Ag Engineers Tour Texas Rice Operation

LISSIE, TX -- The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) met recently in Houston, Texas.  Part of that meeting included a tour on July 19 of the Gertson farm, called G5 Farms because it’s a fifth-generation operation that has rice and beef cattle, as well as a flying service, south of Lissie.  

Timothy Gertson and his uncle, John Gertson, hosted the group who were from throughout the U.S. as well as foreign countries.  They explained their entire operation, going through rice and beef cattle production, rice harvesting and drying, and the aerial application business.  

The Gertsons were frank when discussing how the cost of rice production has increased exponentially this year, and how the current drought in Texas is impacting rice production in the region.  Their ratoon crop production will be severely curtailed this year.

“I really enjoy hosting groups such as this,” said Timothy, who next week is slated to be the next chair of The Rice Foundation, an industry organization dedicated to education and research.  “It gives us an opportunity to explain how important rice is to this part of Texas.  Some of these folks did not even realize rice was produced in the United States.  It also allowed us to showcase the great sustainability story of the U.S. rice industry.”

Julia Bowman, a student at Iowa State University in Cedar Rapids and president of the ASABE chapter there, thoroughly enjoyed the tour.  She said, “Today we toured a rice farm and we got to learn a lot about their different farming practices and how each integral part of their family gets to be a part of this team and cooperates well together to make everything work.  I think everybody had fun here today and learned a great deal.”