Chapter 53: Royal Tioga, and M-206 (3)
TL: Hanguk
The terminal ward on the seventh floor of Sacramento General Hospital.
The rhythmic beeping of machines inside the room chipped away at Jacob's heart, bit by bit. On the small table beside the bed, a water glass and a single family photo were neatly arranged.
The man lying in the bed was Lucas Miller. Jacob's father, with terminal pancreatic cancer. Perhaps from the painkillers, his voice was weak, but his expression was lucid. Jacob sat in a chair and held his father's hand.
"Son."
"Yes, Dad."
"How's your mother?"
"... She tries not to look sad in front of me."
"That's because she's a strong woman. You need to find a strong woman too. A farmer's wife has to be tough."
"I will. I'll find someone like that."
Lucas paused to catch his breath, then spoke again.
"The farm... you have to protect it."
Jacob's hand tightened around his father's, and instead of answering, he gave a deep nod. His father steadied his breathing and slowly continued.
"The farm... isn't just a place to make money to put food on the table. It's our family's roots. Your grandfather... and even before him, it was always that way."
"I know."
"Remember that. Our family's foundation is farming."
A brief coughing fit followed. Jacob lifted the cup and gave him small sips of water. Lucas relaxed his brow and looked Jacob straight in the eye.
"That friend of yours... the one who fixed the pest problem?"
"Brian."
"Right. What that kid said might be right... or it might not. But whether you follow his lead... or go a different way... the choice is yours."
"......"
"Every choice comes with responsibility. Don't forget that."
Jacob lowered his head. Something hot fell onto the back of his hand. He quickly wiped it away. Lucas moved his hand slightly and gently stroked Jacob's hand twice.
"Dad... I'll do it. I'll protect Mom, and I'll protect the farm too."
"Good."
Lucas gave the faintest of smiles. He smiled with his lips completely parched. It was the kind of face you see on people who have held on for a long time.
"Alright, go on now. I need to sleep some more."
That evening, as Jacob left the room, he caught a glimpse of his own face reflected in the hallway window. It looked unfamiliar. The same face as yesterday, yet something felt different.
Two days later, at Riverbend Rice Farm on the outskirts of Sacramento, Jacob was gazing out over the wide winter fields. The combine had been moved into the barn, and the levees had already been serviced. A faint scent of earth hung in the cold air.
"Brian!"
As I got out of the car and walked over, the hulking Jacob approached with a smile.
"You made it."
As I got closer, there was something vaguely wistful about Jacob's smile.
"Did something happen?"
"No... it's nothing. Let's go."
He seemed a little different from when we'd met at the end of the year, but I chose not to press him. When we went inside, Mrs. Maggie greeted me with the same bright smile as always.
"Brian! Happy New Year~"
"Happy New Year to you too, ma'am."
"Jacob said you two are going to talk business? Take good care of him?"
"Hahaha, of course."
At that point, Jacob stepped in.
"Mom, we're friends, but Brian is someone who strictly follows business rules. You shouldn't say things like that."
I had never once shown Jacob that kind of side, so I was staring at him in disbelief when Mrs. Maggie put on an apologetic expression.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Please don't think of it that way."
"What are you saying? It's not like that at all."
"Don't say that... I heard everything from Armando. He said you have a very thorough business mindset."
"Ah..."
That guy... what kind of reputation is he going around spreading about me...
"It's fine. I understand. Actually, I prefer it that way. I don't want to be a burden to anyone either."
"No... you really don't have to think of it like that..."
"Let's go to my room."
Following Jacob up to his room, I found the typical American boy's bedroom. A basketball hoop mounted on the door, American comic posters, and even a slightly risque pinup poster.
The only notable things were the textbooks on his desk: Fundamentals of Rice Crop Science, Sustainable Agriculture and the International Rice-Wheat System, Manual on Rice Cultivation, and the like.
"You didn't just put those there for show, did you?"
"What do you take me for? Go ahead and look at them. You'll see I've been through them."
Flipping through the books, sure enough, there were plenty of signs that Jacob had actually studied them.
"Sit down."
I sat in the desk chair while Jacob took the chair by his bed. Watching him plop down on the bed in his outdoor clothes was a bit of an eyesore, but I didn't say anything. That was the culture here. Naturally, they were still wearing shoes indoors too.
"I talked to my father."
"What did he say?"
"He said he'd respect my choices. He's acknowledged me as the head of the family now."
I nodded silently, and Jacob took a deep breath before speaking again.
"So I've made my decision. I want to get consulting, like Chloe's Harris Farm."
"Do you know what the contract terms look like?"
"I got the general outline from Chloe. I definitely want to draw up a contract. That would make things clear."
"Well, sure... we'll write one up... but it sounds like you heard from Armando that I'm some kind of cold-blooded monster..."
"He said you're extremely thorough? That if someone can't separate business from personal, you won't even treat them like a person?"
"......"
"Like I said, I'm fine with it. I'll say it again, I think that's the right approach."
It seemed like there was a massive misunderstanding going on, but that wasn't the important thing right now, so I changed the subject.
