Rice Farming

Arkansas rice grower Chris Isbell relates the story in the mid-1970s when his father, Leroy Isbell, a pioneer in zero-grade leveling in rice fields, was demonstrating the effectiveness of the technique in draining water off of level fields. As his skeptical colleagues sat around the coffee shop table, Leroy turned a glass of water upside down on the level table.

“If you think the water won’t drain off the sides then stay in your seats,” he said. Needless to say, they all stood up.

Leroy Isbell began converting what is now 1,500 acres of continuous rice production to precision leveled, zero-grade fields in 1977 to move away from the labor-intensive levees and gates once used to drain and manage water on the rice fields. At the time, says son Chris Isbell, the Isbells had to walk fields on contour levees with shovels twice daily to check and maintain up to eight gates per field.

Now on precision-leveled fields, they can drive by and check water level floats from the pickup truck. Instead of levees, water is managed through a series of ditches surrounding the fields. Each 3-foot ditch contains a 22-inch pipe that moves water into and out of the field. Isbell can flood or drain a 40-acre field in less than half a day through a single levee.

The Isbells grow all 1,500 acres of continuous rice on zero-grade fields, sidestepping less profitable rotation crops such as soybeans. Level basins, along with no-till water seeding, help manage the red rice problem common with continuous rice by maintaining a consistent water level throughout the field.

“We can grow No. 1 rice on a field that had sample grade last year due to red rice through water control,” Isbell says. “It’s almost impossible to do that with levees.”

Still, Isbell’s coffee shop demonstrations and decades of success have only begun to convert the minds of many rice farmers to believe that a leveled field surrounded by canals can drain as fast or faster to the perimeter than a slightly graded field that drains water through a levee at the bottom of the slope.

Isbell and others, who believe in the potential of zero-grade rice production to reduce water use and drastically lower labor and other input costs, still have a hard time convincing some growers of the system’s benefits.

A growing number of followers
But the practice is gaining momentum. Isbell estimates there are now about 100,000 acres of zero-grade rice production in Missouri and central Arkansas. And farmers even in higher rainfall areas of the region, from Louisiana to Mississippi, are exploring zero-grade production as well.

Dennis Carman, a water management engineer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service in Little Rock, Ark., says growers in the lower Mississippi delta, along with his colleagues in the research community, are definitely taking a closer look at zero-grade rice production. Spurring the interest are the costs of pumping groundwater and delivering surface water and increased labor costs to maintain gated levee systems.

Carman estimates growers have saved as much as 30 percent on water use with zero-grade leveled fields due to the increased capacity to capture rainfall and reuse runoff water. Zero-grade leveling is a relatively easy sell on continuous rice production systems, he says. But growers who rotate soybeans, corn or other crops on the fields are more reticent to invest the money because they are concerned about getting water off of bean fields quickly.

“Zero grade makes sense for rice. But what has to be considered are those off years, like in Arkansas, where you have one year of rice and two years of beans,” Carman says. “There is a concern in soybeans [among growers] that they will have reduced yields because rainfall events may not get off the field quick enough. The overall design has to take that into consideration. Rice, in and of itself, is pretty straight forward. But it has to be designed with consideration to other crops and what happens to the runoff.”

Water-savings, even in wet Louisiana
Carman says he and other researchers in areas such as Arkansas and Louisiana, where in-season rainfall can hit up to 60 inches a year, are looking at the potential for zero-grade rice production and its feasibility in rotation crops. While research is still under way, Carman says his anecdotal experience tells him that level basins are feasible under soybean cultivation with the right system design. The practice may have added appeal on water-short farms where groundwater depletion is already forcing growers to consider installing reservoirs and tailwater recovery systems.

“In critical groundwater decline areas, such as Stuttgart, Ark., where they are already at 80 percent efficiency, there is not a lot of advantage to making the transition because they are already capturing so much of that water with tailwater capture and irrigation storage systems,” Carman says. “But for other areas, there is a higher potential for savings and it makes a lot of sense to consider this alternative.”

Leveling costs and the cost and expertise required to install water-control and transport networks are also a primary consideration. Growers may have to move 300 cubic yards of soil or more per acre to get ground leveled at a typical cost of about $1 per cubic yard. Obviously, the more level the field initially, the lower the investment cost.

An enthusiastic convert
Walter Davis, a continuous rice grower in northeast Louisiana, is an enthusiastic convert to zero-grade rice production. After visiting the Isbells and other pioneers of the practice throughout the country and trying it on his own farm more than a decade ago, Davis gradually began converting his contour farm in Ferriday, La., to level basins. Currently, he has about 800 acres of continuous rice production under zero-grade with more acreage to come.

