Irrigation, SW crop report

Shay

Foulk: And it all comes down to this. Two on, two out, bottom of the ninth. The Farmers lead by one. Full count, here comes the play at the plate, and it's the Ag View Pitch! Welcome back everyone to the Ag View Pitch. This is Shay Foulk and we have on special guest Russell French today. I'm going to go ahead and let him introduce himself here, but very excited to have you on, Russell. How are you today?

Russell

French: Well, thanks for having me on, Shay. Uh, yes, uh, I'm a strategic account manager for Pioneer Hybrid here in the High Plains. Um, I live in Amarillo, Texas. I kind of COVID a 6-state area for Pioneer on our very large accounts that we work with. Uh, basically, uh, Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, uh, southwest Kansas, southern Colorado, northern New Mexico, and a little bit of southeast Arizona. So that kind of covers the area I work in. So it's quite a large area and focused mainly on irrigation. This is a heavily irrigated area. And so that's what I do is work with these large irrigated producers.

Shay

Foulk: And what kind of crops are you working with down there, Russell?

Russell

French: Well, our main crop is corn. And but, you know, in the southern part of my area in Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, a little bit of the southern tier counties in Kansas, You know, cotton has become a very big crop in that area too. Also grain sorghum, wheat, alfalfa, you know. Then, and then we get— there's some specialty crops that people grow, and, but those pretty well cover it. The corn, cotton, wheat, sorghum, and alfalfa.

Shay

Foulk: Great. And you've been in that area for a long time, if I understand it correctly, right?

Russell

French: Yes, I— yes, I've— my whole career has been here in the High Plains. I I started out as a crop consultant with an organization called Servitec in southwest Kansas based out of Dodge City. I worked there for 16 years cutting my teeth on learning production agriculture, and then in 1992 I moved to the Texas Panhandle and became a territory manager— excuse me— for Pioneer, managing the sales rep force that covered the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. And then in the last 3 years, I've taken on the role of strategic account manager where I am a teammate with the territory managers, pioneer field agronomists, and sales reps working with these very large growers that work in this area or farm in this area.

Shay

Foulk: Wow, pretty storied past, a long time in that region. Sure, you know it very well. And it sounds like you put a lot of miles on the truck.

Russell

French: Oh yeah, yeah. I cover from Dodge City, Kansas to Wilcox, Arizona. So that's about a 700-mile, straight line if you drew it as a crow flies.

Shay

Foulk: Wow. Now you mentioned that you work mostly with irrigation. Of the producers that you're working with in those regions, what's the percentage of dryland versus irrigation, would you say?

Russell

French: Well, I mean, I really—

Shay

Foulk: I don't know.

Russell

French: I'm not sure if I know how to answer that question. I mean, you know, I got some irrigators that, you know, primarily focus all on irrigation, don't have any dryland acres. Then I got some customers that have a lot of dryland acres and a little bit irrigation. So there's roughly, uh, in this area that I talked to, geography I talked about, there's probably about a million irrigated acres. And I really don't know, um, how many, uh, dryland acres there are. But I, you know, my customers all have different, uh, a different mix.

Shay

Foulk: And one of the main reasons that I wanted to ask that question, I think you, you handled that question very well. I know that's kind of a curveball, but With when you say a million irrigated acres, and then you look at national corn planting acres and how that ties into production, a lot of people, particularly in the Midwest, when you think corn acres, you think that they're areas that are getting a lot of rainfall, areas that are either irrigated or in, you know, moderate conditions. But when you look at 90 to 95 million planted corn acres throughout the United States, what a lot of people don't think about as frequently is that a lot of those are on dryland acres. And on, on the other end, a lot of those are planted to highly intensively managed irrigated acres, or just kind of in the Midwest where in good years we're fortunate to get a lot of rainfall.

So just kind of wanted to, to point that out there. Now, what is rainfall? So we'll just refer to the Texas Panhandle, in that northern area there. What does your rainfall pattern look like, and how has it played out this year?

Russell

French: Well, our long-term 100-year average annual rainfall at Amarillo, Texas is about 19 inches a year. And so if you go towards Dodge City, Kansas, and east, maybe toward Great Bend, Kansas, you know, kind of central Kansas, you know, that you may get into the like 21, 22 inches of annual rainfall a year. And then you go to the western side of my area, you know, around down the Kansas-Colorado line, down the Texas-New Mexico line, you're probably in about a 16-inch annual rainfall area there. And then of course, when you get out west to the Four Corners area, you know, it's the desert basically, you know, get about 8 inches of rain a year out there. Right. So we, you know, and then it's, Our rainfall pattern is just, you know, scattered thunderstorms throughout the summer, basically. And, and, you know, we started off with— we had good winter moisture.

