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Bret Chilcott, left, and Tom Nichol watch an AgEagle UAV’s pre-programmed flight pattern in Neodesha.
Hopes soar for drones
A ‘pioneer’ feel fuels Neodesha business’ efforts to boost aircraft’s ag possibilities BY AMY BICKEL Kansas Agland
The scenario could happen on any farm. Perhaps it is aphids overtaking your soybean field. Or some part of your corn crop needs more fertilizer. Maybe there is an area in your field that needs spraying for weeds or has a fungus developing that you can’t see from the fence line.
You could walk every row. But that takes time. Unless, that is, you have a bird’s-eye view from the sky. That’s what unmanned aircraft systems could do for farms, said Tom Nichol as he gave a tour of the fledgling precision agriculture company he works for in Neodesha where these aircraft are being constructed in assembly-line fashion. Unmanned systems, he
said, are capable of flying over fields and collecting data and photos, which on a nearby laptop will show differences in the landscape that the human eye might not normally see. Moreover, farmers won’t necessarily have to spray an entire field to take care of a problem, which saves time and money, he added.
See DRONES / Page 6
The aircraft is launched and controlled by a remote-control hand device and it follows a preprogrammed flight pattern over the field.
Photos by Sandra J. Milburn/The Hutchinson News
Tom Nichol carries the AgEagle UAV after it landed in a field near Neodesha.
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Drones From PAGE 4 And across the rural landscape of Kansas, Nichol only sees growth in this start-up industry, a tool farmers can use to improve profits and yields in an effort to feed a projected 9 billion people in 35 years. “It saves the farmer, it saves impact on the environment – all because a little 6.5-pound aircraft was able to take some useful photos,” said Nichol, who is in charge of business development for AgEagle. “Some people think of them as evil and bad. Here is one that can have a huge impact – billions Photos by Sandra J. Milburn/The Hutchinson News
Tom Nichol places the AgEagle aircraft on to a launcher in Neodesha in August.
Bret Chilcott sets the launcher in a field near Neodesha in August.
of dollars in new jobs and, most importantly, it could grow agriculture.” Big industry Industry devotion is evident from the incubator building off Neodesha’s Main Street. A few years ago, former aircraft employee and model plane enthusiast Bret Chilcott, who grew up on a farm near Udall, decided to use the skills he knew best and began developing a product tailored exclusively for agriculture. Since Jan. 1, his company, AgEagle, has shipped 125 unmanned aircraft systems to customers across the United States, as well as parts of the globe, Chilcott said. He calls his company a pioneer in the industry. “We’re
actually on the ground floor,” he said. So ground floor, in fact, they are among a small group of “early adopters” who are trying to spearhead the unmanned systems forward into the 21st century. “Bear in mind that this single-person unmanned aircraft image gathering and processing technology is less than 2 years old,” Nichol said. “So while there is a huge amount of interest, there are only a couple of dozen fliers in Kansas. Everyone involved is in precision ag and are more progressive in their approach to farming than most – intellectuals with dirt under their fingernails.”
See DRONES / Page 7
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Drones From PAGE 6
Soaring tool Sure, the word “drone,” as some commonly call unmanned systems, conjures up negative connotations – a device used for military spying and attacking terrorists. However, Chilcott, Nichol and other proponents see it as the next big precision ag tool since yield monitors and auto steer – a device to help farmers get the most production off a field. t Using near-infrared technology, the aircraft will allow farmers to map out fields using imagery to detect how a crop is growing. Areas pictured in green show a healthy crop, while darker, redder areas show plant stress, depending on the season the photos are taken. Stress could be from many things – less nitrogen in the soil, pest infestation and disease breakouts, among others. Instead of spraying the entire crop, farmers can pinpoint troubled areas and treat them accordingly. In fact, the technology could be the state’s next big area of growth. Joel Anderson, development director at Kansas State University who is charged with helping grow the industry, said the Association of Unmanned Aerial Systems International released an economic report showing Kansas ranked No. 7 in the U.S. for the potential to reap the benefits of unmanned systems. The group estimated the state’s potential economic growth at $2.9 billion, which could generate 3,716 new jobs, he said. “The $2.9 billion is an understatement if Kansas can get its collective act together to pursue the economic job growth,” Anderson said. “From a technology development standpoint, let’s maximize the true benefit for the state of Kansas.” Waiting on rules However, Federal Aviation Administration rules for flying unmanned aircraft systems are tricky. Elizabeth Cory, with the FAA, said the administration does not permit commercial drone use at this time – and that includes farmers using drones for commercial agricultural production. However, flying
Photos by Sandra J. Milburn/The Hutchinson News
Gena Hohler works on the installation of components on an AgEagle aircraft in a shop in Neodesha. All of the components are installed and each aircraft is test flown before customers receive them.for a hobby or recreation does not necessarily require FAA approval. The FAA, however, could set guidelines on drones as soon as September 2015, said Nichol. While the FAA’s revision of the rule is still a year away, at least work is being done and money invested in the up-and-coming precision tool. Besides AgEagle, several Kansas companies are jumping into the drone market, preparing for the day something changes. Flint Hills Solutions is offering customers unmanned systems and equipment, and some implement dealers are also adding UAS packages to their product solutions. Meanwhile, as unmanned systems gather countless data, systems and farm tools also need to be ramped up to be able to use the precise data offered by the UAS industry, said Logan Hurlbut, an engineer with the South Hutchinson company Shield Agricultural Equipment. The ag manufacturer is working on end products like fertilizer knives that will apply nutrients using sensors and other devices in pinpointed locations. “We are working on the end products that will use the data provided by unmanned systems,” Hurlbut said. “It saves money if they
put the right amount in the right place.” Other end-user technology is in the planning stages, Nichol noted. He expects that, in the next three to five years, spray rigs will have the capability to apply products in precise locations. An image map from a UAS would be converted in the “prescription map that would be inserted into the field applicator. The field applicator would have the sensors that would tell you the exact location to squirt here.” Future for farmers Back on the farm in Saline County, Zach Short sees the potential for unmanned systems on his family operation. The 24-year-old Assaria farmer grew up flying aerial planes and a year ago decided to buy an inexpensive Blade QX Quadcopter with a GoPro camera. About the time he purchased it, he took a K-State class at a Salina farm show on the potential for unmanned aircraft. Instructors noted that besides crops, producers could use them to count cattle and some systems can even show whether cows have been impregnated, he said. Producers could also check their pond levels, all the while not using the fuels and miles on the farm pickup.
AgEagle unmanned aircraft are manufactured in Neodesha. The foam-core design has a near-infrared camera installed and satellite GPS sensors to help it fly on a predetermined flight pattern over a field.
