Irrigation goes underground

A lot of growing season remains, but already some farmers are a little concerned about what the summer will hold. So far rains have been spotty, and some soil is starting to get too dry for comfort.

A few years ago Gordonville-area farmer Mark Wessell would have been one of them.

Wessell's farm is one of about 20 in the Hubble Creek watershed that has installed a new form of drainage and irrigation system that works completely underground, allowing farmers to get their crops in the field early and keep them irrigated more effectively. With dry conditions growing in the area, the system is giving Wessell security he never had before, when low groundwater levels kept him from installing traditional irrigation technology.

"In this kind of weather, I'm glad to have it," Wessell said.

The Hubble Creek pilot project administered by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service will end June 30. NRCS area engineer Mark Nussbaum said the program, which provided 60 percent of the cost of installing the system, has "been very, very successful" locally, and NRCS is currently working on providing a statewide program. The benefits are large and varied -- increased yield and decreases in the leaching of nutrients into water supplies and the amount of water needed to irrigate crops, Nussbaum said.

Research has shown an increase in corn yields from 50 to 100 percent in fields employing the system, he said.

Wessell said having the system in his field allowed him to plant his corn crop two weeks early, a practice that has been shown to increase yields because plants aren't subjected to as much late-summer heat.

Research isn't available to quantify how effective the system is at preventing nutrient leaching, Nussbaum said. Soon research to that effect will be conducted as Southeast Missouri State University's newly purchased research farm ground near Gordonville.

Installing the system on the university's 100 acres will probably cost about $100,000, said Dr. Michael Aide, university agriculture department chairman.

The system consists of a series of pipes, called "tiles," placed in a grid underground 12 to 18 inches deep. A small pump (similar to a basement sump pump) is used to bring water into the system from a nearby natural water supply like a ditch or pond, and the water level then can be controlled by a "stop-log box."

Before the system can be installed, land has to be laser graded to level the field, ensuring even delivery of water throughout. The control box, pipes and pump are then installed.

The high price of installation, usually around $600 per acre if a farmer hires out all the work, is still cost-prohibitive for most farmers, but researchers and agriculture officials say the systems have big economic benefits even with the high initial investment.

"Even though these are expensive systems to put in, it pays back itself over time relatively rapidly," Aide said. Aide said the systems have about a 20-year life span.

Aide says the university will host field days to show off the technology to local farmers once crops are planted on the research field. The system should be in place later this summer.

The idea, he said, is that local farmers might find they can benefit from this environmentally friendly technology that can also increase farm profitability.

Nussbaum said the system is the wave of the future. "This field is rapidly developing, and it's showing the synergy that I think is going to move it forward in the future."

For the NRCS and other government agencies charged with protecting natural resources, reducing nutrient runoff into surface waters is the key benefit. Nussbaum said this technology could improve a situation that has developed in the Gulf of Mexico where a dead zone, or hypoxic zone, of oxygen-depleted water can't sustain most marine life every summer. The oxygen depletion is believed to be caused by nitrogen pollution -- a key ingredient in fertilizer used primarily on corn fields.

Farmers like Wessell and John Lorberg, who uses and installs the systems with his son Jeff, appreciate the runoff-reducing benefits but are even happier with the benefits to their bottom line.

Lorberg installed the system in 2004, primarily for the drainage it provides in the spring planting season. Lorberg said in his tiled field, his corn yields are 200 bushels per acre, compared to 125 in non-tiled fields.

Soon after that Lorberg and his son bought almost $30,000 in equipment so they can install the systems -- the only people in the area who have such equipment. Lorberg said the system's application locally has elicited several visits from state officials who are impressed by what they see.

"Whenever you get those kinds of increases in yield, it attracts attention," he said.

The system isn't applicable all over the area, since it requires soil types that can effectively hold water levels, as opposed to soil types like sand where the water would drain down through the soil too deep to reach plant roots.

"Bootheel-wide this system really won't fit," said John Hestor, an NRCS civil engineer based in Stoddard County.

Subirrigation can also help farmers save on energy costs and conserve water, as the pumps needed to supply the system require much less fuel to operate and about 45 percent of the volume of water of other surface irrigation systems is needed to see the same yield benefit, Nussbaum said.

But at least one drawback, other than the high cost, remains. The system works much more slowly than traditional surface irrigation.

"If you need water June 18, you better start putting water in June 1," Wessell said. "It doesn't happen overnight."

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182