We started off with great subsoil profiles. And, you know, we had a lot of our corn that was planned to go in at the normal time, which is usually kind of mid-April to mid-May planting time, just similar to the Midwest here in the High Plains. And, you know, that corn went in on time. And then we got wet just like everybody else did. And We had a lot of failed cotton acres, and so we, we struggled to get in some of the later planted corn. Sometimes we split plant corn. We plant some early, some late, spread our irrigation water out so we're not irrigating— have to irrigate everything all at peak water use. That's been a successful tactic here. And we don't have enough water to grow all corn, you know, we will at the same time we'll spread out our planting dates.

And so those acres, those later planted planned acres and failed and prevented to plant cotton acres that went to other crops, you know, kind of got in on the late side here in the High Plains. But, uh, it's all progressing pretty good here. We've had a lot of warm weather. Matter of fact, we've had too much warm weather since about the first July. We've had a lot of days over 100, uh, you know, some days up to 108, 109 with the wind blowing. And, you know, so when you take— when you look at an ET equation, evapotranspiration You know, wind is the, the number one factor in that equation, followed by heat, and then followed by the size of the crop. So we've been hit with both. We, you know, the two big players in the ET equation has really been on the high side here lately, and, uh, some of our dryland crops are starting to suffer.

You know, a lot of dryland corn went in this area, and we're starting to see some of it really start to hurt. Our full irrigated acres look really good. I think most of my customers are on track to have an average to above average crop on their full irrigated acres. And then on the limited irrigated acres, you know, we're, we're starting to go backwards a little bit. So hopefully we'll get a little reprieve here, may catch some rain shortly and help us out. Great.

Shay

Foulk: Now, two things that I want to point out from some of the stuff you were just talking about there. You mentioned planting, you know, mid-April, similar timeframe to the Midwest. And I think that might surprise a lot of people just because of the farther south that you are and the more quickly you warm up in that area. But what's the end of your season look like? Where's the end cap? Is it also pretty similar to the Midwest, or you have a little bit more time there? Because you mentioned split crop time.

Russell

French: We have a little bit more time, but I think what people forget, you know, one, Texas is a large state, so there's a big difference between the you know, there's 1,000 miles from the north side of the state to the south side of the state. So, you know, they're harvesting in South Texas and, and both corn and sorghum, and up here we're just, you know, kind of most of the corn's probably pollinating to milk stage. So, uh, but the thing about the High Plains is our elevation. So, you know, Amarillo, Texas is at 3,600 feet elevation. You get to Dalhart, Texas, that's 4,000 feet. Clayton, New Mexico is 5,000 feet.. And so, you know, that kind of makes us not act like we're that far south, you know, just with a higher elevation.

But that elevation, you know, it gives us— we have warm days, cool nights, and that gives us the perfect combination for growing corn if, if we have adequate water.

Shay

Foulk: Right. Now you mentioned 1,000 miles north to south in Texas roughly, and just quickly looking at the map here, if you drew a straight line from Wichita, Kansas to Buffalo, New York, that That's 1,000 miles, and that covers, you know, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York. And to give people a little bit of perspective there, when you say that, I think it's kind of an eye-opener that people in Texas realize a little bit better than we do.

Russell

French: Well, it is a big state, and like I said, the harvest is probably— I think it's progressing toward the Dallas area in North Texas there. So, uh, and, and yields for Central and South Texas have been above average. They've had a really good crop. You know, that's a all dryland area down there, and, you know, 120 to 140 bushel corn averages typically. But this year, you know, they're kind of in the 160 to almost 200 bushel range down in there in some of those areas. So they're having a, they're having a good crop in, in South and Central Texas. Not a, not a lot of acres compared to the Midwest, but those guys that are growing corn this year are doing quite well down there.

Shay

Foulk: And I'll touch back on that in a minute as far as some other factors tied into that. One other point that I wanted to make is you're talking 107, 108, 109-degree temperatures in your area for a sustained period of time. And a lot of producers in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, when they think about that, they're like, wow, you know, how, how is that impacting the crop? And obviously it has impact on yield.. But when we're, we're in temperatures 87 to 94 up here, corn starts to roll real bad. You start to see significant stress, especially the stuff that was planted into wet or poor conditions. We're seeing a lot of stress right now with the heat and lack of precipitation that I've had. So how is that balanced in your area? Not only with product lineup, but other, other management strategies. Is there anything outside of irrigation, fertility practices?

What else are you looking at there to help with that?

