Drying and Storage division
At harvest time, BUCRA offers drying and storage services to the rice growers in our surrounding area. BUCRA prides itself itself on its ability to process farmer deliveries during the peak harvest season, which is more than 400 trucks per day.
BUCRA annually dries approximately 44,000 acres of rice. In the past, BUCRA has handled multiple varieties of rice (short, medium and long grain). However, over the last decade, a shift has occurred whereby 93 percent of the rice drying requests was standard medium grain. Because of this shift, BUCRA now only dries and stores standard medium grain rice (calrose).
BUCRA operates two independent facilities, one on Riceton Road (4181 Riceton Road), and the main plant in Richvale, California. Both of these locations have fully operational scale and probing equipment necessary to receive and record grower deliveries.
BUCRA is known for its excellent quality of rice which its growers deliver. BUCRA consistently outperforms the state average for quality and is recognized as an industry leader.
Our drying charges vary depending on moisture content. You can download our tariff schedule, drying request, and loan values for rice on the Forms page.
Supply Division
BUCRA offers full service support to the rice grower for growing their rice crop. We offer a complete line of custom liquid and dry fertilizer blends, along with aqua ammonia, which is converted on site. In addition, a complete line of crop protection supplies are sold, with a team of licensed PCA's to help the grower in making field decisions. We offer a recommendation writing program which will assist the grower with filing the required pesticide use reports with their county. In addition, you can file your Notice of Intents (NOI) with this system.
BUCRA owns Big Valley Ag Services and Bear River Supply, both wholly owned subsidiaries operating as retail supply outlets. This allows BUCRA to purchase fertilizers and chemicals at volume discounts, and pass those savings down to its members and other farmers in the region.
BUCRA also has a bulk fuel facility with a 24 hour card-lock system. We also sell bulk and packaged oil/lubricants, along with having a hardware store to meet necessary farmer needs in the busy planting season.
Our supplies division advises growers on approximately 65,000 acres of rice planted every year.
As part of our Supplies Division, we offer a secured credit program to help growers finance their purchases of crop input supplies. This credit line is based upon $500/acre, and is secured by the growers crop. BUCRA charges an interest rate based on the current 3-month LIBOR rate + 5%, with a floor of 6.5%.
Labels and Safety Data Sheets
Through our relationship with Agrian, we can provide the grower with up to date labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDS). An SDS is a detailed document prepared by the manufacturer of a chemical which describes the physical and chemical properties of the product. The search mechanism provided below offers you the ability to access this data. Before using any of the products described and listed, read the label on the product, especially those sections dealing with recommended rates of application and precautionary statements for handling and use. Follow this link to Agrian.
BUCRA's Supply Division
Marketing division
BUCRA's rice marketing division is called Pinnacle Rice Coop. Pinnacle provides a hybrid marketing model that offers both pool and cash marketing services to its members. Pinnacle also pursues direct export business in under-served markets, and value-add retail products.
Pinnacle extends into California’s entire rice growing region, and will operate in multiple market segments to achieve the highest returns for its Members. As a large, grower owned marketing cooperative with low overhead and strong financial backing, Pinnacle will operate in multiple market segments to increase grower returns and bring more stability to our membership and the CA rice industry.
Click the logo to visit Pinnacle's website
Seed Division
Our Seed Division offers a vital service to the rice grower. BUCRA offers seed cleaning, storage, soaking and treating services. BUCRA annually cleans approximately 190,000 cwt. of rice a year. In addition, we offer soaking and treating services for the grower prior to planting their rice.
Our current schedule of rates for services based upon minimum volumes:
Cleaning: $1.75/cwt
Storage: $0.32/cwt
Soaking: $1.50/cwt
Treating: $1.50/cwt
99% of the rice seed is soaked prior to seeding. It is then loaded into airplanes and air seeded into the field with 5" of water.
Crop duster air-seeding a rice field.
Research Division
Operated out of our Supplies Division, BUCRA owns and operates the John Nichols Memorial Research Farm, located next to our Riceton Facility. BUCRA conducts research trials in cooperation with the major chemical manufactures to test new product formulas for weed control. This facility was named for John Nichols, a rice farmer that was integral in our research farm from the beginning, and whom we remember with fond memories.
BUCRA regularly conducts grower tours to discuss field trials, and share information about the best cultural practices.