However, right now, the only thing Short can use his aircraft for is fun, which he hasn’t had time to do this summer amid a busy season. “I think it is a good tool for precision ag,” he said. “I think they can do good. Some people are worried they can invade their privacy. I can understand getting permission.” Nevertheless, he added, “On your own land, I don’t
see a problem.” “Every time a person hears ‘drone,’ they either think ‘They are going to shoot at me or spy on me,’ ” AgEagle’s Nichol said. But, Nichol noted, technology has to spiral for the world to grow – especially with the increasing number of mouths to feed. That is what they are trying to do in Neodesha, he said as the small crew in AgEagle’s
shop assembled unmanned systems on an August morning. “To us, it is like the beginning of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who were working out of their garages. It has that ‘Wilbur Wright and Orville in the bicycle shop’ feel to it,” Nichol said. So,for now, despite the FAA restrictions, Chilcott and Nichol press on, continuing their research and development. Their small crew installs the technology in the light, foam-core wing design, which includes the specially modified near-infrared Canon camera, satellite GPS sensors and a battery that will allow the plane to fly for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on weather conditions. Each UAS is flown before it is taken to the customer, and Chilcott and Nichol offer customers a day of hands-on training to show producers how to use it. Chilcott expects his employment to double by the end of the year, thanks to the soaring interest. However, he adds, his company continues to grow and develop with the industry. He plans to launch a new UAS-type product later this fall. “We will not become the Blackberry or the Palm Pilot of the industry, he said. Kansas Agland Editor Amy Bickel’s agriculture roots started in Gypsum. She has been covering Kansas agriculture for more than 15 years. Email her with news, photos and other information at abickel@hutchnews.com or by calling 1 (800) 766-3311, ext. 320.
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Guidelines could spur wider use of drones in ag BY AMY BICKEL Kansas Agland
The agricultural use of drones depends on whether the farmer is growing crops commercially or for personal enjoyment, says Elizabeth Cory, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman. An FAA interpretation June 23 of the Special Rule for Model Aircraft notes the approval of hobby use, or “viewing a field to determine whether crops need water when they are grown for personal enjoyment,” as an example of hobby or recreation use. However, crops grown “as part of a commercial farming operation” currently require a certified aircraft, a licensed pilot and operating approval, Cory said. She noted the FAA plans to publish the proposed rule for small unmanned aircraft – less than 55 pounds – later this year. Meanwhile, Congress has requested that the FAA set guidelines on drones by 2015, although some wonder if the agency will meet the deadline. The guidelines, however, could mean approval for wider use by farmers, said Tom Nichol, who is in charge of business development for Neodesha’s AgEagle, a company that manufactures unmanned aircraft specifically for
Sandra J. Milburn/The Hutchinson News
Bret Chilcott launches an AgEagle aircraft from a launcher in Neodesha. agriculture. “They may provide some narrow exemptions as early
as this fall, but (the FAA is) more likely to rule in 2015,” he said. “To what extent
Information undoes unmanned-aircraft myths Here are some common myths about drones, accompanied by the clarifying facts: Myth No. 1: Unmanned aircraft are not aircraft. Fact: Unmanned aircraft, regardless of whether the operation is for recreational, hobby, business or commercial purposes, are aircraft within both the definitions found in federal statute. This defines aircraft as “any contrivance invented, used or designed to navigate or fly in the air.” The FAA’s regulations similarly define an aircraft as “a device that is used or intended to be used for flight in the air.” Because an unmanned aircraft is a contrivance/ device that is invented, used and designed to fly in the air, an unmanned aircraft is an aircraft based on the unambiguous language in the FAA’s statute and regulations. Myth No. 2: Unmanned aircraft are not subject to FAA regulation. Fact: All civil aircraft are subject to FAA regulation under law. Myth No. 3: The FAA doesn’t control airspace below 400 feet. Fact: The FAA is responsible for air safety from the ground up. The FAA has broad authority to prescribe regulations to protect individuals and property on the ground. Consistent with its authority, the FAA presently has regulations that apply to the operation of all
aircraft, whether manned or unmanned, and irrespective of the altitude at which the aircraft is operating. Myth No. 4: UAS flights operated for commercial or business purposes are OK if the vehicle is small and operated over private property and below 400 feet. Fact: All UAS operations for commercial or business purposes are subject to FAA regulation. At a minimum, any such flights require a certified aircraft and a certificated pilot. UAS operations for commercial or business purposes cannot be operated under the special rule for model aircraft. Myth No. 5: There are too many commercial UAS operations for the FAA to stop. Fact: The FAA has to prioritize its safety responsibilities, but the agency is monitoring UAS operations closely. Many times, the FAA learns about suspected commercial UAS operations via a complaint from the public or other businesses. When the FAA discovers UAS operations in violation of the FAA’s regulations, the agency has a number of enforcement tools available to address these operations, including a verbal warning, a warning letter and legal enforcement action. Myth No. 6: Commercial UAS operations will be OK after Sept. 30, 2015. Fact: In the 2012 FAA reauthorization legislation, Congress told the FAA to come up with a plan
for “safe integration” of UAS by Sept. 30, 2015. Safe integration will be incremental. The agency is writing regulations, which will supplement existing regulations that currently are applicable to the operation of all aircraft (both manned and unmanned), that will apply more specifically to a wide variety of UAS users. The FAA expects to publish a proposed rule for small UAS – under about 55 pounds – later this year. That proposed rule likely will include provisions for commercial operations. Myth No. 7: The FAA is lagging behind other countries in approving commercial drones. Fact: The United States has the busiest, most complex airspace in the world, including many general aviation aircraft that we must consider when planning UAS integration, because those same airplanes and small UAS may occupy the same airspace. Developing all the rules and standards necessary is a very complex task, and the FAA wants to ensure they get it right the first time. They want to strike the right balance of requirements for UAS to help foster growth in an emerging industry with a wide range of potential uses, but also keep all airspace users and people on the ground safe. Source: Federal Aviation Administration
those rules are and what they cover is still to be determined.”
He said four areas where they may provide exemptions include the film
industry and for oil and gas exploration, real estate business and agriculture.