Russell

French: Well, absolutely. So for our area, stored subsoil moisture is everything because our— right now the corn water use when we have 100-degree days and 20 to 30 mile an hour winds and corn's at peak water use at pollination through blister, you know, right now our ET rates on corn are like, you know, from— can be from 3,500 a day to half inch a day. So, you know, and a lot of our irrigation capacities, you know, on our sprinklers, you know, we, you know, we can only pump about a quarter of an inch a day. So what we have to do is we have to save every drop of subsoil moisture, build that up, keep it there. It's kind of like having a bank account or savings account, and then you have your checking account. And so when you start going spending more than you, than you got in your checking account, you need that savings account to, to help keep you in business so you don't go overdrawn.

So that we have the same principle here with our irrigation, you know, building that subsoil moisture, start irrigating early. And try to stay ahead because we know we're going to not be putting on as much as the crop will use for a period of time. And, and that's what we try to avoid. We— and so to do that, we're all strip-till and no-till. I mean, I'd say 80% of the corn acres I work with are strip-till and no-till. We do very minimal amount of tillage in this area so we save our moisture, uh, leaving that residue on the surface. When it does rain, it makes it Soak in better, doesn't run off. I'm just totally amazed at what we've done in the High Plains over the last 25 years.

You know, when I first come to work for Pioneer, we felt like we needed 600 gallons on a quarter-mile system, or that's— you take the acres that you have under a pivot divided by the well output, and that gives you a figure we call irrigation capacity. So we'll take a 600-gallon well, divide it by 120 acres, that's 5 point 5 gallons per minute per acre. So everybody's set up, we have it, that figure is used on all our irrigated acres. And so we look at that figure where you got 4 gallons per acre per minute, 5, 6, and from that we adjust plant populations. So the less, you know, the least amount of water we have, we'll plant lower populations, and if we have good water, we'll increase those populations. And then we also choose hybrids based on the droughts, excuse me, the drought score.. So that, you know, that'll help us.

And so all these factors we take into account on how we plant our crop. And then, like I told you earlier, on some of our lighter water acres, we'll split the planting date. So if a guy's got 2 circles and may say maybe used to grow 1 circle of corn and 1 circle of wheat, and now he wants to grow 2 circles of corn, we may plant an early hybrid early, you know, like 100 to 105-day hybrid planted early in mid-April, early May, and then we come and plant in June, you know, mid-season hybrid. And so we'll try to get a 30 to 45-day split between peak water use. You know, we want those two circles to tassel about 30 to 45 days apart so that way we can manage our water better, you know, and put the water on the crop that needs it the most. And as it starts declining in water use, then we move it over to the other crop that was planted later as it— as water use increases on it.

And that's been a very successful tactic in this area.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, very smart management strategy. Now you mentioned population there too, and you and I talked a little bit about this offline yesterday. I was wondering if you can touch on that and maybe paint a picture for us of the territory that you cover, how that population varies, and then, you know, even so between dryland and irrigation as well.

Russell

French: Well, certainly. So we, We develop a product production guide here at Pioneer for in the High Plains that we use, and so we, we look at, and we, all the data that we use to make this, this production guide comes from our test plot data. So we do a lot of population work by, by amount of water we have. We've got a lot of tremendous amount of experience, then we know our hybrids, we know the ear flex score on them, we know the drought score, and then we make a recommendation accordingly. So On our full irrigated acre, we're, we're, you know, going for top yield. You know, we will be anywhere from that 32,000 to 36,000 seeds per acre drop is a general range. And then as we move into limited irrigation, it can be anywhere from 20,000 seeds per acre to 30,000, just depending on, on how much water we have and if we're sharing it with another crop or not.

And then as we move into our dryland, you know, we're on the eastern side of the area I cover, say, you know, around the Dodge City, Kansas down to Perryton, Texas type line. They might drop, you know, 16,000 to 18,000 seeds per acre on dryland corn. As you move west and you get into eastern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, you know, they may be dropping down there in that 10,000 to 14,000 seeds per acre.

Shay

Foulk: Right. Now you say that and it might surprise a lot of people. And what's interesting is when you drive through that region, you know, when you're looking at the low population fields, no, there's no question about it. And you stop and, you know, on my travels through that area, I've pulled over and tried to decipher, okay, what's going on here? You see the low population, but you mentioned yesterday some of those dryland low population acres, depending on what you get for rainfall, they might still be pushing 80, 90, 100 bushel an acre.

Russell

French: Absolutely. Yeah, you know, we, when we get the rains at the right time, and as you kind of move farther north in the area that I serve, you know, you get more up into western Kansas, eastern Colorado, going up to northwest Kansas, northeast Colorado, where their ET rates are a little usually lower than, than ours down here in the Panhandles. But, you know, they, they do, they can raise 80 bushel corn on a final stand of 10,000. It's pretty amazing. Some of those hybrids will— that we have will, you can double ear under favorable conditions. But then if, if we plant that thin and we don't get rain and it goes through a period of stress, we're still gonna, you know, hopefully still raise a, you know, 30, 40, 50 bushel crop, you know. And if we have it planted too thick, it'll burn up and make a zero. So, right.

