Jeff Odgers Agricultural Water Management Research Project
Growing conditions in 2021 demonstrated how essential irrigation management is for the 2,000-acre Odgers family farm and its 130-head commercial cattle herd. Jeff Odgers reflects on what it meant to have access to water.
“Like everyone else, we did have some good moisture early. Then the tap shut off and that heat came; and with my land type, which is very sandy, my crops would have absolutely burnt up. Instead, they were, by far, my best performing, yielding crops for the year.” He says extra water on oats yielded 50 bushels more to the acre than dryland acres and an irrigated corn crop, which grew nine feet tall with fully developed cobs, were game changers in 2021.
“It would honestly be the difference for me having to downsize my herd. It allowed me to keep my herd where it is,” says Odgers, who introduced irrigation to the farm in 2017.
Commemorated as a century farm in 2019, the family-run operation near Spy Hill has approximately 600 acres in pasture, manages low-lying areas with some fencing and rotational grazing, and leaves wildlife habitat natural.
“We’ve always enjoyed wildlife and we just want them to have those areas. Whether it’s the deer, elk and moose that have moved into the area here lately, or waterfowl, it’s nice to know you are contributing to that.”
A 50-acre pond has proven a reliable source from which to pump water, even in 2021 when it filled in the spring, then dropped as low as Odgers has ever seen. With additional suction lines, he irrigated about 125 acres.
Managing water usage through irrigation has added value to the land and provided multiple benefits for the Odgers. The cattle have additional fields for grazing as the corn produced more forage growth later in the year. The wells stay replenished or run off into dugouts.
“If we hold it, it’s not all gone at once. That way, we can have a water source from spring to fall.”
None of this progress would have been possible without advice and participation from the Water Security Agency (WSA). The agency determined the volume of available water, while the Ministry of Agriculture assessed water quality as part of the irrigation certification process.
“They [WSA] were instrumental in the setup of the irrigation. I could not have done it without them. They did the mapping, helped to plan where the irrigation will go, how much it will cover, and arranged to get everything approved.”
Assessing salinity levels in the pond and how efficiently soils can drain moisture are critical to the process.
“It starts with the water quality. A good water source will have a low concentration of salts and a low sodium absorption ratio. The Ministry also considers a number of soil and landscape parameters,” says Kelly Farden, Manager of Agronomy Services Crops and Irrigation at the Outlook office.
He warns that developing unsuitable land can lead to soil degradation through waterlogging and increased salinization.