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Dry-up of aquifer has been gradual but very real BY AMY BICKEL Kansas Agland
Some call it flyover country. It’s not mountainous like its Colorado neighbor. There aren’t hundreds of lakes and streams like Missouri. The landscape is largely flat and treeless. Population is sparse. Yet, those flying east or west across semi-arid western Kansas can see the money, even from 30,000 feet above the Earth. Green circles. Thousands of them. Here, on the High Plains of Kansas, is an economy that grew because of water. Over the years, many farmers have owed their livelihoods to the underground reservoir known as the Ogallala – North America’s largest freshwater aquifer. Stretching across eight states, it stores almost as much water as Lake Erie and Lake Huron combined. Irrigation transformed
LEMA From PAGE 16 discussion, he added. “I never knew if we were going to get anything going there or not.” Not everyone was on board, Baalman said. “Do you realize this water table is dropping maybe a foot a year?” Baalman said he asked his irrigating neighbors. “Do you think that we can do something? We didn’t want the state to come in and take our water. But we were declining so much we became proactive instead of reactive: We took the challenge ourselves.” Through the discussions with Sheridan Six water users, GMD 4 implemented the state’s first LEMA, which took effect in January 2013 after being approved by the Kansas Legislature. It is a voluntary concept crafted by stakeholders that, once voted on by constituents, becomes mandatory by state law with stiff punishments for those who disregard it, said Katherine Durham, the new GMD 4 director who
this region known by early explorers as the Great American Desert into an oasis of sorts. In an area of limited rainfall and surface water availability, the Ogallala allowed farmers to grow corn, which attracted cattle feedlots, then meatpacking plants, ethanol plants and dairies. Reality, however, rests underneath 86-year-old Rodger Funk’s feet. The Garden City farmer sat at his kitchen table, a running irrigation center pivot visible out the window behind him. The wells across this vast landscape are running dry. More than a half-century ago, Funk attended a meeting where state officials told him and the few others in attendance that the water wasn’t an endless river as they once thought. It is finite, they said, and it is being mined. And, one by one over the years, when it was no longer economically feasible to
pump water to his crops anymore, Funk began plugging wells, making the switch to dryland farming. “Everybody believed it, I believed it: ‘This water is going to last forever,’ ” Funk said. Decades later, the landscape is changing, including for Funk and his son, Boyd. As more, like the Funks, switch to dryland with the drop of the water table, it could mean less population and a potential decline in the Main Street that is built on agriculture. “You wonder what this is going to look like 50 years from now,” Funk said.
has helped irrigators implement the program. Water users have 55 inches per irrigated acre to use over a five-year period. It equals a 20 percent reduction in historical pumping. The program also has a lot of flexibility, said Durham. Users have options to move water to different wells inside the LEMA. Farmers are implementing new ideas to make the cutbacks work on their operation, including crops that use less water, such as irrigated wheat and milo. Others are planting half-circles of corn. More are implementing technology advancements, such as managing their pivots from their phones. And Baalman said farmers are even shutting wells when it rains. “The mentality a few years ago was to let the wells run,” he said. After one year, farmers already have seen savings. Last year, they pumped an average 10.29 inches of water per acre, less than the targeted 11 inches a year, Durham said. But it is more than just preserving water for farmers, said Baalman. It’s also about industry, including nearby Hoxie Feedyard, an economic force in the area,
as well as cities like Hoxie. “Why it works is we didn’t have a town, we just had a feedlot, and we knew we wanted to protect that economic driver,” Baalman said. The Sheridan Six LEMA is one effort to help with the problem, said Bossert. But more needs to be done. “The LEMA is a great thing, but we have one LEMA and it covers 100 square miles,” Bossert said. “While that is really a good thing for that 100 square miles, there is a lot of Ogallala out there that is ‘business as usual.’ That is what the governor is wrestling with – the bigger picture.”
Running dry For more than seven decades, farmers and other industries have been mining the Ogallala Aquifer – the lifeblood of the western Kansas economy – faster than nature can recharge it.
See FUNK / Page 18
For the future Meanwhile, near Hoxie, Baalman is hopeful that after five years of cutbacks, members of the Sheridan Six LEMA will want to continue their efforts. But he does wonder if it will be renewed after five years if their area remains the only one. Baalman employs 10 people on his farm and trucking business, but he wouldn’t without some irrigation. The population in his hometown of Hoxie already has dropped by about 150 people
Lindsey Bauman/The Hutchinson News
Garden City area farmer Rodger Funk empties a rain gauge, located at one of his irrigation motors, on June 30 following a round of rainshowers. Despite the rain, which was keeping his son from cutting their wheat, the region is still up against a multi-year drought. in the past 20 years. And in late July, the town was expected to lose its John Deere dealership. “We don’t have an Interstate 70 going by like Oakley and Colby do,” he said. “We have irrigation and lots of good soil. I want to keep people around. We want to keep the young farmers here.” Yet, while the LEMA tool seems like a no-brainer to Baalman, not all are
supportive, he admitted. “I won’t lie; people don’t wave now like they used to,” he said. “You don’t get the ‘hi’s’ like you would always hear.” “People won’t look past their nose or hand,” he said. “But I am looking 30 to 40 years out for our kids. That is what we are looking toward – that next generation. This is past me. This is for my little boy in the wheelchair that could be the CEO
of our farm.” For Baalman, it means more than just talking about solutions, which has been occurring for decades. “It’s one thing to sit and have these meetings, another to act upon what you think is right – to step outside the box and know you are going to be chastised,” he said. “We need to start acting on it. To make a change, you are going to have to take the bumps.”
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Gov cites ‘key moment’ in water drama Witcher’s wand touted BY TIM UNRUH
BY TIM UNRUH Kansas Agland
Politics has played a substantial role in the state’s water challenge, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said, but it will soon assume the lead as the state forges solutions. His Vision for the Future of Water in Kansas needs backing from a majority in the state Capitol for changes in policy, programs and an infusion of money. Acceptance in communities across Kansas is just as vital as proponents seek voluntary compliance. “On pieces of this, we’re gonna need legislative action. Some is gonna need local action,” Brownback said in a recent phone interview. Public approval is another big leap in the effort to curb declines in the Ogallala Aquifer – a major component to the state’s economy – and reduce sedimentation in the state’s reservoirs. “They have to be convinced this is something they need to do,” he said. The latest effort sent officials at the Kansas Water Office and Kansas Department of Agriculture out to collect comments from thousands of people. The results were encouraging to Brownback. “I’ve been around water for 30 years now. I’ve not seen the people in the state as intensely interested and focused, and as willing to deal with this serious topic as they are,” he said. “It’s a key moment in the state. The people who are interested in this are engaged, and they’re of a mind that this is a time to do something.” The vision’s draft plan was released to the public July 1. A final draft will be released Nov. 12 at the third annual Governor’s Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas, at Manhattan’s Hilton Garden Inn. Volunteer efforts One portion of the plan is voluntary agreements to cut back as the state endeavors to reduce water consumption – one suggestion is by 20 percent per capita by 2035. The governor pointed to the one Local Enhanced Management Area in northwest Kansas (Sheridan and Thomas counties) that is operating. Folks in that
