Something strange going on

[djhogdogger]

 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.


 

 

 

[Mike]

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

[djhogdogger]

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

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

[PLP]

Maybe some pilot training.

[djhogdogger]

Maybe some pilot training.

Good guess but no.

[halfbreed]

blowing grass hoppers out of the rice  lol

[djhogdogger]

blowing grass hoppers out of the rice  lol

    Thats funny. But you are actually getting warm.

[RL]

Maybe some pilot training.

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?

[T-Bob Parker]

They were threshing the graintops right?

[djhogdogger]

 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.

[djhogdogger]

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

[charles]

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

[dub]

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

[djhogdogger]

 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. 

[justincorbell]

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

[spazhogdog]

Learn something new everyday.  Pretty cool

[jagdtank]

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?

[Reuben]

 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.

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...

[jimco]

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.

[djhogdogger]

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?

 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.