Irrigation

"Food grows where water flows."  Driving I-5 from LA to Sacramento and back every few months as a college student and driving Highway 99 between Sacramento and Fresno several times during my tenure at CDPH, I saw this sign on the side of the freeway countless times.  I never gave it much thought at the time, but the rhyme made it catchy and memorable.   While the signs on I-5 were making a political statement about water rights and peripheral canals, now that I work on a farm, I can appreciate just how important water is to growing food.

Each week, one apprentice is assigned to irrigation duty.  This past week, that apprentice was me.  Not having covered irrigation before, I imagined it would be a very part-time task of just turning the water on a few times.  I was wrong.  Irrigation on a Sacramento farm in June is nearly a full-time task, with lots of pipe needing to be moved, filters flushed, leaks patched, and sprinklers tweaked.  And did I mention pipe needing to be moved?  Pipe moving is definitely not one of my favorite tasks.  At Soil Born, we water crops primarily with very efficient, ground-level drip tape that puts water right at the base of our plants.  However, some farm watering is done with overhead sprinklers, which spread water fairly evenly over a wide area.  We use sprinklers to water beds with germinating seeds or to irrigate a field before it is tilled, for example. 

Those of you with yards at home might be thinking, "Big deal.  Just turn the sprinklers on, already!  Turn the dial on the Rainbird to ON and you're good to go."  Not so fast.  We don't keep the sprinklers set up in the field all the time.  Rather, we assemble a sprinkler setup in place when and where it is needed.  A typical setup consists of 17 25-foot lengths of aluminum pipe, each hand carried and carefully placed where needed.  Working by myself, I usually carry one pipe on each shoulder, precariously perched at their balance point and uncomfortably pressing into my acromion process.  That means I need to make 9 trips to move a pipe setup from point A to point B.  It's a bit tiring in near-100-degree heat, not to mention that the pipe is usually burning hot from the sun.  Gloves are a must.

Overhead sprinklers irrigating a field before disking.

Irrigation is an important responsibility.  Food doesn't grow where water doesn't flow, so forgetting to water during the summer could ruin a crop.  Luckily, there is an irrigation schedule that tells me what should get watered on a given day and for how long, plus an iPhone in my pocket that can be easily set to remind me to turn water off and on (although I learned the hard way this week to make sure to set AM and PM correctly on the alarm function!). 

Turning water on and off is not a mindless task, either.  Our overheard sprinklers and drip tape use water that is pumped from the river, filtered, and then run through a maze of pipes and valves before it ends up on a plant.  There is a specific protocol that must be followed when turning water on and off, or you risk breaking the expensive pump and filters or blowing out the underground pipe or above-ground drip tape.  Adding another layer of complexity, the drip tape and overhead sprinkler systems operate at different pressures, so you can't run both systems at the same time, requiring each day of irrigation to be thoughtfully planned. 

Our sand media filters that remove particles from river water.

Irrigation manifold with numerous valves to control pressure and flow.

One of the perks of being on irrigation is that you can run through the sprinklers to cool off.  One of the drawbacks is that if you aren't wearing waterproof shoes, your socks will be wet all day long.  Not fun. :(  I only made that mistake once. 

Cross-cover

Yesterday was a busy day on the farm.  Instead of the usual 4 apprentices, only 2 were working yesterday, leaving me to do the work of 3 apprentices for much of the day.  I was covering my own area, integrated pest management, plus the animals and the greenhouse. 

The day went like this:

• Check on the germinating plants in the greenhouse, which need constant moisture.
• Clean the cow pens by adding fresh straw to any wet/poopy areas.  Scrub livestock water troughs and refill with fresh water.
• Feed the piglets. Move their enclosure to fresh pasture.  Fill their water dish.
• Herd the sheep and cows in from the pasture where they grazed overnight back to their pens to spend the day in the shade.
• Feed the big pigs.  Fill up their water trough.
• Set ground squirrel traps in the orchard, baiting them with chicken feed.
• Water plants in the greenhouse.
• Clean the cow.  Milk the cow.  Filter and bottle the milk.
• Water the plants in the greenhouse.
• Feed and water the piglets.
• Eat lunch, including dessert. :)
• Move the plants that didn't sell at the plant sale back to the greenhouse.  Water the plants.  Inventory remaining plants.
• Help turn on overhead irrigation in two blocks.
• Water plants in the greenhouse.
• Spray down the big pigs and make a wallow for them to cool off in.
• Check ground squirrel traps--all empty. :(
• Collect eggs.
• Fill cow and sheep water troughs in preparation for their night graze.

Phew!  Needless to say, I was pooped by the time I finished at 5:30.  I felt much better after a shower, but still pretty tired, so I spent the evening watching TV and reading.  I'm really excited to have the next two days off to rest and relax.

On one hand, covering three areas in one day was empowering--I felt like an actual farmer, getting done what needed to get done, moving from task to task with little direction.  I felt confident and proud of how much I had learned to do over the last few months.  On the other hand, the non-stop craziness of the day was a bit stressful, reminding me a bit of my months on the trauma service as a surgery intern, rounding on 30 or so patients while answering endless pages and responding to incoming trauma codes.  And at least that job was air conditioned!

Our three piglets, Emmer, Quinoa, and Farina, enjoying their breakfast.  Their brother, Bulgur, left the farm last week to become a breeder.

Empty ground squirrel trap.  These are live traps that do not kill the squirrel.  It's a "squirrel motel"--the squirrels get in, but they can't get out.

Baited and camouflaged squirrel trap placed near a tunnel (upper right).

Milker's eye view of Phoebe.  We won't have Phoebe milk much longer--she is drying up as her calf gets older.

Filtering Phoebe's milk to remove any stray hairs or skin flakes.