LEMA have agreed to reduce pumping. More of those are needed, he said. “This is local people knocking themselves back,” Brownback said. “What I’m hearing more people say is they like local options to bind each other together.” But that requires compliance. “You get one guy being a good steward and the guy next to him is not, and you’re not addressing your problem,” he said. The governor has heard of some advocate pumping the aquifer dry, likening the mining of water to gold rushes. “You listen to everybody, but at the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is establish where we want to be in 50 years, and work back from that,” Brownback said. Focus on future The effects of other states and areas that have gone dry are drastic. “You pull a lot of money off the table from your economy and dislocate people,” said Brownback. “We have options, but if you keep going down the road we’re on, your options diminish pretty quickly.” In western Kansas, where irrigated farming provides a big economic boost, Brownback acknowledged that a portion of the Ogallala Aquifer is gone. “We’ve used a lot of it up, but we’ve got a lot left,” he said. “I think it’s really incumbent on us to be good stewards of the moment. Without water, there is no future. We have to secure water to secure our future.” Asked how Kansas will pay for programs, Brownback said he hasn’t explored the costs because the water plan is not fully developed. Gov’s been briefed The governor said he has studied “highlighted points” of the draft and been briefed on the entire document. The state has hired as an adviser Richard Howitt, a professor emeritus of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California at Davis. “He’s worked with water issues a lot,” Brownback said. As governor, Brownback aims to manage the resource for the maximum number of
Kansans. “You can measure the value of water in dollars, but now you measure the value in people. You can lose a lot of people by selling water rights,” Brownback said. He doesn’t point to what went wrong when farmers in the state embarked on massive irrigation development, primarily in western Kansas. Other states in the High Plains were doing the same. “First, people thought it was an unlimited resource,” Brownback said. ‘Conscious efforts’ Once irrigators and experts were able to “understand the formation,” the state learned that the Ogallala is finite. “People put in a half-life of 40 years. That was the allocation. You knew what you had and we said, ‘We’re gonna use half in 40 years.’ Those were conscious efforts,” Brownback said. In the late 1970s, a limit was set by Southwest Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 3, in Garden City, to not deplete the aquifer by more than 40 percent in 25 years, said Mark Rude, the current executive director. “It was a collective-thinking process on how we set some kind of criteria of what’s allowable, given the accelerated rate of development at the time,” Rude said. “Back then it was a Herculean achievement to put on any limits.” In transition Kansas was in a “development phase” then, Brownback said, before large-scale cattle feeding came to western Kansas. “If the depletion rate exceeded 40 percent, new appropriations (new well-permit applications) were told ‘no,’ and that was a big deal,” Rude said. “No other states at that time had criteria for that determination.” Depletion did exceed 40 percent in some areas, less in others, he said. “Now it’s about conserving and extending. We’re in that transition. We want to do this while we maintain or even grow the economy that it (water) is built on,” Brownback said. “Some people just want to shut it all
off, like Buffalo Commons. I’m saying we want to maintain, and to grow the economic activity.” More demand seen Any change that results in less water used is good, the governor said. “You’ve got the No. 1 ag congressional district in the country, one of the most prolific in the world, that sits on top of (the Ogallala),” Brownback said. “We’re putting a lot of demand on the ag system and there is more to come. I don’t think we want to move out of that space.” Kansas is blessed with top-notch farmers and a lot of investment, he said. Can-do Kansans “We may find the best use for our water is forage. It’s hard to ship,” Brownback said. He suggested that corn may be the commodity to import for the cattle country, because it transports more easily. The governor lauded the Kansas can-do attitude. “This is a problem that’s kind of custom-built for folks like us,” Brownback said. “Folks are willing to adjust.” Tim Unruh is a veteran agricultural journalist with the Salina Journal. He grew up on a diversified farm near Deerfield, the son of a grain elevator manager and a schoolteacher. Unruh can be reached at (785) 822-1419 or by email at tunruh@salina.com.
Kansas Agland
LOGAN – Quests for water during years of dry conditions have kept two Logan men busy. Terry Gottschalk, a well driller, and Phil Altman, a water witcher, are often colleagues on the same job. “I tell people I would not drill a well without having it witched. Otherwise, you’re just shooting in the dark,” Gottschalk said. “A lot of people think it’s hocus-pocus.” But he’s seen some force move a green branch that Altman, 75, is carrying. “It’ll pull down, twist. I can’t hold it,” said Altman, a retired school counselor and math teacher. “Don’t ask me how it does it. Very few can do it,” he said. “I can use any kind of fruit branch, but right now I’m using a lot of plum thicket forks, and they’ve got to be green.” Altman figures he’s successful 85 to 90 percent of the time. He works within a 100-mile radius of Logan and charges clients to cover expenses. “There’s not always water where I tell them,” Altman said. “I’ve got (80 acres) and I can’t find water, and I’ve drilled.” He also locates water lines. Many call when their wells go dry or cave in. “They want me to witch to get on the same vein,” he said. Drought-driven Drought drives Gottschalk’s business,
although there are some customers who have wells with rusted casings that need to be revamped. He places the success rate for finding water at 50 percent. Sometimes there is simply none where he drills. Gottschalk works in Norton, Phillips, Smith, Rooks and Graham counties. While costs vary, based on time and depth, the average is about $1,900 per hole drilled. There are no guarantees. In mid-June, Gottschalk made two attempts south of Woodston. “They were bone-dry,” he said. “We get paid no matter what, but you feel really bad for the landowners having to haul water for their cattle and their homes.” Finding a spot A witcher can help pinpoint where water is located underground. Sometimes a well is just not in the right place. “Phil would say it’s not in the main part of the vein. We’d move over 15 feet and have a heck of a well,” Gottschalk said. “There’s nothing more pleasurable than to drill a good well.” Most figure that hiring a witcher gives them a better chance at finding water “than throwing a rock down and saying, ‘Drill there,’ ” Altman said. A search can take hours or just 30 minutes. “I can witch out of the window if somebody drives,” Altman said.
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Rural Rooks Co. home feeling water shortage BY TIM UNRUH Kansas Agland
WOODSTON – Irrigation was never an option for Rooks County producer Jerry McReynolds, but for the past eight months, securing water just for home use has been sketchy. “We’ve always been short of water in our area, but we managed to get by,” he said. “During this drought, it really got serious.” The McReynolds’ domestic well went dry in October 2013. Making matters worse, service from Rural Water District No. 3 has not been reliable during the day, when most are using from the system. “I wash clothes and dishes after my husband goes to bed,” said Diane McReynolds, Jerry’s wife. She shared the dilemma of having 15 family members at home for Christmas and not nearly enough water. “On good days, we had streams (from faucets) the size of a pencil,” Diane McReynolds said. Frustration peaks when she has shampoo in her hair and the water stops, forcing her to rinse out the suds with bottled water.
“It’s like being in the pioneer days. It’s pretty sad,” Diane McReynolds said. Rooks County is one area of Kansas where water isn’t taken for granted. The McReynolds spread has been woefully short of rain during most of the past decade – this wet summer notwithstanding. “We’ve had some rain, no big ones, but they’ve been very helpful,” Jerry McReynolds said. The dryland farm and cow-calf operation raises wheat, milo and forage sorghum, and corn and soybeans “as moisture permits.” He has participated in the public meetings being conducted as part of the development of the Governor’s Vision for the Future of Water in Kansas. “It’s precious,” McReynolds said about the water. “I don’t know how you can get that point across. We’ve under-valued it for years, and that’s partially why we’re having problems now.” District can’t keep up McReynolds and a number of neighbors are in the same predicament, with personal water wells that are not reliable. They’re
members of a rural water district that can’t keep up with demand. So what’s a farmer and rancher to do with thirsty critters and humans? At least twice a week, McReynolds hops in a truck and drives 12 miles to Woodston, where he fills two 1,500-gallon water tanks. “We’ve always had to haul a little bit of water, any time we had cattle in a location where we didn’t have any,” said McReynolds, 67. But last October, he said, “our home well petered out. It had only done that once before in my lifetime.” Because of a lack of rain, demand for rural water has picked up considerably, McReynolds said. “You don’t take a shower during the day. It’s 4 in the morning or late at night,” he said. “We joke that if we’re invited to someone’s house, we can bring cookies, but no water. There’s not enough of that to go around.” Rooks County Commissioner Larry Poore, who lives southeast of Woodston, uses a rural water line for domestic use, but he hauls a lot of water for cattle.
