If weather conditions are right, and they usually are in the Sacramento Valley fields where Lundberg rice is growing, the hull will open enough for the flowers to pollinate themselves. Then finally, the dough hardens, at full maturity,, into a hard kernal of mature grain that is capable of sprouting and growing into a plant. A stalk of rice could contain from 80-100 grains of rice at maturity. The uppermost kernels lead the way in their development from pollination to hard maturity, with the lower kernels following behind them in progression. It is at this point that you find a great difference between Lundberg Brown Rice and others.
Most brown rice is grown by farmers selling to mills that mainly make white rice out of it.
This is done by removing the nutritious bran layers with a grinding process. If the rice is too dry, the stones will shatter too much of it and the usable yield will be poor. Given the unpredictable nature of the Sacramento Valley weather during harvest time, it takes incredible patience and restraint to grow fully mature brown rice. Whole truckloads of freshly harvested rice have been directed away, to other white rice mills, because it wasn't accepable as Lundberg Brown Rice. Actually, the process is even more complex, since the winter weather can come early.