U.S. farmers profit little from high rice prices

And it'll come just in time to pull him and other growers out of the red, where they've been plunged by escalating fuel and fertilizer prices, he said.

Mississippi rice farmer Gary Fioranelli, chairman of the U.S. Rice Producers Association, said rice prices had been so low since 2000 that the state's farmers had started switching to corn and soybeans, reducing rice acreage from a peak of 250,000 acres to 190,000 this year.

The recent lurch in prices might help some of the growers who have remained, he said.

"The machines we use are really expensive, and the gas prices," he said, stopping his tractor to explain the economics of his business over his cell phone. "It'll take these good prices to just stay even."

Complaints about the high price of oil are a common refrain among rice farmers, who generally run large, high-cost, high-yield operations that stand in contrast to the traditional, labor-intensive methods still used in parts of Asia, where farmers wade into rice paddies to transplant shoots then harvest with hand-held sickles.

U.S. rice fields are bigger on average than soy, corn or wheat farms, and rely heavily on expensive, gas-guzzling machinery, from the John Deere tractor pulling a 21-foot-wide disking attachment to prepare another parcel of Dennis' land for planting to the buzzing aircraft above.

Fuel for the biplanes rose from last year's price of $2.30 a gallon when bought in bulk to $3.50 this year — a 52 percent increase, explained Rick Richter, who owns and flies the Ag Cat used to seed Dennis' fields.

"You know how many gallons this burns?" Richter asked, talking above the roar of the motor. "Fifty an hour. I have to pass that cost on — there's no way I can take it."

Dennis tries to keep down fuel costs by using GPS devices to guide his tractors and the aircraft during seeding.

Despite the higher prices, farmers in Arkansas, which produces nearly half the rice grown in the U.S., aren't seeing huge profits, said Greg Yielding, executive director of the Arkansas Rice Growers Association.

"It's not a windfall, because input costs — for fuel, fertilizer — are higher than they've ever been," he said.

Even though growers are welcoming the news, hoping to cover bills and make overdue improvements, some in the business are nervous.

"The thing that's scary is this volatility," said Daddow. "I'm happy, excited that rice is trading at these values, but it just keeps me on edge."

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