See ROOKS / Page 23
Cousins Avery Laird, 5, of Denver (far left), and Ava Ziegler, 6, of Kingman, wash their hands in the kitchen of their grandparents, Diane and Jerry McReynolds, June 30 in eastern Rooks County. Water flow from a rural water district has been inconsistent as demand for the resource has grown for human and livestock needs.
Photos by Tim Unruh/Salina Journal
Farmer-ranchert Jerry McReynolds fills a stock tank with water for his cattle June 30 in eastern Rooks County. A lack of groundwater in his area forces him and some neighbors to haul water from Woodston, a 24-mile round trip, two or more times a week.
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Page 24 September 2014
Grant Co. farmer, others see need for solutions BY AMY BICKEL Kansas Agland
ULYSSES – A century ago, when Clay Scott’s great-grandfather homesteaded this area of semi-arid western Kansas, he relied on the mercy of the sky. It wasn’t easy. There were plenty of years when rain came sparingly. Yet, as thousands of farmers went out of business amid the drought and dust of the Great Depression, Scott’s ancestors weathered the storm. Now, if they could travel the back roads of Grant County on this spring day, the view would be much different. Scott drives past the countless number of center-pivots sprinkling water on newly planted corn. In the 1950s, his grandfather sank his first irrigation well deep into the ground to an abundant reservoir of water, coaxing out enough to sustain his crops. It’s the same view across the Kansas High Plains. Acres of cropland spread across the landscape for hundreds of miles. Largely, it’s sustained by center-pivot irrigation systems that spew out ice-cold water from far beneath the surface. It looks as if the lush cropland could go on forever. But it can’t. Farmers found a way around the limited rainfall, becoming reliant on the moisture beneath the ground. But, like Scott sees on his own farm, the Ogallala Aquifer is declining. This way of life won’t last forever. That’s worrisome for an economy that has centered itself around water. Water allowed farmers to grown corn, which attracted cattle feedlots, then meatpacking plants, dairies and, most recently, ethanol, a grain-based fuel. However, with limited rainfall, there is limited recharge. So, slowly, the region’s farmers have been sipping the aquifer away. They were good, 2,000-gallon-a-minute wells when his grandfather first drilled them, Scott said. Today, they produce 150 to 900 gallons a minute. Scott redrilled some of these wells over the past 10 years, going down to the very bottom of the aquifer. He can’t go any deeper, however. Once the water is gone, it’s gone.
Photos by Travis Morisse/The Hutchinson News
Clay Scott checks on his drought-resistant corn on July 1 near Ulysses. The corn allows him to use about 40 percent less irrigation water. “There are a lot of wells around here that are shut down,” he said. “On the ground we farm, we have shut down seven wells in the past few years.” It means caring for every drop of a precious resource. “We know there is a limited amount of time and a limited amount of water, so it makes us really focus on our irrigation,” Scott said. “There are no end guns; we have our drops down as far as we can to try to maximize the amount of water we put in the soil. We are doing everything we can from an efficiency standpoint to use the least amount of water the wisest we can. “But the writing is on the wall, too,” Scott added. “Without some sort of recharge, we only have a limited amount of water left.” Man-made crisis In a time when the world is trying to gear up to feed 9 billion people, the Ogallala Aquifer, which sprawls under the surface of eight Midwestern states, is declining. In some areas, it’s already exhausted. And it’s worrisome for an economy that is centered around water. In 2013, southwest Kansas farmers planted about 633,000 acres of corn under irrigation, and they couldn’t grow corn without it. Or, at least, said Bill Golden, an assistant professor of economics at Kansas State University, it wouldn’t
be the type of irrigation production that farmers and communities have been accustomed to using. According to Josh Roe, an economist with the Kansas Department of Agriculture, the value of irrigated corn production in southwest Kansas alone was $582.77 million in 2013. The total economic activity generated, however, was more than $842 million. The economic impact of turning those acres to dryland corn, which could average just 24 bushels an acre compared to more than 200 for irrigation, according to Roe, is significant. Growing crops without irrigation is cheaper, but yields are far lower, thus less money filters into western Kansas pocketbooks. Moreover, irrigation has always been a safety net for dry spells. In fact, dryland acres, including wheat, have been nearly wiped out because of little rainfall amid a multi-year drought. If nothing changes, the loss of the Ogallala as a means of irrigation would mean diminished income, the need for fewer inputs, fewer businesses, a decline in land values and, in the end, fewer people, Golden said. And the crisis is entirely man-made, he said. Already, U.S. census figures show that one in four U.S. counties is dying. Stevens County Economic Development Director Neal Gillespie fears that
Farmer Clay Scott talks to his son Ty Scott as they prepare the combine for harvest on July 1 near Ulysses.
the county seat of 4,000, which has seen growth in the past few decades with the increase of the agriculture-based economy, would see declines without an irrigation backbone. A lot in his county depends on water, he added. The county has a dairy. It has a milk processing plant. Abengoa plans to begin operating a corn and cellulosic-based ethanol plant later this year. Today, thanks to irrigation, 65 percent of all beef is produced within a 150-mile radius. And with the added jobs and growth, there is talk of a hotel being built, and a new
supermarket, as well as new homes. The loss of the Ogallala “would be disastrous,” Gillespie said. “We would lose a significant part of the population. You can even look at the implement dealers: Without irrigation their businesses would be greatly, greatly affected.” But the answer isn’t shutting off every center pivot, as some have suggested, said Mark Rude, executive director of southwest Kansas’ Groundwater Management District No. 3. That would be devastating. “The biggest challenge is that it is a hard decision to cut off your arm,” Rude said. “If you are going to cut for the purposes to make things sustainable, you might feel good about accomplishing that, but to the farms, the fields and communities of the area, they aren’t going to see it that way.” Golden said the best idea is to keep the land in irrigation as long as possible but to reduce water use and “get it to a more sustainable level.” Why should the rest of us care? Local economic productivity and the state’s tax base are reasons, Golden said. “Right now the water in western Kansas is the driving force,” he said, but added, “That doesn’t mean we are not developing new driving forces.” Next generation As technology changed, so
did the landscape. Decades ago, before they realized how extensively they were mining the resource, farmers found profit in corn, said Rude. “Corn jumped out there to meet the innovation,” he said. “You put the ability to irrigate and plenty of groundwater with cheap natural gas from the Hugoton gas field ... and the economics of irrigating and insuring your crop every year – why wouldn’t you develop it?” But stakeholders, including farmers, domestic users and others who reside here, don’t want to see the situation get to a point where their grandchildren or great-grandchildren might not be able to come back to the farm. Scott, age 42, has three sons in school. “That is one of my main reasons why I want to make this water more sustainable,” Scott said. “Not trying to pump to the last drop and really trying to watch what we do. Our farming practices and methods are changing along with the technologies being developed for the crop industry. We are growing more crops with less water.” The future of the Ogallala and the economies that sprang from it depends on conservation and careful planning to slow the rate of depletion, said Scott.