But, you know, in my area, you get in the Texas, Oklahoma panhandles, you know, to me, dryland corn is a little more of a a crapshoot down here. It's just a little tougher to do it. We, we can do it, but, but grain sorghum has been a better fit, I think, in the southern part of my area. And our grain sorghum acres down here look fantastic right now. I mean, they've, they've held on through the heat much better than the, the dryland corn is. And sorghum's just an extremely tough crop. I'm a bigger fan of sorghum kind of in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles than I am dryland corn. I just think year in and year out it It's a more consistent crop. I know corn's worth more per bushel down here, and you have some better herbicide options to use in corn, but, uh, sorghum is just, uh, you start out with a full profile on sorghum, you usually, you're not going to get a zero, you know.

I mean, it, it'll make something. And then it, and it's a very low input crop, very— you don't have to spend a lot of money to make a good sorghum crop.

Shay

Foulk: How has that lineup switched in the last 25 years that you've been— well, longer than that— that you've been working in that area. But how's that dynamic changed with sorghum and corn?

Russell

French: Well, sorghum was really a big crop 25 years ago when I come here. But, uh, you know, it's just because of the pricing structure. You usually in, in our area, we'll have a positive basis on, on corn because we're a corn deficit area. And then grain sorghum will typically be 40, 30 to 50 cents a bushel under corn. You know, a couple of years ago when China was buying sorghum, it, you know, we kind of had us, it flipped around for a little bit, but typically we're, you know, 40 cents under what a bushel of corn is. But the production costs are a lot higher on the corn. And, uh, so, but then cotton has come in big, you know, cotton prices have been good. So, you know, corn or sorghum's kind of lost some to the dryland corn, but a lot to the to the cotton acres too, also in, in the southern part of my area where we can, where we can grow cotton.

So, but it's still a good crop, and I think people are kind of coming back to favor it a little bit more because they see in these, you know, when it's hot like this and dry, that the sorghum will wait longer for that rain, and, and it just doesn't— you're just not spending as much money to put out a sorghum crop as you are cotton or corn. Right.

Shay

Foulk: What are your primary markets, uh, in the area that you cut? Well, Let me narrow it down, I guess. Texas, Oklahoma Panhandle, and then maybe Kansas, Colorado, and then New Mexico areas. I don't know if you can kind of break those down. What are primary markets for your products?

Russell

French: Everything goes to livestock production. I mean, we, you know, we have these giant feedlots here in this geography. A lot of dairies. I mean, tremendous dairy business has sprung up here in eastern New Mexico and Texas. Panhandle, Oklahoma panhandle, southwest Kansas. We've had a lot of dairies move from California out to this area. So just, you know, very little of it goes to ethanol. I mean, there's a little bit that does, but I mean, it's primarily all livestock driven. And like I said, we're a corn, corn feed grain deficit area. So we have a lot of rail cars bringing, bringing corn down from the Midwest, and, and we're feeding it up down here. I, I don't know what the statistic is, but, and I don't, I don't want anybody fact-checking me, but I think at one time, um, within a 250-mile radius of Amarillo, Texas, I think it's like 60-70% of all the fed cattle in the U.S.

is produced, you know. So I mean, we just— we have some mega feedlots here, you know, 50-100,000 capacity. I work with dairies that are milking over 100,000 cows. Uh, oh, we got large hog operations. Seaborg's got a big, you know, hog operations here in the Panhandles, uh, out of Guymon, Oklahoma. So it's— it's— everything goes to livestock.

Shay

Foulk: Great, and that just helps paint a little bit of a picture for those listening. Now, you mentioned or alluded to basis a little bit. Two questions is, what is a typical basis deviation in your area? And then also, how is that— how will that be affected if the crops continue to perform well as harvest moves north through Texas?

Russell

French: Well, our basis, so you, you know, you kind of get up into southwest Kansas, you might be You know, grain moves south, so the farther south you go, the better the basis gets. So maybe in southwest Kansas they might be even with Kansas City December— I mean, excuse me, Chicago December, uh, they'll be even, maybe, maybe a nickel under or so. And as you get into the northern part of the Texas Panhandle, we're consistently 15 cents over, uh, December, December Chicago on corn. And then as you go south I-40 going into the South Plains of Texas, you go to Hereford, Texas They'll be 30 cents over, you know, you get down to around Portales, New Mexico. They're like 50 cents over. So we have some really strong basis on corn for this geography. Wow. Yep.