"Okay, got it. I'll prepare the contract. I'll use the same one I drew up with Chloe's farm, just swapping out the farm name."
"Sounds good."
"Then, assuming we've already signed... what's your main variety right now?"
As the conversation turned serious, Jacob straightened up and answered calmly.
"202."
"M-202..."
M-202 is a representative medium-grain rice developed by UC Davis, known for maintaining Calrose quality while offering excellent yield potential and quality stability. Calrose is a term denoting the quality standard for medium-grain rice. In Korean terms, medium-grain varieties would be comparable to Odae, Sindongjin, or Chuchung rice.
"Why?"
"Let's try switching varieties. Changing varieties at Chloe's place costs a lot of money, but for rice it's different, so it's worth a try. It should cost less than ten thousand dollars, right? If you're nervous, you can start with just thirty percent."
"... What... variety would we switch to?"
"Our school, the same one that developed 202, is currently working on 206 and planning to distribute it."
"Oh! I think I've heard something about that. But I don't remember hearing when it would actually be released?"
That was understandable. If you major in agronomy or plant breeding at UC Davis, you might get a chance to see new variety trial plots in a professor's lab or experimental fields, or at least hear about them. But decisions at the policy and association level are shared through professors, researchers, the CCRRF (the nonprofit cooperative association of California rice growers), and industry partners.
M-206 was a variety that underwent trial cultivation through 2003 to 2004, with distribution approved in 2005. It went on to be Sacramento's dominant variety until M-211 came along in 2020.
"So it must be an improvement over 202?"
"Exactly. It basically has good quality while having a shorter growing period than 202. As you probably know by now, a shorter growing period means you can avoid cold damage or still harvest even if you plant late, which gives farmers much more stability."
"I know. What else?"
"It's also more resistant to lodging. That makes it better suited for mechanical harvesting, so ultimately, the yield per acre is expected to be significantly higher than 202."
I knew all of this already, but since the variety hadn't been released yet in the present, I deliberately phrased it as if I were relaying what others had told me.
"Ahh... then there's no reason not to switch, is there?"
"If you trust our school?"
"Hmm... alright. I'll try putting fifty percent into this one for the year. Last year's harvest was decent, so if even fifty percent comes through properly, I think I can weather any problems."
"Good, don't worry. Later on, we'll add a premium variety too so you can sell to sushi restaurants. But there's something that needs to be done right now, during winter."
"What?"
"Laser land leveling."
"What?"
Jacob seemed to be hearing this for the first time, so I explained slowly.
"If you look closely at a paddy, some spots are deep and some are shallow. You know that, right?"
"Yeah..."
"When that happens, you end up using a lot more water. Did you know that rice growth rates vary depending on water depth and soil moisture levels?"
"I think I've heard that."
"Right. In shallow spots, the soil dries out faster and the temperature rises, so heading and grain filling happen earlier. In deeper spots, it stays cool and the roots don't get enough oxygen, which delays growth." (TL: Heading is when the rice panicle emerges from the sheath before flowering; grain filling is when the grains accumulate starch and gain weight.)
"I remember the professor talking about that."
His eyes lit up as he nodded, and it seemed clear he genuinely remembered.
"Good, so you didn't sleep through class. Also, there's the problem of fertilizer and herbicide spreading unevenly depending on shallow and deep spots."
"Oh! That makes sense."
"Weeds are an issue too. Deep water keeps weeds from coming up, but in shallow or dry areas they explode. You've got plenty of spots like that in your paddies, right?"
At my question, Jacob nodded frantically.
"Yeah, exactly."
"So just by leveling the land, rice quality becomes more uniform and you get a weed suppression effect. On top of that, water usage drops significantly, and yields go up too. Plus, you won't need to adjust the water as often, which saves on labor costs."
Jacob looked as if something had clicked and asked,
"How did I not know about this?"
"You weren't paying attention. You were just doing things the way they'd always been done. If you go to the Agricultural Extension Office and tell them you want to do laser land leveling, they'll probably ask how you came up with such a smart idea."
"Ah... but how does it actually work?"
"It'll make sense when you see it. The entire paddy gets scanned with GPS or a laser transmitter-receiver, and then a scraper attached to the back of a tractor receives the laser signal and automatically adjusts the height. It shaves off soil from high spots and fills in the low spots, bringing the whole surface to nearly the same level."
"Oh, that's pretty cool."
"And one more thing. We need to build observation pipes for AWD, alternate wetting and drying. I'll draw up separate blueprints for those. You can either make them yourself or take the blueprints to a fabricator."
"Huh? Observation pipes? What's that?"
"The reason I brought up laser land leveling is precisely so we can use these AWD observation pipes. From now on, we'll be making detailed adjustments to water levels based on the growth stage."
"Ooh."
"Up until now, you've been farming based on intuition and the assumption that there wouldn't be a drought. From here on out, it's farming based on precise calculations and forecasting. In other words, this is the beginning of scientific farming."
Jacob pounded the bed excitedly, and I waved my hand to clear the dust flying up.
"Okay, okay, enough..."
***
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