RUSS PARKER, UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS
A combine begins to harvest Stephen Hoskyn’s rice field that was entered in the Most Crop Per Drop Contest.
More crop per drop Economical pitless continuous-flow tailwater return system helps maximize water-use efficiency in row rice. By Vicky Boyd Editor
U
niversity of Arkansas water management engineer Chris Henry developed and launched the Most Crop Per Drop Contest in 2018 to promote maximizing crop yields while minimizing water use. Since 2013, Henry had also been working at the Rice Research and Extension Center near Stuttgart, on a new economical, simple and easy to install continuous-flow tailwater return system to help growers improve water management on furrow-irrigated rice. Henry had just patented the system and was installing a handful of on-farm systems to test the system on working farms. His presentation during a virtual 2021 winter production meeting caught the attention of Stephen Hoskyn, who farms with his family near Stuttgart, Arkansas. Because they’re within the severely overdrafted Grand Prairie groundwater area, most of their farm had already been developed with reservoirs or tailwater return pits. But Hoskyn had picked up a new piece of ground that wasn’t tied in. Henry’s novel system would be ideal to put to the test in a row-rice field on the new farm. At the urging of Henry, Hoskyn also entered the field in the 2021 Most Crop Per Drop Contest.
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RICE FARMING
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JANUARY 2022
How the system works The continuous-flow tailwater system uses a high efficiency 2- to 5-horsepower variable-speed pump to move the water (500900 gpm). It draws about the same amperage as a handheld hair drier. A water-level sensor controls the motor speed — the lower the water level, the slower it runs. Like other row water systems, a Computerized Hole Selection (aka Pipe Planner) program determines poly tubing diameter and hole sizes based on flow, field size and field slope. Using a backhoe, an approximately 6-foot-deep sump is dug at the bottom of the field. A 5-foot metal pipe encases the sump with the below-grown portion solid metal. Only the few feet above ground is perforated. The pump is installed in the sump and hooked up to the nearby electrical source. The pump is connected the top of the field using the higher pressure rated transfer tubing running through the middle of the field to relay water from the bottom to the top and feed it back into the row-watered poly tubing. Installation is fairly simple, and Henry thinks farmers could install the pumps themselves. RICEFARMING.COM