Shay

Foulk: Now, I want to kind of transition the conversation a little bit. I'm going to wrap up with two questions that we've kind of hit on here in order to make this transition. And the first one is talking about water. And what are some of the restrictions in different areas on water usage? And then also, what are your well depths looking like? I mean, I know that's extremely variable depending on the area that you're in, and pivots. And then what is the supply like? Is there any concern there associated with water supply, and how's that managed?

Russell

French: Well, absolutely, there's a concern. I mean, that's— I mean, we can't deny the fact, you know, we're Basically, the area I cover, we sit over what is called the Ogallala Aquifer, and Ogallala stretches pretty much from Lubbock, Texas, you know, through the Panhandles, eastern New Mexico, eastern Colorado, western Kansas, all the way up into Nebraska, almost to the South Dakota line. And so over this aquifer, I think there's about 10 million acres as the irrigated acres is the figure I remember being cited to me, but, you know, we're mining the aquifer. And, you know, the aquifer is like a lake bottom. It's got different depths. So, you know, we have areas that have, you know, 300 or 400 feet of water-bearing gravel, you know, in the well.

And, you know, so there'll be spots that'll be irrigating 100 years from now, and then there's spots that we're eminently just about ready to run out of water now. So, I mean, it's a concern. Most states have adopted some type of groundwater district management, where farmers are in a groundwater management district, and they're, you know, varies by state, but most, you know, Kansas has implemented pumping restrictions, Texas has implemented pumping restrictions, Colorado, I believe, also has. And so farmers are limited on how much water they can pump based on whatever their local regulations are. And I know in Texas, you know, our goal is to have 50% of the aquifer left by the year 2050. And so you see water conservation is keen for everybody. I mean, we have the most efficient irrigation systems that there are.

Our center pivots are set up to what we call— what is called a LEPA system, Low Energy Precision Application. We have the drops almost down the ground. We have special nozzles that will put it in a bubble mode and sheen the water out so we lose nothing to evaporation. Our center pivot irrigation systems are almost as efficient as subsurface drip irrigation. We use moisture blocks, capacitance probes, telemetry probes. I mean, everybody is, you know, we're watering when we have to and we're not watering when we don't need to, and we're watching it all the time. But we, every farmer I work with is concerned about conserving water, and nobody wants to waste it. They all realize how important it is. So I can promise you that we're, you know, Growers are doing everything they can to be as efficient, yet be profitable and stay in business.

So it's a fine line to walk, but I'm really proud of the producers I work with. They're just— there's no better set of people concerned about water conservation, land conservation than the group of farmers here in the High Plains, because it's just a harsh environment to live and work in and farm in.

Shay

Foulk: That's an exceptional amount of management tacked on to already high management in a lot of these crops that we're producing. So I absolutely understand that. One thing that I also wanted to refer to is, uh, the tillage practices. So you mentioned, you know, 80% strip till or no-till in your area. Not a lot of areas, uh, I'll call the I-states and even north of there, a lot of those areas are conventional tillage, and a lot of areas still need conventional tillage just for management practices. But I would say in the last 10 years we've seen a pretty significant shift to more no-till and more strip-till systems. With the travels, the colleagues that you work with in those regions, how do you think that looks long-term up here in the Midwest as far as moving to these strip-till systems and benefits that you see there?

Russell

French: Well, you know, I have the opportunity with Pioneer to, to get to work in the Midwest with irrigation, in some areas. I've spent a lot of time in northeast Illinois, Indiana, southern Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota. So I've got a kind of flavor for working with growers up there and the concerns with strip till and no-till. I, I do realize it's totally different up there. Most of the time they're trying to get rid of water off their fields where we want to try to keep it in our fields. But, uh, I, I just see a lot of benefits to strip till and no-tilling or reduced you know, better soil health, you know, less expense in tillage operations, less trips over the field. I think when it does rain, you know, we see the water go into the soil better and not run off as much.

So it warms up, you know, and the— you went on strip till, you can get the area to warm up and help get it going. But, you know, I just think, you know, it looks like there are some people successfully doing it in the Midwest.. And just more people need to, you know, pay attention to what's working good and kind of adopt those practices up there a little bit better. But I see a lot of benefit to it, you know, especially when you have, you know, some rolling topography, you know, where you're worried about getting those big rains and it runs off and have those low areas drowned out like you guys that, you know, I saw my travels this year up in the Midwest, seeing a lot of drowned out areas. You know, I think if we could have kept that water up on the hilltops and side slopes, it might have help those down in the low areas, you know, not, not drowned out as much.

That's what we see in, in this area. So I think there's a lot of promise to it, you know, and, and, uh, but I know they're gonna have to do things a little different than probably what we do.