See SCOTT / Page 25
K-State researchers help crack wheat DNA BY RENEE JEAN Kansas Agland
MANHATTAN – Several Kansas State University researchers were essential in helping scientists assemble a draft of the genetic blueprint for bread wheat, also known as common wheat. The food plant is grown on more than 531 million acres around the world and produces nearly 700 million tons of food each year. The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium, which also includes faculty at Kansas State University, recently published a chromosome-based draft sequence of wheat’s genetic code, which is called a genome. “A chromosome-based draft sequence of the hexaploid bread wheat genome” is one of four papers about the wheat genome that appear in the journal Science. The genetic blueprint is an invaluable resource to plant science researchers and breeders, said Eduard Akhunov, associate professor of plant pathology and a collaborator with the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium. “For the first time, they have at their disposal a set of tools enabling them to rapidly locate specific genes on individual wheat chromosomes throughout the genome,” Akhunov said. “This resource is invaluable for identifying those genes that control complex traits, such as yield, grain quality, disease, pest resistance and abiotic stress tolerance. They will be able to produce a new generation of wheat varieties with higher yields and improved sustainability to meet the demands of a growing world population in a changing environment.” The research is funded by the U.S. Department
Movies From PAGE 29 at the Hutchinson Mall’s Dickinson Theatres, adult tickets are $9.50 and children’s tickets are $7.50. It doesn’t surprise him that as the Motion Picture Association of America announced a downtick in moviegoers for all age groups, their business is seeing growth, Kenny said. “You go to more movies if it doesn’t cost you as much,” Kenny said. “I think Brian has kind of proven that right.” “We provide a high-quality product at an affordable price,” Brian said, adding the family value helps make movies “part of their social movie night.” The changes have been noticeable in Newton, said Newton Mayor Leroy Koehn, who also serves on Harvey County’s economic
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of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. “Wheat is a staple source of food for the majority of the world. As the global population continues to rapidly increase, we will need all the tools available to continue producing enough food for all people in light of a changing climate, diminishing land and water resources and changing diets and health expectations,” said Sonny Ramaswamy, director of USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and a former Kansas State University faculty member. “This work will give a boost to researchers looking to identify ways to increase wheat yields.” Although a draft, the sequence provides new insight into the plant’s structure, organization, evolution and genetic complexity. “This is a very significant advancement for wheat genetics and breeding community,” Akhunov said. “The wheat genome sequence provides a foundation for studying genetic variation and understanding how changes in the genetic code can impact important agronomic traits. In our lab we use this sequence to create a catalog of single base changes in DNA sequence of a worldwide sample of wheat lines to get insights into the evolution and origin of wheat genetic diversity.” Akhunov, along with Shichen Wang, a programmer and bioinformatics scientist in plant pathology, and Jesse Poland, assistant professor of plant pathology, collaborated with the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium to order genes along the wheat chromosomes. Other Kansas State University researchers in
development board. The Mitchells took a shopping center that was about half filled with businesses and made it 90 to 95 percent full. Moreover, the theater is hopping. “There is no question it has been huge for the city of Newton,” Koehn said. “They have the entrepreneurial spirit, and they have made something out of a lost business model and they have converted. I love going there myself; the prices are reasonable.” The Mitchells plan to continue to expand the business, Brian said. Would that someday include the cinema in Hutchinson’s struggling mall? “Well, you never know,” said Brian. The cattle business might have been easier, he admits. He does spend one day a week just booking all the movies for each theater. The theater business is also open 365 days a year, and there are always repairs, whether
the department of plant pathology involved include Bikram Gill, university distinguished professor and director of the Wheat Genetics Resource Center, and Bernd Friebe, research professor, who developed genetic material that was essential for obtaining the chromosome-based sequence of the wheat genome. A second paper in Science details the first reference sequence of chromosome 3B, the largest chromosome in common wheat. “The wheat genome only has 21 chromosomes, but each chromosome is very big and therefore quite complicated,” Akhunov said. “The largest chromosome, 3B, has nearly 800 million letters in its genetic code. This is nearly three times more information than is in the entire rice genome. So trying to sequence this chromosome – and this genome – end-to-end is an extremely complicated task.” In order to analyze the vast amount of genetic information, researchers used a technique called shotgun sequencing. This divided the wheat genome into chromosomes and then split each chromosome into smaller segments. Chromosomal segments were analyzed by short gene sequences, and overlapping sequences were stitched together with computer software. The chromosome-based draft sequence is the critical step before the full wheat genome is sequenced, Akhunov said. The sequencing approach developed for the 3B chromosome can now be applied for sequencing the remaining chromosomes in wheat. The consortium estimates the full genome sequence will be available in three years. Renee Jean is an editor at the Garden City Telegram.
it is projectors or popcorn makers. Nevertheless, he enjoys it, he said. “It’s the people – the customers, the smiles on the faces,” Brian said. “Movies are magic. Families come in and kids get a kids’ pack of popcorn and they will see ‘How to Train Your Dragon’; grandparents come in, or teenagers on a first date. It is so much of our society.”
