Harvest Rice

Feeling complacent about getting more yield because of the good standing crop on your farm? You should not be. Improper harvest management can also give you reasons to grieve over crop losses.
There are a number of easy ways to avoid these losses. Cutting and threshing the crop at the right time will ensure good grain quality, high market value, and consumer acceptance.
Farmers should harvest the crop when one-fifth or 20 percent of the grains at the base of the panicle are in hard dough stage. At this stage, most of the grains in the panicle are golden yellow. Farmers can assess the maturity by pressing a grain from the base of panicle between the thumb and forefinger.
“Reaping too early results in a higher percentage of immature grains and lower milling recovery,” explained Dr. Caesar Joventino Tado, PhilRice expert. “Reaping too late, on the other hand, increases grain shattering and excessive losses in terms of breakage during milling.”
“Threshing the palay immediately after harvest is another good practice. It should not be later than one day after reaping for wet season rice and not later than two days for dry season,” Tado stressed. “Harvested rice piled in the field for more than a day results in heat buildup in the grain. This leads to grain discoloration, which lowers the quality of milled rice.”
Also, the thresher must be clean and have correct machine settings. “The blower should be set at the correct speed (approximately 800 rpm) to provide good initial cleaning of the harvest. A high-speed setting of the threshing drum results in higher grain damage while a low speed setting increases the amount of non-threshed grain, resulting to grain loss,” Tado explained.
Proper timing of last irrigation is also recommended. “It should be one week before harvest for light-textured soils and two weeks before harvest for heavy-textured soils,” said Jovino De Dios of the Agronomy, Soils, and Plant Physiology Division, PhilRice.
“This ensures sufficient moisture to complete grain filling,” De Dios explained. “Harvest operations are also made easier and more efficient.” /MP