Transcript
JAY: Today we did get another field under irrigation again.
MOLLY: Great.
JAY: We got a couple fields done the other day.
MOLLY: Another corn field or a bean field this time?
JAY: Yeah, a popcorn field. We’re actually doing a popcorn field and a soybean field at the same time. They have this special valve that kind of sends some water this way, and then for a couple hours, and then goes back and sends some water the other way. And the reason for that is to, increase efficiency.
MOLLY: Mm-hmm.
JAY: You know, when irrigation first came in years ago, it was just ditches, and then people went to irrigation pipe, which I call gravity irrigation. And that’s, it’s notoriously inefficient because most of our rows out at the Grain Place are a quarter-mile rows, you get a lot more water at the beginning than you do at the end. And to get enough water at the end, you end up dumping a lot out the end, that just gets wasted. Some farms are set up that you can have a reuse pit, so that it’ll actually go into a pond, and then you pump that back out of the pond and then back up to the... We don’t have that. The lay of our land doesn’t lay that way at the Grain Place, this valve that we have out at the Grain Place where it flip-flops back and forth on a timer, it allows the water to get down a ways and then stop and then soak in and then send some more in and it gets stopped and soak in. So you’re not dumping as much out the back end. And so-
MOLLY: And once the water is soaked in, then water runs past it faster? Is that-
JAY: Yeah, it does. ‘Cause once it gets saturated, it just-
MOLLY: Mm-hmm ...
JAY: It doesn’t soak in the same. It’s never gonna be the same as, like, a pivot or a subsurface drip, but it’s a whole lot better than just turning your gates on and leaving them for 12 hours or 24 hours. I know there’s a lot of people who, because of timing and efficiency-wise, they don’t have time to go to that field five times a day.
MOLLY: Mm-hmm.
JAY: So they open the gates, they start it, and they come back in 12 hours. And maybe some of them have been dumping out the end for a long time, or some of them haven’t made it. And so it can be a very complicated time of year. The people who’ve been doing it for years, they got a pretty good feel for it, and they know the lay of their land and so that was something I was trying to help Adam with a little bit today, as a newer farmer. He’s done it a couple years. And so just kind of helping him get the feel for, “Well, this is about how far you should open the gate.” And, and he’s got a pretty good feel for it, but just having another set of eyes of somebody who’s done it a bunch- ... um, I think was just helpful.
MOLLY: And here again, it sounds like there’s a whole complicated set of factors that go into the choices you make about- Mm-hmm ... efficiency in delivering the water versus efficiency in terms of the human labor required durability offset against cost. Um, and also factoring in, flexibility. I mean, because the Grain Place fields are on this rotation, it’s not like you’re planting the same thing every year, so the, need for irrigation is gonna shift if it’s in a pasture year versus a row crop year.
JAY: Yeah. It’s something that for me, you know, I was usually planting one of two crops-
MOLLY: Uh-huh ...
JAY: And they were both irrigated pretty much the same. So I knew that I had a pile that went for this field and that was the same every year. But out at the Grain Place, the fields are pretty close to the same, but some of them are different.
MOLLY: Mm-hmm ...
JAY: So this one might take 21 pipe, this one might take 17, this one... You know? And so but every year that shifts, I mean, I learned a lot out there too, and just figuring out- “Okay, so how many pipe do we need out here?” and then figuring out what exact fittings you need, because it’s been three years since maybe did this one field the last time, you know? So then- trying to remember, what did I do?
MOLLY: And ultimately you wanna be increasing the water absorption of the field, but that also changes how rapidly the water moves through the field, right?
JAY: Correct. And the field we were doing today, had its own extra complication, ‘cause it has pretty good slope to it.
MOLLY: Mm-hmm.
JAY: So some people would think, “Well, that’s nice. The water will run really nice.” It, it is, but the water also runs kind of fast. So you kind of have to open the gates really, really small so that it really has time to soak in. Bare ground will, um, seal over a little bit.
MOLLY: Mm-hmm.
JAY: Like that, that’s just normal, and that’s why one of the soil health principles is keep the ground covered. ‘Cause when you have, when you have living roots and stuff in the ground, it keeps those pores open. But when you just run a whole bunch of water over a tilled soil it kind of crusts over a little bit. The next time it gets water, it just takes a little bit longer for that to soak in. And so if you have a really steep slope, and it’s not steep by any means, but for irrigating with gravity it’s a good slope, it wants to run down faster than it can soak in. And so it’s really, really important that first time across the field is almost always going to be your best chance for it to really soak deep down.
MOLLY: Mm-hmm
JAY: We have three feet of profile that we could fill up with water. Our roots are going down that deep. So if we only get one foot down this first time across the field, the chances are of us getting deeper than that the next time is pretty slim. We’re trying to do a really good job this first time across and get them adjusted. Even if that takes us slower to get across the field, I think that’s probably a better payoff, this first time around. Because every time after that, the water’s just gonna run faster and we just won’t get as much soaking in.
MOLLY: I feel like it’s unfair to have the extra pressure on the, first time as you’re- Yeah ... figuring out the field. Also, you know you’re, setting yourself up for it being better or worse- Mm ... in the future.
JAY: And that’s exactly right. it is kind of a stressful thing. I’m happy to be there because I’ve irrigated a number of fields like that, and I know that very well firsthand that if you try to push it through that first time it’s gonna hurt you. But on a flat field, it’s the other way around. It’s- Okay ... I mean, you still get the same crusting thing, but because it’s flatter, you’re just gonna get more soaking. And sometimes you’d really have to push the gates a lot on a flat field because it is so flat, the water just keeps soaking in, and it doesn’t want to get to the end. So- ...
MOLLY: Right
JAY: it’s kind of a different way of thinking about it. And so just, just helping, um, the farmers out there understand how the different conditions work differently. I mean, they can learn it all the hard way or we can try to instill the knowledge that we have and pass it forward. And hopefully it’s helpful. You know, hopefully it’s not just clutter, but
MOLLY: Right.
JAY: I think most of it’s pretty helpful, so. Yeah.
MOLLY: Very cool. Anything else going on that we ought to talk about?
JAY: We almost had a problem today with the motor, but we were able to get that fixed pretty quickly.
MOLLY: Mm-hmm.
JAY: So we got to play mechanic for a little bit and, uh... it’s always a scary thing, but then also like, “Oh, I’m glad that was just a matter of adjusting the clutch as opposed to taking the clutch off and taking it into a shop to figure it out.” But yeah, we got the cultivating finished yesterday. So that we could get this pipe out.
MOLLY: Mm-hmm.
JAY: And then we cut a little bit of hay yesterday, so hopefully by the end of the day they’ll be, raking that for the first time, and then probably tomorrow bailing that up. Oh and we’re just hoping for rain. There was, like, a 90% chance of rain last week, and I think we got 20 or 30 hundredths, so it’s not enough. we need rain, but we’re, very grateful for the irrigating so we will keep working on that.
MOLLY: Very good. Thank you, and thanks for your time.
JAY: Yep, have a good day.
MOLLY: Stay cool.
JAY: Thank you.
MOLLY: Bye.
