Conservation Farming

Crops don’t wait for irrigation, and now means now when it’s time to water. Solid end-of-season irrigation maintenance goes a long way in preventing problems the following crop year during crunch-time. Before the grip of winter sets in, checks and repairs are vital.

The eastern half of the U.S. is plagued by 50 million acres of fragipan soil. Light in color, fragipan often starts at 1’ to 2’ below the surface and roughly averages 2’ to 4’ in thickness.

Mikey Taylor’s 110-acre block of cover crops has attracted pickers from multiple states and yielded a bounty of blessing.

U.S. agriculture has a tremendous amount of skin at stake in an off-the-radar fight that may impact the future of groundwater regulations at federal, state and private levels.

Dee River Ranch features a whole-farm irrigation system fed by a 110-acre reservoir. Five 150-hp pumps supply water to 18 pivots and one corner unit across 2,800 acres of corn and soybeans. The results since 2011? Corn profits ranging from $144-$1,093 per acre over non-irrigated ground, and soybean profits hovering between $115-215 per acre over non-irrigated ground.

On many farming operations, mowing has given way to high-powered pre-emerges to kill vegetation, but bald ditches may spawn a regulatory leviathan. Silt gathering in the bottom of ditches and canals; eroded turn rows; washed out roads; and hammered PTO ditches are caught in a vicious spray cycle of unintended consequences with no simple fix.

Guesswork and irrigation are long-time farming partners, but it can be a happy-in-hell marriage. When to turn on the spigot? How much water to deliver? Every farm soaks and dries in isolation because one field’s irrigation recipe is another’s death sentence.

The evil twin of drought is drainage and both can cripple a crop in short time. When a river rises or a culvert backs up, water can sit on farmland for weeks and prevent planting and harvest, or simply kill crops mid-season. Time to saddle a Water Hog beast and pump directly through a levee.

Invasive fire ants, six-legged devils barely an eighth of an inch long, are a scourge to farming and livestock production. Keep the granule bait close, and the Benadryl closer.

With record storage of 100 million barrels, propane production is on the rise and prices remain low, which is a distinct advantage for row crops farmers and poultry producers these days.