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Water Seeding for Waterfowl on Land Not Zero
Graded
Below is
an article which describes a farming method which will allows farmers to water
seed rice on ground which has levees, while developing a year-round waterfowl
habitat. This method does not require ground to be "zero graded", and can be
used as the sole method of water seeding, or can be used as a transition step
to help determine if water seeding for waterfowl might be beneficial for you.
This allows the farmer to keep slope on his fields permanently, or can help the
farmer decide if he is ready to make a transition to "zero grade." Here is the
article sent to Rural Sportsman - Benelli in their contest for Waterfowl
Stewardship of the Year.
Water
seeded rice is just beginning to make inroads into Southeast Missouri rice
farming. Even though other states have practiced water seeding for many years,
it has been practically nonexistent in Missouri. Many producers from other
states water seed because it is the only viable means of establishing a stand.
Southeast Missouri has a very diverse soil, and much of it is capable of
producing various crops — Missouri farmers initially had no red rice, and
could easily establish a stand drilling seed into the dry soil. Therefore
Missouri had little interest in water seeding in the beginning, and many are
still reluctant to adapt this practice because of intensified management and
unfamiliarity with the practice.
As vice
president of the US Rice Producers Association, a national organization
representing growers and industry from every major rice producing state, and
board member of the Missouri Rice Council, I have had the chance to look over
and support many programs for waterfowl habitat, both at the state and national
level. I have also had the opportunity to view many different cultural
practices across the US, and I believe this conservation approach of water
seeded rice farming that I will explain is quite unique. This system helped me
win the Rice Farming Magazine 2000 National Rice Farmer of the Year Award, in
large part for my innovative approach to water seeding as I explain in this
paper. The type of water seeding I have developed allows me to accomplish
several objectives.
The first
objective with this type of water seeding is to allow water to stay on many
fields almost continually, allowing for a good hunting area in the fall; and a
good nesting spot for waterfowl in the spring. This allows for good waterfowl
stewardship, while allowing additional income from these acres.
The second
objective is to raise rice in continuous rotation, year after year - one year
dry seed, one year water seed, dry seed, water seed, etc. in continuous
rotation without causing red rice problems, while cutting costs. Red rice is
the biggest reason there are not more acres of rice planted in the rice belt.
The normal rotation is one to two years rice, one to two years of beans. This
system has allowed me to have continual rice for six years, and I have been
experimenting with this for over 10 years.
The third
objective is that this type of water seeding allows me to keep slope in my
fields, instead of having to zero grade the fields. Most crops need to get the
standing water off. However, zero grading slows the drainage, and does not
allow for alternative crops. Zero grade acres have increased slightly in
Missouri, since this allows for easier water control over more acres. However,
once a producer zero grades a field, he is practically married to rice in those
fields; which is why many people are slow to adapt to the zero
grade.
In many
fields, allowing the field to maintain a slope to aid in drainage is a
necessity to maintain crop diversity. With this water seed system, farmers can
have many of the benefits of a zero grade system without many of the obstacles.
This system is hardly any different than the normal rice levee practices
already being carried out; with just a few minor additions, any rice farmer can
carry out the ideas in this paper. In the following, I will describe a system
that is efficient, easy, economical, and provides year - round habitat for
waterfowl. I have already shared it with the local Ducks Unlimited office, the
NRCS, and the Missouri Dept. of Conservation. Hopefully if rice producers see
how easy this new system is, they will take notice, and begin to make a few
minor changes that will allow them the benefits afforded by this new
approach.
The way I
have developed a water seeding program allows us to combat red rice, retain our
drainage, allow for duck hunting privileges in the fall, utilize our gates and
our settings a second year, cut our tractor hours, and to utilize a two- to
three-inch rain to our advantage in May, at planting time. We have had success
with raising rice in this fashion for several years in a row, while keeping red
rice to a tolerable level.
The only
land forming preparation that is required is to construct one permanent outside
levee on one side of the field. This allows access into each pan for the next
two years. This allows fertilizing, spraying, harvesting, rolling, and field
inspection from a four wheeler without having to cross over levees. The outside
levee opposite the permanent levee is constructed with a levee plow, just like
the inside levees. This allows outside drain gates to be installed, and water
will exit the field quickly in the two-week period when this is very
critical.