Farmers take hit in ’14 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
One of the worst wheat harvests in decades, followed by abundant corn and soybean crops that are driving down prices, has Kansas farmers preparing for a sharp income decline after several good years. Kansas’ wheat harvest was down 26 percent from last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
BRIEFS Winners of 2014 wheat yield contest identified Kansas Wheat named the winners of the 2014 annual Wheat Yield Contest. The top wheat yields belong to Butch Harris of Soldier and Levi Felbush, eastern region winners; Doug Keas of Plainville, central region winner, and Chuck Downey of St. Francis, western region winner. It was Felbush’s idea to enter the contest, and he asked Harris, his father-in-law, to join him. Harris then planted and harvested WBCedar on a 5.75-acre plot for the contest and consulted with Felbush on maintenance. Felbush handled the paper trail involved with the contest. Their prize-winning yield was 60.43 bushels per acre at 12 percent moisture. Keas planted SY Wolf on a 10.32-acre plot in Rooks County. His winning yield was 78.39 bushels an acre. Downey planted WB-Grainfield on 9.12 acres. His prize-winning yield was 88.56 bushels an acre. The wheat contest is sponsored by BASF, Bayer Crop Science, WestBred, Kansas Wheat Alliance, Limagrain, Plains Gold, AgriPro and Kansas Wheat. Winners receive a $1,000 prize. KARL program has operated for 25 years The Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership Program is 25 years old. KARL formation began in the summer of 1989 with a team of grassroots volunteers representing standing agricultural and rural Kansas leaders. The team was soon charged with establishing the nonprofit corporation KARL Inc. Twelve seminars were developed to shape emerging leaders into service-oriented and informed leaders willing to make life better for Kansans. The seminars provide experiential learning approaches that start with leadership principles, local decision-making, strategic thinking and collaboration techniques and reach the capstone of international trade. Kansas agriculture is in the forefront of case studies in the two-year KARL curriculum, and other aspects of Kansas are the backbone of the curriculum. National and international study tours are the pinnacles of the two-year seminar series. The KARL board selects 30 applicants for each class. Over the past 25 years and representing 101 Kansas counties, the 360 participants of the KARL Program have visited the diplomats for trade in 13 foreign embassies in Washington D.C. Members of the 11 classes have conversed with minsters of agriculture and/ or economics from 19 nations. Meanwhile, the program expanded to add the KARL Graduate Program to include lifelong learning experiences for alumni. For more details on the program or how to apply, visit www.karlprogram.com. Applications for Class XIII open this month. Farm output expenses stable in Plains region FARGO, N.D. – Farm and ranch production expenses in the Plains region last year saw little change from 2012. The Agriculture Department says 2013
expenditures totaled $87.6 billion, down from $89 billion. That’s a drop of less than 2 percent. The Plains region includes the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. – Associated Press
Kansas plant reopening after ‘pink slime’ flap A shuttered Kansas processing plant that produced a treated ground beef product critics dubbed “pink slime” announced its plans to reopen with limited operations amid rebounding sales. Beef Products Inc. said it would start collecting fresh beef trimmings at its Garden City facility to support its current Dakota City, Nebraska, production operations. The Kansas plant is the first to reopen since the company closed three of its facilities over the 2012 controversy about the meat. The Dakota Dunes, South Dakota-based company expected to rehire 40 to 45 workers for two shifts of fresh beef trimmings collection and a third-shift cleaning crew at its Garden City location. “It is good news for that community,” said Jeremy Jacobsen, a spokesman for the Dakota Dunes, South Dakota-based BPI. Some 236 workers at the Garden City plant lost their jobs in 2012 amid the T dustup over a meat product called lean, c finely textured beef. – Associated Press Instructional coach is ag group’s top teacher Dianna Deniston, an instructional coach at Victor Ornelas Elementary School in Garden City, was recently named the 2015 Janet Sims Memorial Teacher of the Year by the Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. The foundation’s Janet Sims Memorial Teacher of the Year award recognizes teachers who instill a passion for learning about agriculture within their students. The foundation honors one teacher annually who has successfully integrated agricultural education into the pre-existing curricula. Deniston will be honored with the award at the Bookmark Art and Teacher of the Year celebration during Kansas Ag Month in March 2015. Deniston integrates agriculture into her classroom coming up with the idea to have an Ag Math Harvest Day after taking a KFAC course at K-State. She wants to get students excited about agriculture, because Finney County’s economic existence is based on agriculture. Many of the parents of students at Victor Ornelas Elementary School work in agriculture, but the kids know little about it. Deniston was able to incorporate math that tied to agriculture by setting up stations in two gyms that where activities at each encouraged students to use both math and agriculture. For example, one station was titled Pumpkin Pie: Pie in a Bag, where students measured liquid and dry ingredients using cups and smaller units. The Janet Sims Memorial Teacher of the Year award is named in honor of Janet Sims, who died in June 2007 from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Sims, an educator herself, had served on the KFAC board from November 2005 until her death.
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The Chem-Blade 16V model fits inside tanks outfitted with a 16” circular lid.
September 2014 Page 33
Sharp product adds to farm safety
Ethan Eck is the creator of Chem-Blade, a device which decants farm chemicals from their jugs and then rinses them out, allowing for almost no waste of chemical, a decreased time spent filling applicators, and protecting farmers from chemical exposure.
Kingman Co. farmer develops Chem-Blade BY JOHN GREEN Kansas Agland
A young Kingman County farmer, working in a shed on the family’s farm, has developed a system for quickly decanting farm chemicals from their original containers into field spraying equipment, while protecting farmers from chemical exposure. Ethan Eck, 23, came up with the idea after he returned to the farm after finishing school and worked a while for his brother, a commercial agricultural sprayer. One of his jobs, Eck said, was helping load the sprayer, which involved opening 2½-gallon screw top jugs, dumping them into the equipment and then rinsing out the jugs by hand. “There has to be a better way,” he thought. The Chem-Blade Having trained in automotive body repair and chassis fabrication in Wyoming before returning to the farm, and coming from a family of entrepreneurs – his parents developed and operated a hay-grinding business in the area for some 30 years – Eck went to a corner of the farm shop about 18 months ago and began to experiment, eventually developing ChemBlade. The machine uses a sharp blade in the bottom of a closed stainless steel tank to slice a door into the plastic jug and empty it in about a half-second, then quickly rinse out the jug with a spray nozzle for disposal. The process takes under a minute, compared to an average five minutes for systems developed in Europe, where decanting regulations are much stricter, or unloading by hand, Eck said. Eck now has orders for about 100 of the machines in 10 states and overseas. “Actually, the majority is international, where they’ve been dealing with this for a while,” he said. “California and Europe are much stricter than the Midwest, though the EPA is starting to
Photos by Lindsey Bauman/The Hutchinson News
Ethan Eck adds a guard to one of the blade edges in preparation for shipping a Chem-Blade 16V while at his workshop on the family farm in Kingman on July 29. crack down.” Thinking broader After developing his first model, Eck looked to experts in small business development at Wichita State University to help him figure out how to get the product to market. The college paired him with Ralph Lagergren of Wichita, who also called in his cousin, Mark Underwood. Together, those two men developed and successfully marketed the bi-rotor combine to John Deere. Lagergren helped Eck look beyond his initial invention, to consider other types of chemical containers and equipment it could pair with. He also convinced him to look at licensing the equipment to one or more manufacturers, who’d build it into their own equipment, rather than develop a manufacturing plant and producing it for them. “A company that already has a name and manufacturing capability can get the product to farmers so much quicker,” Eck said. “That’s their strong suit. Our strong
suit is the concept. We’ll come up with the ideas on how to get it done, and then let them do the marketing and manufacturing in large numbers.” So far, Eck said, they’ve come up with 23 variations on his original design, most of which are still in prototype development or testing. “There are all kinds of different ways to cut the jugs and rinse them,” he said. “I’ve cut thousands of jugs and gone through lots of different ways to nail it down to a half-second emptying time.” They also developed systems for emptying 50-pound bags, rather than just plastic jugs, which farmers generally open with a knife and then hold while standing over the equipment as it empties. “Just for the cutting process we’ve looked at multi-blade, two-blade, pizza cutter-type blades and slide systems,” Lagergren said. “It’s pretty much a collaboration of different minds.” Key support Lagergren said he gets calls all the time seeking his
assistance and expertise, but he returns few of them. He’s currently involved in six projects, he said. “The number one thing I look at is, if I catch a vision, I’m all in,” he said. “If I don’t catch a vision, I won’t touch it. I told Ethan that.