Shay

Foulk: Great. Now I'm gonna lob you a question here, and you can take this and run with it however you want, but how do you see the, the future of irrigation in the Midwest with the producers and states that you've been working with up in this region?

Russell

French: Well, you mean in my area or up in the Midwest? In the Midwest. Yeah. Well, you know, there's a very, very high interest in irrigation where in the Midwest where people can do it and, you know, kind of get through those dry years and be timely with some water and help them out. So, you know, where we typically can pump, let's say, an average of 18 to 24 acre inches on a corn crop in the High Plains, somewhere in that range, typically timely. You know, up in the Midwest with the growers I've worked with, you know, a lot of years, you know, 6 to 12 inches is adequate, you know, so, and it's just being timely with it. And what's interesting about a center pivot is we do a lot of fertigation down here. I mean, we just don't put out very much pre-plant nitrogen anymore.

We'll do some and then we'll adjust it and based on our crop conditions, You know, we're putting it through the center pivot, and so we're way more efficient. We can raise more bushels on less nitrogen doing it that way. So that offsets the little higher cost of UAN solution over, like, anhydrous ammonia. And so what I've encouraged people up in the Midwest to do, where they get so much rain and pre-plant nitrogen in the Midwest, just is going to be subject to loss. You know, let's face it, it's going to leach out or you're going to denitrify it, lose it. I just— you're so much better off, you know, not putting as much out pre-plant, putting it more through the pivot. So I— that's something I encourage Midwest farmers to look at. And so in the wet year, sometimes maybe we don't need the center pivot up there for irrigating with, but we use it as a fertilizer machine, you know.

We just, you know, putting on fertilizer with it. And, uh, and then we— you can— we, you know, you can chemigate with the center pivot, you know, put pesticides through like fungicides, insecticides, you know, that as long as it's— that product is labeled for chemigation and your local regulations allow it and everything's set up correctly to do it, it's a very effective way to put out fungicides. For example, you know, we can— we, you know, I got people in the Midwest, instead of calling airplane in and spending $10, $12 an acre for application, they got a pivot setting there, use it to put on your fungicide. It's very, a very effective way to do it. Wow.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah. And this is a good segue into the next question. And if you could just take a minute or two to talk about this. Earlier, you were listing off a lot of, you know, exciting measurements, you know, telemetry, your moisture sensors, things like that. Can you explain some of those just a little bit more for the listeners out there that may not be as familiar with some of the exciting technology and management strategies that are being used right now?

Russell

French: Sure. So, you know, there's a lot of companies that have these capacitance probes that, you know, they have a sensor every 6 inches or every 12 inches. You put it in the soil at planting time and, you know, through cell signals, you know, they'll transmit every 15 minutes. You'll get a reading on what the soil moisture is like and the information flows in and comes in like on your desktop and And you can watch, you know, literally watch the corn drink every day. You know, that you can see where the corn, you know, show the water use going down during the day. At night it flattens out as the corn plant rests and goes down. It's got a stair-step effect. You can see where the root development is, how deep the roots are.

You can see if you're over-irrigating and pushing water past where the roots are, which if you're doing that means you could be potentially leaching out mobile nutrients like nitrogen and sulfur and make adjustments there. They're a very effective tool. However, I want to warn people that that only checks that spot that that probe's at. So you got 120-acre center pivot, so you have to be very— or in Texas we have up to 500-acre center pivots, but you know, you pick that one spot, it's got to represent a large area, and really sometimes it can't do that.

So you use that as a tool, but you still need to get out and physically walk out and, you know, use a soil moisture probe to check also, you know, it's a combination of everything, you know, you don't— we don't totally rely on that capacitance probe, but, and then there's a lot, you know, I think in the Midwest, and we're doing it down here too, but I see more value in the Midwest, in Nebraska, you know, and on up in the I-states where they irrigate. We have variable rate irrigation programs now, there's companies that'll help you develop so they can speed up and slow down different parts of the field, so based on water holding capacity. We're looking at zone irrigation where you have part of the pivot putting out more water and then the other parts of the pivot, you know, based on, again, on soil type.

So I think these things in the Midwest are— could be really very helpful, you know, with variable rate irrigation programs and zone irrigation based on the soil type in the field. So a lot of times here in the Midwest we have pretty uniform flat fields and we may not see as much, you know, our deal here is just having enough water is really the key thing we look at. But in the Midwest with, with the rainfall and having irrigation, you know, you could potentially overwater some areas of the field maybe, and these programs would help people do that where they have sugar sand in part of the field and a clay loam in part of the field, which I've seen up there in in Northeast Illinois, high degree of variability within 120-acre pivot.

