Recycling of Straw in the Field
Without flourishing, viable markets for straw that allow for cost recovery from baling activities, growers turn to a process called "soil incorporation." This is a combination of several different processes of discing, plowing, and other activities to effectively work the straw back into the soil each year. Considering all of the different methods and their frequency of use by individual growers, the University of California, Cooperative Extension has estimated the average cost of these activities at about $43 per acre, valley-wide. Therefore, the additional cost for soil incorporation, over open-field burning, is approximately $40 per acre. This estimate is considered to be conservative because it does not consider yield losses from increased disease and weed pressure resulting from non-burning management options. Therefore, rice growers are now at least $40 per acre less profitable on these soil-incorporated acres.