… You’ve got to love what you’re doing and be thinking about it day and night for it to be successful.” “The key thing was, he was up to the task,” Lagergren said. Stories about his invention have been featured in
European and Australian publications, Lagergen noted, where enclosed chemical systems are mandated. “Ralph is a great guy to work with,” Eck said. “He really got me to open my mind. When I started doing this, I thought it would be what I’d do for the rest of my life. Ralph got me thinking broader, thinking outside the box. He came up with some really great concepts.” Besides Lagergren and Underwood, Eck said he received a lot of advice and support from his parents, Clint and Patti Eck. His father died in February, but before that, he’d come out to the shop and help, Eck said. His mother, accustomed to doing paperwork for their business, is offering that expertise. “It feels great to be doing something that will help a farmer, to make their job so much easier in the work day, and to not to have to get chemicals splashed on their arms and hands. Most farmers don’t wear protective gear. I never did when I worked in the field. You’d load the sprayer and eat a sandwich after. This will streamline the day, where it’s not so monotonous.” “I look forward to changing the industry for the better, so it’s safer and faster,” Eck said. John Green writes for The Hutchinson News. Email: jgreen@hutchnews.com.
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EPA From PAGE 34 Even Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and his administration have said they would fight the proposed rule, with the governor noting he thought states should regulate water quality. Brownback added during a recent campaign stop in Wichita that changes would dramatically expand the EPA’s authority over water in Kansas and could threaten agriculture and oil and gas extraction, according to The Associated Press. According to the EPA, the rule doesn’t expand the agency’s authority and actually scales back its scope to the number of waterways the agency regulated in the 1980s. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy visited Kansas City in July to stop the myths, as she put it. According to the EPA, the two Supreme Court rulings caused the act to become confusing and complex and the agency wants to clear things up. According to the agency, seasonal and rainfall streams and wetlands near waterways will be protected, but waterways that may have more uncertain connections with downstream water and protection will be evaluated through a case-specific analysis of whether the connection is or is not significant. Part of the EPA proposal is an interpretive rule that details items that are exempt from the Clean Water Act. According to The Associated Press, McCarthy said during her Kansas City trip that the 56 items listed are part of a larger group of exemptions already in the act and were singled out to provide a list of “slam dunk” farming practices that don’t need oversight. Farmers and producers could implement these specific conservation practices without notification or permission by ensuring that practices benefit water quality and are in accordance with Natural Resources Conservation Service standards, according to the EPA. Comments for the interpretive rule closed in July. Impact to Kan. Despite the EPA efforts to “Ditch the Myths,” as the agency puts it, state officials and farm industry leaders are skeptical. Flickner said the proposal makes conflicting
Photos by Sandra J. Milburn/The Hutchinson News
Derek Sawyer stands in a terrace channel between his fields of fall crops Aug. 15 in McPherson County. Some Kansas farmers are worried a new EPA-proposed rule could regulate the water flowing through the channel. statements regarding what is covered and what is not. The proposed rule defines what isn’t a ditch – excluding ditches that are excavated wholly in uplands, drain only uplands, and have less than perennial flow.” However, the document also states that ditches neighboring a tributary do fall under regulations – and that may be regardless of whether the tributary only flows intermittently. Meanwhile, the EPA says exemptions are for established (ongoing) farming, ranching and forestry activities,” which worries farmers who want to pass the farm on to the next generation about what new practices might be included under the rule. Concerns Back on the farm, Westmoreland farmer Glenn Brunkow said he has several intermittent streams that run through his farm, along with ditches and depressions that hold water during heavy rains. If something was polluting the waters, he added, “the state would know about it. Farmers are the original environmentalists; we take care of the natural resources. We have practices like no-till farming in hopes of holding all the water we can hold in the soil. We carefully monitor the inputs and herbicides and fertilizers we put on.” They also established
terraces and waterways to prevent erosion, he said. Brunkow attended McCarthy’s presentation in Kansas City and wasn’t impressed. She said she wanted to dialogue with farmers, said Brunkow, but she only took three questions. “I don’t understand why they are looking at this rule,” he said. “More administration overreach, would be my personal opinion.” Sawyer also admits the rule is confusing. On his own farm he has several best management practices implemented to help keep the waters clean downstream. He is one of many farmers participating in a program with the city of Wichita to minimize spikes in atrazine levels. He also has gone to minimum-till farming to help reduce sedimentation. “We’re as much environmentalists as anyone,” Sawyer said. But his field farm swale is troublesome. It flows into a man-made ditch called the Blaze Fork, which is part of the Little Arkansas Watershed. After June’s heavy rain showers during wheat harvest, it’s easy to see the swale’s high water mark. Will that mean he would someday need a permit to farm here? Sawyer said he can only hope that never happens.
Sawyer pointed out a natural water flow area that they cleaned up to help drain the low areas of the field in McPherson County on Aug. 15.
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The new headstone of Charles Henry Yust is adorned with American flags and a wreath of flowers for the rededication ceremony on July 26 at Hayes Township Cemetery near Sylvia. Nathan Peipert reads aloud the story of Fred Yust Jr. during a family presentation following the Charles Henry Yust headstone rededication ceremony at Hayes Township Cemetery near Sylvia on July 26.
C
harles Henry Yust joined the 21st Missouri Volunteer Infantry when he was only 14 years old. He joined along with three other family members: his father, Frederick Yust Sr.; his brother, Frederick Yust Jr.; and his uncle, Charles Yust. He was a private in Company B and served as a drummer boy. He re-enlisted at age 16 and served in the 21st Missouri until being mustered out on April 19, 1866. After the end of the Civil War, the Yust boys relocated to Kansas near Sylvia. The Yust family still owns and farms some of the original homestead acres. On July 26, 2014, a headstone rededication ceremony was held for Charles Henry Yust after his stone was found broken and replaced by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. The ceremony was held in correlation with the Yust family reunion, attended by 130 people from all over the United States. After the ceremony, family members gave presentations on the lives of their ancestors buried in Hayes Township Cemetery.
Mike Todd and his son, Ryan, 15, explain the project of replacing Charles Henry Yust’s broken headstone prior to the start of the rededication ceremony on July 26 at Hayes Township Cemetery near Sylvia. Ryan found the broken headstone and was able to have the stone replaced through the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. The ceremony was held to coincide with the Yust family reunion.
YUSTERDAYS Photos by Lindsey Bauman The Hutchinson News
The 8th Kansas Infantry advances to position at the start of the Charles Henry Yust Headstone Re-Dedication at Hayes Township Cemetery near Sylvia on July 26.
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