Shay

Foulk: Oh yeah, yeah, huge soil differences throughout this region for sure. You had touched on sub-irrigation earlier just for a second there. Do you work with any producers that run sub-irrigation?

Russell

French: Yeah, subsurface drip irrigation, yes. Yeah, we, yeah, we do have that. Again, very, you know, what— where people will use subsurface drip irrigation is maybe smaller fields or regular fields where center pivot, they can't really put one up, you You know, they got too many maybe obstructions or something, and it's just a smaller field. And so, you know, they'll bury the drip tape and do that. And again, you know, we got— we can put nutrients through the drip tape and do all the things we can through the center pivot. But probably the biggest drawback for us on subsurface irrigation is in the really extremely dry springs. Sometimes we have a hard time getting water up to the surface to germinate the crop..

And I know in 2011, which was the worst year we've had ever, probably, you know, I mean, there's people with subsurface drip irrigation never was able to get their crop germinated. You know, we just couldn't, you know, get— we didn't get any rain and we couldn't get the water up to the surface, you know, where the drip tape's buried 12 inches deep. And so it could, you know, and then you can't incorporate your herbicides, you know, like you can with a center pivot. So sometimes weed control can be a little more challenging if you don't get a timely rain and you're using a pre-emerge herbicide. Side. But outside of that, it's, you know, it's, uh, when you don't have hardly any water, it's definitely the way to go. It's the most, you know, probably the most efficient way to irrigate. Interesting. It, you know, I— it— but it's very expensive too, you know, to put in.

So I think as long as, you know, people are not going to abandon their center pivots for subsurface drip irrigation yet. And we're also working with This is really interesting. There's been a lot of work done with what we call a mobile drip line where we're taking the center pivot and we're putting out a drip tape on it, dragging it between the rows like out to 100 feet. And so you have a drip tape line in between every corn row and we plant in a circle and this little drag it through there and emit out the water. And, uh, and there's, you know, we've got some customers doing that and there's been some work done at Kansas State University on, on mobile drip lines and it looks very, very very efficient way to irrigate, especially as our water capacity continues to drop and make it harder to make a center pivot get out the right amount of water correctly.

You know, when you start getting down to 200 gallons on a quarter mile or things like that, you know, it's just hard to get the right pattern. So these mobile drip lines are in combination with drought-hardy crops like sorghum and cotton, uh, you know, they, they, you know, there's a lot of technology. I guarantee you farmers will figure out how to make it work as long as they can. I mean, that's what we're— that's what farmers do.

Shay

Foulk: Absolutely. Uh, one of the last points that I have is, do you have any cover crops going on on the irrigated acres in between season for that soil retention, soil moisture retention?

Russell

French: Well, we, we are working, you know, I, I have a couple of colleagues that I work with, these Pioneer sales reps that are, uh, you know, doing some work with COVID crops. But, but in the High Plains, in this low rainfall area, I'll just be honest with you, cover crops sometimes will use more moisture than we get back. And, and it just— I don't know, I, I'm just, uh, I'm not sold 100% on, on cover crops for moisture conservation or trying to put nitrogen back in the soil because I feel like we just use more water. If we have to end up irrigating to replace that moisture the COVID crop used, or we don't get rainfall on dryland acres or cover crop to use, it can be very detrimental in this area. So cover crops primarily are used in this area to prevent wind erosion.

So a lot of times after a cotton crop, you know, cotton leaves no residue out there, and we have some really sandy soils, and people go in and plant a cover crop after cotton to help get some cover on so it doesn't blow in the spring, you know. And then maybe we'll kill it out with a herbicide as they plant the next crop, you know. So cover crops work best for preventing wind erosion in this area, but they can be detrimental in that they will use more moisture than we'll get back, you know, in the drier years. And so they're not, not as widespread use as they see in the Midwest. Right.

Shay

Foulk: And the reason I wanted to point that out mainly is, you know, you can kind of hurt people's feelings a little bit when you say nope, cover crops aren't the answer because it, you know, they do work in a lot of areas. But when it comes to situations like this, they're just not necessarily always the best option. And that's not right, wrong, or indifferent.

Russell

French: They're— it's just our weather pattern. Yeah, I mean, and there may be, uh, and, and, but we have people working on it, so maybe we'll— we just haven't figured out where they fit the best. I, I got some really smart people that I know that are working with them, and, and, uh, if they get it figured out where I see an economic benefit to it, I'll jump on the bandwagon faster than anybody.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, and you know, just to bring that perspective to people, that's, that's the main reason I wanted to answer that question there. So, you know, kind of wrapping things up here, Russell, do you have any other kind of lasting comments on, on irrigation or, you know, how things are looking right now that you want to leave the listeners with?

