Where do you offer aerial seeding?

In Sutter County, Yuba County, Butte County, Glenn County, Colusa County, Placer County, Yolo County, from our base in Live Oak, California.

What do you need from me to give a quote?

The field location (address, APN or FSA farm and tract number), the crop, approximate acres, the product and rate, and your timing. We can usually map the field ourselves from that.

How is the price set?

Price depends on acres, product type (dry or liquid), application rate, ferry distance from Live Oak, and field shape and obstacles. Send the job details and we will give you a quote.

Airplane or drone: which is right for my field?

Drones work well on small or irregular blocks. An airplane carries a much bigger load and covers large acreage in a short window. For most rice, orchard and row-crop jobs over a few dozen acres, an airplane is faster.

aerial seeding

Aerial seeding

We fly rice seed onto flooded checks and spread cover-crop seed across the northern Sacramento Valley. An airplane seeds a large field in a short window, without ground equipment in the water.

Request an application (530) 695-2294

Yellow Ag Cat biplane flying low over flooded rice checks during aerial seeding

What you get

Even seed spread over flooded rice checks
No ground rigs in the water and no soil compaction
Large fields covered inside a tight planting window
Cover-crop seeding after harvest

Timing

Rice seeding is usually in April and May, after the fields are flooded.

Weather and crop stage move these dates. Call to confirm for your field.

Counties

When is rice seeded by air?

Most Sacramento Valley rice goes in from about April 20 to May 20. That is the planting window in the 2021 UC Davis cost study for Sacramento Valley rice. The grower rolls the ground and floods the check first. The seed soaks in water, drains, and then goes into the hopper. The airplane broadcasts it onto a few inches of water. The study uses 175 pounds of seed per acre and notes that the rate changes by field and by variety. Water seeding is the main way rice is planted in California, and a ground rig cannot work in a flooded check. That is why the seed goes on from the air. Most growers in the valley want their seed down in the same few weeks, so the spring schedule fills fast. Book the plane before you start the soak, so the seed, the water and the aircraft are ready on the same day.

Source: UC Davis rice cost study, Sacramento Valley, 2021

What does the grower prepare for aerial rice seeding?

Get the field and the seed ready before the plane flies. In the 2021 UC Davis study, the grower rolls the ground with a corrugated roller and then floods it. The seed soaks in a fungicide or chlorine treatment against bakanae, a seedborne disease, and then drains. A truck brings it to the airstrip. Send us the field location (an address, APN, or FSA farm and tract number), the acres, the seed rate in pounds per acre and the day you plan to start the soak. Mark power lines, homes and other hazards near the field. For a cost reference, the same study priced aerial seeding at $12.00 per hundredweight of seed in 2021. At 175 pounds per acre, that is about $21 per acre, plus the seed, the soak and the delivery. Prices have changed since 2021. Your quote depends on your field, your seed rate and the ferry distance from Live Oak.

Source: UC Davis rice cost study, Sacramento Valley, 2021

Can cover crops be seeded by air?

Yes. An airplane spreads cover-crop seed from its hopper, the same way it spreads rice seed, and it does not need firm ground to work. Timing comes first. UC farm advisors in the Sacramento Valley say any time from October to early November suits a fall cover crop. By December, the soil is too cold for quick, even germination, and resident weeds compete more. In a producing walnut orchard, they say to seed just after harvest and before most of the leaves fall, so line up the seed and the plane before harvest starts. Broadcast seed needs a soft surface. The same UC article says to work the top 2 inches of soil until it is fairly fine, and that seed should end up in the top quarter to half inch. Seed from the air lands on the surface, so ask your seed supplier or PCA how to cover it and what broadcast rate fits your mix.

Source: UCCE Sacramento Valley Orchards, planting a cover crop