Spotlight Series

The Sullivans were first introduced to Field to Market’s Fieldprint Platform in 2016 through the USA Rice-Ducks Unlimited Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), and have been entering data since, allowing them to further analyze these water management techniques areas to foster greater irrigated water use efficiency and conserve water.

The Sullivans' precise rice irrigation techniques have multiple conservation benefits. They can track these outcomes in the Platform, including mapping their reduced water usage and methane output, a greenhouse gas produced from flooded rice fields, ultimately allowing them to better understand when and how to dry their fields without sacrificing productivity. These techniques also translate to economic benefits.

“Where the row rice really shines is cutting down your field hours,” says Mike. “When you don’t have to knock levees down, you cut the number of trips for ground prep down by two-thirds. That lets us get the fields ready to plant for the next season earlier, saving time and money.”

After all, implementing new technologies always has to prove its worth to the farmer.

“Yields have to be the main driver,” says Mike. “Saving water and reducing methane is great, but can row rice maintain yields equivalent to levee rice fields? That’s why the data is key—by collecting data in tools like the Fieldprint Platform, you feel more comfortable trying something new on a single field instead of your whole farm. You try it one year, a few more the next, without committing to the whole ball of wax before you know its worth.”

Mike is candid that he’s supported new sustainability techniques and armed his son to introduce increasingly innovative measures, but adopting new conservation practices and analyzing environmental impact has to be grounded in economic realities. “At the end of the day, sustainability means you have to be able to farm again—so you can’t be sustainable if you’re not making a profit,” says Mike.

Mike hopes that as consumer interest in sustainability grows, there will be increasing value for farmers in being able to translate data about their environmental performance to consumers down the supply chain. “The general public wants to know where their food comes from,” says Mike. “And we as farmers have not done a great job. We’ve been on the defensive for so long. But with the data we collect here on our farm, covering everything from fuel use, tillage, fertilizer, from start to finish—we’ve got an open book.”

He recognizes that the value proposition to scale what he’s doing on his farm to the rice industry writ large has a longer road to travel. Mike is eager to see how new technologies like block chain and the growing interest from downstream customers translates into added value for the American farmer.

“We’ve got the technology to be able to communicate about the great work we’re doing,” says Mike. “But frankly, we can’t do this for nothing. To me, if a farmer can provide this data and connect the dots, they should be rewarded for going above and beyond to meet that consumer demand. If downstream companies want more rice producers to pursue sustainability, they have got to explore paying for performance.”