The outside
levee constructed with the plow then needs the outside ditch cleaned out about
a foot deeper than the levee plow left it. Run this drain all the way to the
tail ditch at the bottom of the field. Install outside drain gates, the same
plastic gates that are used internally, and raise the gates up. They will not
need to be let down until harvest. Keep these ditches sprayed so that grass
will not interfere at drainage time.
Then in
harvest, we leave the inside gates intact, because we will re-flood the field
soon after harvest. Simply drop the outside gates to drain the field. We
harvest normally, and have a good road and access to the levees because of our
permanent outside levee. We also have good drainage because we drain from two
sides of the field, without having to use a tractor to rut the field in order
to cut any levees. The inside gate is to maintain the water setting in each
pan, and the outside gate is just for drainage at the appropriate time. The
outside gates act as a drain both in the harvest drain, and in the spring
drain. After harvest we simply disc or roll the fields, depending on how wet
the fall is. Then raise both inside and outside gates.
After
harvest, we then begin pumping water on the fields to maintain a nice shallow
flood for the waterfowl. Typically the waterfowl in our area seems to use the
shallow flood more often than the deeper floods. The flooded rice field is as
perfect as it gets in that respect.
We keep a
permanent flood on throughout the duck and goose hunting season, and then
continue to keep the flood on into the next spring. As everything else in our
country dries out, we see thousands of waterfowl using our water seeded fields,
with many nesting close by. This supplies a good habitat for our waterfowl,
even through March, April, and May, when there are no other rice fields flooded
yet. Another huge benefit to this type of seeding is the invertebrate
population in the year old water seeded fields. In the spring, the drill-seeded
fields have little food value; whereas the year old water seeded field is
literally swamped with unbelievable amounts of these invertebrates. Most people
are amazed at how thick these invertebrates are. A trip across a water-seeded
field in the spring will leave no doubt of the volume of food available. The
waterfowl is supplied with a good food source year round; and especially in the
spring when the other rice fields have nothing but dirt clods.
As spring
approaches, we do something very unique — we seed dry rice into the
standing water. This takes a lot of hassle out of flying on the rice, compared
to sprouting the rice. When the seed is sprouted, there is a small window of
time to seed the rice before its' sprout grows too long. We use no chemical
before we seed, so there is no need to worry about sprouting to avoid
germination damage.
Usually
sometime the last of April or the first of May, we hook up the rollers, and
roll the fields; hopefully right after a rain if we can, to utilize our
tractors in a rainy spell. We added wings onto our roller - all this amounts to
is a series of three-inch pipes being pulled alongside and behind the roller to
spread the piles of mud that want to pile up at the edges. After we installed
the wings on our rollers, we have practically eliminated the ups and downs or
"waviness" of the dirt. Our fields look almost as smooth after rolling in the
mud as if we had landplaned them.
The
advantage in putting wings on the smooth roller is versatility. A farmer can
use the smooth roller all year around, on everything from corn to beans to
rice. However, a groover roller or a chipper roller is only useful for rolling
rice fields, and that's all. The wings allow the producer the ability to use
his smooth rollers to level out his ground without having to buy several
additional pieces of equipment. The rolling is primarily to get rid of the only
weed problem — aquatics. Grass is virtually nonexistent in this type of
system. Usually one application of Stam and Londax is all it takes to
completely control the aquatics, and again, grass is not a problem at all with
this system.
Every year,
we get a little better at ways to make this more efficient. Our yields have
also been increasing with time. We got within seven to eight bushel of our
overall average last year, which is the closest yet. We have learned to spoon
feed the nitrogen, a hundred pounds at a time on the rice crop, and I generally
add an extra hundred pounds over the normal dry seeded scenario. As I learn
ways to make this system more manageable, I have steadily increased my acreage.
I have worked my way up to about 500 acres per year in this system over the
last seven or eight years; but now with the discovery of outside gates and
trenches, seeding dry rice into the water, putting wings on the rice roller for
a smooth seed bed, spoon feeding the nitrogen, and the duck hunting, and the
hunting income I am rewarded with, I have been able to manage larger rice
acreage's under this system, and will have 700 - 800 acres this year.
Hopefully, we can increase to 1500 - 2000 acres in the not too distant future,
as we continue making developments with this system. If others farmers start
working with this system, I am sure they will develop new ideas that will make
this work even better.
