Leveling the field

Landforming helps producers
better manage crop, labor inputs

By Vicky Boyd
Editor

A growing number of rice producers are smoothing out bumps in their production system through precision land leveling or landforming, as it is also called.

By cutting high points and filling in low spots in their fields, they're able to not only better manage water in their rice crop but also in subsequent soybean crops. Although the practice requires an up-front investment, producers embracing landforming say it pays for itself by saving water and labor in the long run.

Slowly but surely

Moorhead, Miss., producer Tommy Andrus has slowly been leveling his rice fields during the past 10 years. Like many producers, he did the worst ones first. Currently, more than 70 percent of his land has been leveled.

"We had some levees that were 3 miles long in a 160-acre block," Andrus says. "It would take you all day to run a levee. Once you were flooding, it was really a pain to be sure levees that long were good all the way through."

Not only does he save water, but he now grows a more uniform crop, makes more efficient use of crop protection materials and fertilizer, harvests easier and has the flexibility to rotate to other row crops.

The Aguzzi family near Cleveland, Miss., began leveling their rice ground in the 1950s, long before laser surveying equipment was introduced. Since then, they've leveled most of their 3,000 acres of rice ground. And like Andrus, they did it to improve irrigation efficiency and crop management.

"You can water it a whole lot quicker," says Ronnie Aguzzi. "It's just easier to manage when you're farming 3,000 acres of rice. We're using the same number of people now as we did to water 1,200 to 1,500 acres the old conventional way."

Aguzzi also has seen yield increases because of fewer levees in each field.. One of the worst situations involved a 60-acre field with more than 40 levees After leveling, the field had five straight levees.

Andrus and the Aguzzis aren't alone in realizing the savings from precision.

In a study conducted by Mississippi State University Agricultural Economics Professor David Laughlin during 1994 and 1995, growers using straight levees reported average per-acre yield increases of 8.24 bushels compared to those with contour levees. Both fixed and direct costs declined for growers with straight levees. As a result, returns above total specified expenses averaged $81.40 per acre more for the straight levee system than for the contour levee system, according to the study.

The price to pay

But landforming does carry a price. Hiring a person to move dirt typically costs between 75 and 85 cents a cubic yard. And in most cases, it's not cost justifiable to move more than 300 to 350 yards per acre. In addition, field surveying and design run about $12 an acre.

The Aguzzis do their own leveling rather than hiring it out. Currently their dirt-moving fleet consists of four sets of 14-yard dirt buckets and one set of 10-yard buckets. They also have their own laser surveying equipment.

"We think it's more economical to do our own, plus we can address problems as soon as they crop up," Aguzzi says. "If you do a field, sometimes you end up with a bad spot, and we can go back and touch it right up."

Yield increase potential

Andrus chooses to have someone else level his fields. After landforming, each of Andrus' fields has a 0.1 percent fall per 100 feet. The Aguzzis vary the fall between 0.05 percent and 0.15 percent, depending on the drainage ditch height and whatever requires the least amount of dirt to be moved.

Surrounding each field is a pad--a wide levee on which trucks can drive. The pads allow for easier monitoring because the driver can see all of the water-holding structures. Harvest also is simplified because the combine can load right into a truck parked on the pad. In some fields, Andrus doesn't even run a grain cart, and the tractor driver who would have pulled the cart can be assigned other duties..

But the pads can occupy up to 8 percent of a total field--a small price to pay for the ease they provide, Andrus says.

Size matters

The Moorhead producer also has tried to divide larger blocks into 40-acre fields for the most efficient use of fertilizer and crop protection materials. He settled on the size after reviewing past production records.

"We looked at 40-acre fields and looked at how much more efficient we were in those sized fields than on 120- or 160-acre fields," Andrus says. "You can get water there in a timely manner. Maintaining your fertilizer and weed control once you put a flood on is just so much easier. We don't want anything over 50 acres."

Paul Baker also is an advocate of the smaller sized fields, saying they lend themselves to more efficient dirt moving. "Forty-acre fields are the magic number," says Baker, who does custom laser surveying and mapping work in the Mississippi Delta. "The potential to save in the amount of dirt to be moved is greater with you lower the field size down to 40 acres."