“I wouldn’t farm rice any other way,” Davis says. “It makes a very difficult crop to farm so easy, it’s unbelievable.

“You don’t have to use as many pumps to farm the same acreage as contour fields so you save money on diesel. And when you are on zero graded fields, you don’t have to work around levees so you save on chemicals, seed and labor.”

In addition, Davis has seen his yields improve by 15 percent to 20 percent because more of the land is harvestable without the contour levee system.

An innovator of zero-grade production in Louisiana, Davis worked with Soileau Industries of Ville Platte, La. to develop a system of water ditches and control structures that effectively move water off of his zero-grade fields and into a canal and reservoir system throughout the farm.

“One of the secrets to success the producer needs to develop is the correct placement of pipe and water control structures in relation to the zero-grade ground level,” Davis says. “This relates to concerns about getting water off the field quick enough. The top of the pipe has to be below the level of the field or it doesn’t work. If the pipe and water control structure is correctly placed, I can drain a field twice as fast as if it wasn’t at zero grade.”

Those PVC water control structures, called weirs in Davis’ case, are 3- to 4-feet tall, adjustable-height dam-like structures. They are attached to a 12- to 18-inch pipe off the back that forms the canal system around each 40-acre field. These ditches feed into a reservoir, where a highly efficient Benoit pump distributes the water back to the farm when it drains over the top of the structure.

“I catch every ounce of water that comes off my farm, and I can recirculate it for use on other areas of the farm,” Davis says. As a result, he is saving about 70 percent in fuel costs compared to pumping well water.
Davis is so convinced about the cost savings, this year he will move a staggering 550 yards of dirt per acre on another field on the 3,000-acre property on his way to converting a full 1,200 acres to continuous rice.

“I’m moving onto other fields I wouldn’t have done before,” Davis says. “I used to stop leveling if the amount of dirt I had to move exceeded 200 yards, but now I’m doing, three-, four- and five-hundred, and will probably go to 600 yards. Every year I push the envelope.”

For questions or comments about this article, contact Rice Farming editor Vicky Boyd at (209) 571-0414 or vlboyd@att.net.

