Manna from Heaven

SDI systems increase yields, improve quality in West Texas

By Henry Gantz
hgantz@meistermedia.com

Drip. Drip. Drip.

If that’s the sound of a leaky faucet, it can be torture. If it’s from an SDI system, it can be manna from heaven.

Installing subsurface drip irrigation.

In less than a decade, Texas has gone from producing some of the lowest-yielding, lowest-quality cotton in the country to producing some of the very best in both respects. Region-specific varieties have gotten their well-deserved share of the praise, and innovations in irrigation technologies are now getting theirs.

SDI (sub-surface drip irrigation) is one of those innovations. “We don’t have an exact number, but estimates are that we have exceeded 250,000 acres, up ten-fold since 2000. It has exploded,” says Dr. Dana Porter, Associate Professor and Extension Agricultural Specialist – Water Management at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Lubbock.

“Growers seem to think they’re getting a good return on their investment and we are getting some very good yields and results,” she adds. And it’s an investment that can range from $700 to $1,500 per acre, depending on factors like tape spacing, field layout, and filtration requirements and whether a grower installs it himself or goes for a turnkey operation. Properly maintained, SDI systems can have a life span of 15 years or more – “Assuming the system is well maintained and you don't have excessive problems with rodents,” says Porter – which is about the same as a center-pivot system.

Burt Heinrich

“In 2007, We have 600 acres of drip that made from 1,460 pounds per acre to 1,940 pounds,” says Burt Heinrich, who farms with his brother Eric in the Texas counties of Lubbock and Lynn. The brothers installed another 100 acres this year.

“Drip is paying for us. Cotton gets a drink of water every day – it doesn’t go into moisture stress and it doesn’t abort fruit. The cotton fills better,” he continues. “That’s the bottom line as to why drip is better than any other kind of irrigation.”

Heinrich says he can put out more water volume per acre with center pivots, but yields still can’t match those of SDI. “If you run around with a pivot every four or five days, you go from real wet to going into moisture stress,” he explains.

The Heinriches have 700 acres of pivot-irrigated cotton and 500 of dryland.

Stormy Weather
Beyond increased yields, SDI has some other advantages over pivots on the High and Rolling Plains of Texas. “Storms can be devastating,” says Porter. “We’ll have storms that can wipe out 40 to 100 center pivots at one time.

But there are pitfalls with SDI, too. “Some advice I would give would be to plan for realistic well capacities, and always use a qualified dealer,” Porter says. “There’s not a lot you can do about rodent damage, but you need to be aware of it. And in some soils – coarse sand, in particular – you might have problems getting enough water out to germinate the seed and you will have to rely on a timely rain in the spring.”

Counting on Cotton, And a Variety of Varieties
Despite the availability of irrigation in Texas, West Texas has not seen the shift to corn and soybeans as in other areas of the Cotton Belt. “Our heat units are so intense with no humidity that you can’t put enough water out with a pivot for corn or beans to pollinate,” says Heinrich. “We tried beans even with drip. In hot, dry years, we should have baled them and sold them for hay. We’d have had more money in our pockets. Just about everything that is bad for grains is good for cotton in this area.”

But those are not the only reasons the High and Rolling Plains have stuck with cotton. “We’ve had good yields and quality for a while, but now we’re being recognized for it,” Heinrich explains. “We would not be farming right now without the new varieties and technologies. We could not afford to make a crop.”

The Heinriches plant several transgenic varieties: AM 1664 B2RF and AM 1532 B2RF from Americot; Stoneville’s ST 4554 B2RF, and FiberMax’s FM 989 BR. On dryland, they use FiberMax’s conventional FM 958. They also have a NexGen variety from Americot – NG 3348BR2F – that will be commercially available in 2009.

“I’ve had 1664 for three years” – 2008 is his fourth – “and it’s been very vigorous coming up. It fills out fast,” says Heinrich. “It loads up quick, matures early and is easy to defoliate. The quality is excellent.

“The 1532 is a longer-season variety and it’s been our highest yielder,” he continues. “It takes longer to mature than the 1664, but it makes our harvest timing easier to manage.”

With the exception of the FM 989, all of Heinrich’s selections are stacked with either Bollgard or Bollgard II and Roundup Ready Flex. “One of the things Bollgard does is keep the airplanes out of my fields (spraying insecticides) that can kill my good bugs. I have a strong beneficial presence where I use Bollgard,” he says. “We’re not having to spray as much and our yields are better.”

Henrich adds Americot general manager Terry Campbell has been telling him for three years that one extra boll per plant will pay the tech fee for Bollgard and Bollgard II. “I believe it,” he says. “Bollgard technology will make that extra boll. We feel like Bollgard is a silver bullet on most any worm.”

The Golden Seed
What cottonseed has in common with soybeans and corn is that they are all oil and meal seeds. Cottonseed prices have mirrored the bull run in corn and soybeans. As Allenberg Cotton Co. CEO Joe Nicosia says, “One of the things people have been forgetting is that cotton doesn’t just produce cotton – it also produces cottonseed. If you look at the price of cottonseed, it’s like growing a little bit of soybeans at the same time.”

“Cottonseed is selling for $250 to $300 per ton, and we’re used to it being a little over $100,” says Henrich.

Traditionally, growers hoped to net enough from their seed to pay ginning costs; now it’s paying dividends. “What we’ve been doing is pretty much trading the seed to the gin for ginning costs,” Heinrich adds. “The value is now more than covering the cost, and it’s nice to have the cottonseed money to put in our pockets.

“Right now, we’re looking at a good, strong seed market and it adds to our profit. At this price, seed can add $100 per acre.”

Adds Buzz Cooper, general manager of the Texas Star Co-op Gin that has gin plants in Wilson and Union, TX, “When seed was only $100 to $125, the cost of ginning exceeded the value of the seed. The grower did not make any money on his seed.

“I’ve been here for 10 years and 2007 was the first time the value of the cottonseed was high enough to not only cover the cost of ginning, but was high enough for us to pay a good seed check. The grower made money on his seed,” Cooper continues. “I see cottonseed prices staying high for at least a year or two.