This past
year, I leased eight rice fields for duck hunting, and would like to see our
hunting leases increase to 20 or 30 per year in the very near future. We would
be allowing somewhere in excess of 100 people per year onto our farm. We are
discussing advertising with a web-sight to get greater acknowledgment from
hunters over a wider area. As we develop this area, we need to get the word
out; the more successful the operation, the more we will develop our habitat. A
web sight will give us that exposure. There is an opportunity to have a
"win-win" for everyone concerned; if we will study our options and keep our
thoughts on the future.
The US Fish
and Wildlife Service, along with Missouri Dept. of Conservation helped to spark
our first efforts in the water seeding. They were paying to provide waterfowl
refuges close to Otter Slough Wildlife Area in the late fall. Then the US Fish
and Wildlife would put signs up and allow no hunting on these acres. However,
we found that leaving the levees up for ducks could mean lost time in the
spring; so we began trying to water seed so we could leave our levees intact.
Even though the funding lasted only a couple years, we have continued this
practice. The results have been to cut costs and red rice while supplying both
hunters and waterfowl a place to utilize.
We are also
in an ideal position relative to the Missouri Dept. Of Conservation's Otter
Slough Conservation Area. Otter Slough, located in Southeast Missouri
encompasses 5000 acres, and a vast majority of the conservation area is devoted
to waterfowl habitat. Our property borders Otter Slough on a large percentage
of their property line. Last year, on average, Otter Slough had about as many
ducks as any place in Missouri. We think the extra water we helped provide all
around Otter Slough contributed to these good numbers. If we could convince
other farmers how simple this system is, we can increase these numbers even
more. In the previous years, the kill rate at Otter Slough has averaged over
9000 birds per season, and this was for Otter Slough alone. The peak number of
birds were 80,000 at the Slough, and over 100,000 birds in the immediate
area
We would
like to see these numbers climb every year, and the more we can convince
farmers of the effectiveness of this system, the more likely we are to attain
the water. Of course, the more farmers that try this system the more great
ideas that will come out of it. As with anything, the more minds that are
working on something, the more powerful the results. We are excited about
seeing powerful results, and the more widespread the water, habitat, and food
is, the more likely we are to see results.
We have
also been working on other plans to develop and maintain a successful waterfowl
environment. We have worked with the NRCS and DU, and have plans to participate
in the MO Bootheel Partners Program, a cropland flooding program, which will
help to guarantee long-term management, as this is a 10 year program. We are
making plans to install 20- 24 water control structures over the next few years
to help hold water in fields as all acres will not be water seeded the next
year. These water control structures are an inexpensive way to let mother
nature fill up large acreage with water.
A culvert
that has been modified into a water control structure, collects water in the
field, but it is also more expensive to pump than in a shallow flood. A water
control structure will collect water 3 feet or deeper at the low end by the
time it reaches the high end; which is very expensive for duck hunters to pay
to flood, especially considering our system only takes three to six inches over
the entire field.
We are
installing water control structures in many locations in our 4000 acres,
knowing that deep water is great when Mother Nature supplies the water. Ducks
and geese will both use the deeper water in conjunction with the shallow flood
supplied by our system. We plan on using a lot of these deeper water areas as
rest areas, and no hunting will be allowed on these rest areas. We feel this is
mandatory to assure adequate waterfowl numbers.
We also
have plans to put up wood duck boxes along many of the wooded areas on our
property, and have a block of cypress trees we have already reconverted into a
flooded cypress woodland. We also have a large wooded ox bow that is a
converted St. Francis river basin. We have restoration plans for this wooded
oxbow. We have converted some of our small odd shaped corners and ends into
zero graded fields that we can maintain a constant flood on year round. These
odd shaped one - three acre corners are easily converted into zero grade, and
require less aggravation than trying to row crop these places. We will continue
converting these corners where the pump is easily accessed.
Last year,
several of the hunters paid us to leave some rows of crop as food plots. We
also leave any grassy or grown up areas of the field standing for waterfowl
use. The water seeded fields are also valuable in this aspect, as the borders
of all these fields are a year old at the beginning of the second crop year,
and have vegetation untouched around the borders for two years at a
time.
We are
pursuing a well developed plan, encompassing many facets, and hope that we
maintain a successful path to enhancing waterfowl habitat, hunter involvement,
and ensuring profitability and sustainability in rice farming. We are looking
at the long-term benefits of our plan, and know that many of the small things
in waterfowl conservation will make a big difference. Hopefully with this type
of water seeding, we will be able to raise better quality rice, with cheaper
inputs, and develop a place where the ducks and geese and hunters can use for
years to come.
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