Rich Hillman is chairman of Riceland Board of Directors.
Hillman has served on the farmer-owned cooperative’s board of directors since 2004, and was elected chairman in 2024. He’s a sixth-generation, Carlisle-based rowcrop farmer, including rice, corn and soybeans. He previously served as President of the Arkansas Farm Bureau.
What are the most transformative technologies shaping agriculture?
The first thing is GPS. That’s really big in row crop agriculture, including rice. Used to, all grain drills, planters and some other equipment had markers that would come down, so when you turn the tractor around, you could center it on that line. We’ll have GPS on a planter, where it’s also giving us information about the field — it can tell us how many thousands of seeds we’re planting per acre. The other thing is genetics. Growing up, I remember soybeans — you had four varieties you had to pick from. Now, you can really pick a variety that’s specific for your soil type; your area, as far as longitude; the maturity date, and all that.
What innovations at Riceland are you most excited about?
Our Bushel app for members allows them to book their crop online. You can look at a live camera on your app and find the quickest place to dump your crop. When you have a hurricane bearing down and a lot of standing rice that you want standing – that’s a big deal. We have stuff on the app that a lot of our younger farmers use – podcasts updated almost daily.
Where do you see investment opportunities?
My son will see in his career a lot of auto-piloted drones. We already have those … but I think we’ll also have ground rigs. We may have a tractor that’s less horsepower but it will run 24 hours a day. Couple that with AI that will allow them to go where they’re needed — there’s a lot of excitement there.
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