Russell

French: Well, I just encourage people that have irrigation to, to, you know, with all the resources available today to reach out, think a little differently. Common problems I see in the Midwest when I go up there and work with irrigators is they start up too late in the dry years. You know, they think they don't need to be running when they should be because they don't understand their whole— the water holding capacity of their soils, the crop water use. So they may get started too late. You know, on corn at that V5, V6 stage, that's when the ear girth is being determined. That's about knee high. On me. I'm a 6-foot-2 person, and, uh, and so a lot of times if that corn goes under stress there, it's going to have more 14 and 16 around rows instead of 18 or 20. So, you know, that's a good time to irrigate if it's dry. People don't, don't do that a lot in the Midwest.

And then the other thing I see in the Midwest is they tend to run the pivots too fast and they're not getting any soak. And there's this thing they think about, well, I'm going to run it fast but on, you know, quarter-inch, half-inch passes air condition the corn, and, and that doesn't work. The corn crop is designed to take water up to the roots, not the leaves. And you cannot, you know, if you go in there and put a thermometer in a cornfield after the pivot goes, before and ahead, I mean, an hour later it's back to the same temperature it was. You know, running fast passes in the Midwest could increase leaf wetness time, which could predispose you to more disease problems. So, you know, I try to encourage people to You know, slow those pivots down and put the— be more efficient with the water, put it in the soil, shut it off when you don't need to.

If rain's imminent, you can wait, see if you get a rain or not, and then go back and finish it. So, you know, pivot speed is something they need to pay attention to. Fertigation— I really think people need to be using fertigation up there. You know, it's just what you— what it allows you to do is just not put your nitrogen investment at risk to Mother Nature. Where you'd lose it. And, you know, some people think that it's a hassle to fertigate, you know, but I promise you, down here, once people see the benefit, they set it up so it's not a hassle. You know, every pivot will have a tank, a pump, and once you get it all set up, it's the easiest way in the world to fertilize, I think, you know. So, you know, I hope people will take a look at that. But those are probably some of the— and then at the end, you know, finishing up, you know, a lot of farmers will shut the water off too soon.

You know, that corn is going to make yield all the way to black layer. It's going to be, you know, increasing test weight, kernel depth, until that corn is fully black layered, which is about, you know, 28 to 32% moisture depending on grain moisture, depending on the hybrid. Um, you know, you just want to make sure you have enough water to, to in the soil to finish out that crop and get, get maximum yield on it. And, uh, So again, you know, some people, they shut off too soon up in, in the Midwest. So I do a lot of meetings up there, Pioneer, usually a couple weeks a year I'm somewhere up there in, in that area putting on meetings. And, and so maybe, maybe somebody can check with their local Pioneer rep and see if, see if I'll be doing a meeting in their area this winter and come and attend. And I think they could learn a lot.

Shay

Foulk: Well, especially after a year like this when we were extremely wet early on and now all certain areas have hardly caught, you know, a breath of rain at all. That's something to look into. And I hope we gain interest and are providing good value and perspective here. So other than through your platform there with Pioneer, any other good resources that those that are just getting into it that want to learn more about irrigation, any other suggestions there, Russell?

Russell

French: Well, I mean, we, We have— there's some excellent extension resources. You know, we have good resources here in Texas through our Texas AgriLife Extension. The University of Nebraska has a lot of stuff online about irrigation. You know, they— I would encourage people, I would say in the I-states, you know, Nebraska would be a good resource because it's closer to them and they would have ET rates more similar, you know, to the I-states and. And so they definitely have some really good resources there.

Shay

Foulk: Great. And if there's any other questions, is there a way that the listeners can contact you, uh, you know, if they have any questions from the podcast here?

Russell

French: Well, sure. I think, I think the best way would be just to, uh, I mean, they can call me, or, you know, my email is russell.french@pioneer.com. They could send me an email or just reach out to their local Pioneer sales rep or their local territory manager or strategic account manager or field agronomist. Midwest, and they— most all of them know me and can get a hold of me. So if there's any way I can help our customers anywhere in the U.S., I'm more than willing to try to help them. Great.

Shay

Foulk: And I've been, you know, I've been hearing your name for 6, 7, 8 years now as the irrigation person. So glad we were able to finally link up here. Russell, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to myself and the listeners about this information. Good luck in your travels that you have going on here. And we'll be talking to you soon. Thanks a lot.

Russell

French: Well, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Shay

Foulk: Anytime. And thanks to everyone out there for listening to today's episode of the Ag View Pitch. We will catch you next time. Thanks for joining us on today's episode of the Ag View Pitch. As always, you can reach out to us at cbarron@agviewsolutions.com. agviewsolutions.com or duanel@netins.net. We'll catch you next time on the Egg View Pitch.