Making the grade Increasing water, labor costs prompt closer look at level basins
By Marni Katz
Arkansas rice grower Chris Isbell relates the story in the mid-1970s when his father, Leroy Isbell, a pioneer in zero-grade leveling in rice fields, was demonstrating the effectiveness of the technique in draining water off of level fields. As his skeptical colleagues sat around the coffee shop table, Leroy turned a glass of water upside down on the level table. “If you think the water won’t drain off the sides then stay in your seats,” he said. Needless to say, they all stood up. Leroy Isbell began converting what is now 1,500 acres of continuous rice production to precision leveled, zero-grade fields in 1977 to move away from the labor-intensive levees and gates once used to drain and manage water on the rice fields. At the time, says son Chris Isbell, the Isbells had to walk fields on contour levees with shovels twice daily to check and maintain up to eight gates per field. Now on precision-leveled fields, they can drive by and check water level floats from the pickup truck. Instead of levees, water is managed through a series of ditches surrounding the fields. Each 3-foot ditch contains a 22-inch pipe that moves water into and out of the field. Isbell can flood or drain a 40-acre field in less than half a day through a single levee. The Isbells grow all 1,500 acres of continuous rice on zero-grade fields, sidestepping less profitable rotation crops such as soybeans. Level basins, along with no-till water seeding, help manage the red rice problem common with continuous rice by maintaining a consistent water level throughout the field. “We can grow No. 1 rice on a field that had sample grade last year due to red rice through water control,” Isbell says. “It’s almost impossible to do that with levees.” Still, Isbell’s coffee shop demonstrations and decades of success have only begun to convert the minds of many rice farmers to believe that a leveled field surrounded by canals can drain as fast or faster to the perimeter than a slightly graded field that drains water through a levee at the bottom of the slope. Isbell and others, who believe in the potential of zero-grade rice production to reduce water use and drastically lower labor and other input costs, still have a hard time convincing some growers of the system’s benefits. A growing number of followers But the practice is gaining momentum. Isbell estimates there are now about 100,000 acres of zero-grade rice production in Missouri and central Arkansas. And farmers even in higher rainfall areas of the region, from Louisiana to Mississippi, are exploring zero-grade production as well. Dennis Carman, a water management engineer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service in Little Rock, Ark., says growers in the lower Mississippi delta, along with his colleagues in the research community, are definitely taking a closer look at zero-grade rice production. Spurring the interest are the costs of pumping groundwater and delivering surface water and increased labor costs to maintain gated levee systems. Carman estimates growers have saved as much as 30 percent on water use with zero-grade leveled fields due to the increased capacity to capture rainfall and reuse runoff water. Zero-grade leveling is a relatively easy sell on continuous rice production systems, he says. But growers who rotate soybeans, corn or other crops on the fields are more reticent to invest the money because they are concerned about getting water off of bean fields quickly. “Zero grade makes sense for rice. But what has to be considered are those off years, like in Arkansas, where you have one year of rice and two years of beans,” Carman says. “There is a concern in soybeans [among growers] that they will have reduced yields because rainfall events may not get off the field quick enough. The overall design has to take that into consideration. Rice, in and of itself, is pretty straight forward. But it has to be designed with consideration to other crops and what happens to the runoff.” Water-savings, even in wet Louisiana Carman says he and other researchers in areas such as Arkansas and Louisiana, where in-season rainfall can hit up to 60 inches a year, are looking at the potential for zero-grade rice production and its feasibility in rotation crops. While research is still under way, Carman says his anecdotal experience tells him that level basins are feasible under soybean cultivation with the right system design. The practice may have added appeal on water-short farms where groundwater depletion is already forcing growers to consider installing reservoirs and tailwater recovery systems. “In critical groundwater decline areas, such as Stuttgart, Ark., where they are already at 80 percent efficiency, there is not a lot of advantage to making the transition because they are already capturing so much of that water with tailwater capture and irrigation storage systems,” Carman says. “But for other areas, there is a higher potential for savings and it makes a lot of sense to consider this alternative.” Leveling costs and the cost and expertise required to install water-control and transport networks are also a primary consideration. Growers may have to move 300 cubic yards of soil or more per acre to get ground leveled at a typical cost of about $1 per cubic yard. Obviously, the more level the field initially, the lower the investment cost. An enthusiastic convert Walter Davis, a continuous rice grower in northeast Louisiana, is an enthusiastic convert to zero-grade rice production. After visiting the Isbells and other pioneers of the practice throughout the country and trying it on his own farm more than a decade ago, Davis gradually began converting his contour farm in Ferriday, La., to level basins. Currently, he has about 800 acres of continuous rice production under zero-grade with more acreage to come. “I wouldn’t farm rice any other way,” Davis says. “It makes a very difficult crop to farm so easy, it’s unbelievable. “You don’t have to use as many pumps to farm the same acreage as contour fields so you save money on diesel. And when you are on zero graded fields, you don’t have to work around levees so you save on chemicals, seed and labor.” In addition, Davis has seen his yields improve by 15 percent to 20 percent because more of the land is harvestable without the contour levee system. An innovator of zero-grade production in Louisiana, Davis worked with Soileau Industries of Ville Platte, La. to develop a system of water ditches and control structures that effectively move water off of his zero-grade fields and into a canal and reservoir system throughout the farm. “One of the secrets to success the producer needs to develop is the correct placement of pipe and water control structures in relation to the zero-grade ground level,” Davis says. “This relates to concerns about getting water off the field quick enough. The top of the pipe has to be below the level of the field or it doesn’t work. If the pipe and water control structure is correctly placed, I can drain a field twice as fast as if it wasn’t at zero grade.” Those PVC water control structures, called weirs in Davis’ case, are 3- to 4-feet tall, adjustable-height dam-like structures. They are attached to a 12- to 18-inch pipe off the back that forms the canal system around each 40-acre field. These ditches feed into a reservoir, where a highly efficient Benoit pump distributes the water back to the farm when it drains over the top of the structure. “I catch every ounce of water that comes off my farm, and I can recirculate it for use on other areas of the farm,” Davis says. As a result, he is saving about 70 percent in fuel costs compared to pumping well water. Davis is so convinced about the cost savings, this year he will move a staggering 550 yards of dirt per acre on another field on the 3,000-acre property on his way to converting a full 1,200 acres to continuous rice. “I’m moving onto other fields I wouldn’t have done before,” Davis says. “I used to stop leveling if the amount of dirt I had to move exceeded 200 yards, but now I’m doing, three-, four- and five-hundred, and will probably go to 600 yards. Every year I push the envelope.” For questions or comments about this article, contact Rice Farming editor Vicky Boyd at (209) 571-0414 or vlboyd@att.net.
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