EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

 I took a few pics while out by the rice field today. This helo was flying up and down each row and he was mostly flying kinda sideways. Any guesses as to what he was doing?  Ive been around rice most of my life but I had to call a friend and ask what the guy in the helicopter was doing.  Oh and he is staying very low and close to the rice while he is doing all of this.


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Probably fixing to shoot all your all your hogs!!!

 Lol, thats what I thought at first.... but.... nope.  ;D

Maybe some pilot training.

Good guess but no.

blowing grass hoppers out of the rice  lol

  :D  Thats funny. But you are actually getting warm.

I doubt that.  My son is a helicopter pilot in the Army and they wouldn't train low over someone's rice field due to the air they force down would damage the rice.

A helicopter mashes air down.  This is why rescue helicopters over water hover away from a small boat and drop a swimmer who swims over.  If they hovered over the boat the downforce of the air under the helicopter would literally since the boat.  It is that strong.

Of the helicopter was constantly moving then that would minimize the downforce effect.  Could it have been spraying the crop for insects?

They were threshing the graintops right?

 Ok, I cant stand it any more so I will tell yall. He using the downwash from the helicopter to pollenate the seed rice. Perty cool huh?  The helicopter is stirring up the pollen.

 I guess because its such a small helicopter and the rice is still green, it doesn't damage the rice plant.

 them little robison R22s down create a lot of rotor wash which is probably why they r using it to spread the pollen.

I think bees would be cheaper ;D I would never have guessed pollenation that is cool.

 I was really impressed with how close to the ground he was and how easily he was manouvering it. It was like we could go sideways, backwards and cockeyed all at the same time.  :D

I've seen em do that a couple times but never had any idea what they were doing, thats pretty cool!


"the sun is shining somewhere in texas" -Jason Boland

Learn something new everyday.  Pretty cool

honey bees in my part of the country are something i almost never see anymore. as a kid they were everywhere. Is it like that where you are as well?

as I was reading all the post I had made up my mind on what my guess was going to be...which was pollinating the rice...I have made an observation a good while back about our honey bees and bumble bees...just don't see them around like we used to in the old days...some researcher was saying that they were getting an AIDS like disease which I think is a bunch of bull...I believe it is all the mosquito spray we keep using to kill off the mosquitoes that is causing that aids like disease...not to mention all the cutter yard guard we use in our back yards to put some nails on the honey bee coffin...I was believing that AIDS theory until I went to the hill country and the bees were covering our coke cans as well as any sweets on the picnic table...no one sprays out there in the hills for mosquitos...I just wonder what the farmers are doing to the bees when adding insecticides to their crops???

I was watching a documentary about China having to hire people called pollinators that pollinated the fruit trees because they had killed off all the bees when they sprayed for other insects...

I CAN SEE US NOW BRINGING IN SOME CHINAMEN into the USA to pollinate our crops... ???

My first job when I was in high school I worked on a Tomato farm where tomatoes were grown in huge indoor green houses. We pollinated the plants by vibrating the flowers with electric tooth brushes. 100 % pollination rate but you talk about the most boring job ever. Thousands of flowers every day vibrated with a fricken tooth brush.

 Im not sure about the wild bee population but I see lots of kept bees because our closest friend allows a bee keeper to put hives on his properties in exchange for honey. It works out well for all parties. Including me because he always gives us honey every year.

 My theory on the rice thing is that there is thousands of acres of rice and a small window for pollenation. But I had never heard of them using helicopters in the past so maybe there is more to it.

 Of course this is for seed rice, not rice for consumers. Or maybe they just discovered that the helicopters are more efficient.  I will have to do some research. Now Im curious.

 We have a large tallow tree next to where we keep the dogs and during its pollen production, the whole tree was buzzing with bees.

... oh and I just remembered that we did have a big cluster of bees that stayed the night in one of our trees while they were on the move. It was pretty neat to see. They were gone the next day.

I did some research and now I know why a helicopter must be used for this rice. Its a hybrid rice that is only fertile on a certain day of the growing cycle and only during a certain time of the day.  ???  They plant the rice in rows like corn and even rows are male and odd rows are female... well you get the pic. Really neat stuff. When they harvest it they use little combine looking machines that go down each row.

That's pretty cool about it being a hybrid rice and it only being able to be pollinated for one day.

Watch outback wrangler and see how he herds the cattle in that country with those little helicopters.  It's an art to how they're flying.

 OMG! I know, I did watch that show. Its crazy how well they can fly those helicopters in all directions. My eyes were glued to the tv.  :D

Ok, apparently no one is gonna jump all over this...?? What a disappointment. Lmao

Teaches you 'patience'.... ;)

Wax on, wax off!


"the sun is shining somewhere in texas" -Jason Boland

Well.. Apparently my mind is the only one who follows this line of thought...

1. Fertilization = s-e-x
2. Vibrating toothbrush = well I'll leave that one alone all together
3. Pollinating = once again, use your imagination....
4. Wax = dude your just plain evil.


I think I need to put the bottle down and go to bed before Mike bans me

Lol i was referrin to the Mr. Miagi post!


"the sun is shining somewhere in texas" -Jason Boland

     ;D Well, I figured someone was gonna be all over this when I mentioned vibrating flowers with an electric tooth brush. Hey, you got to do what you gotta do sometimes. ;D

Ok sorry this thread is officially hijacked....and derailed......next please

Hey when you are getting that much action ......haters gonna hate O0

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"the sun is shining somewhere in texas" -Jason Boland

 Well if doing this.....

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 makes this.....

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 .....then you go boy!  ;D

 Well it all ties in with the title...  8)

                               ;D Ah,ha,ha, That's exactly how it's done dj,  ;D

I do Rice Research for a living. This is the little combine I run. Cost about 300 grand and is the biggest POS.
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