This low-input system can cover 200 acres a day with two people or 300 acres a day with three people. Field preparations in the study are adaptations of methods producers are already using, says Earl Vories, U of A biological and agricultural engineer. He helped Keisling adapt irrigation methods for the study. In the traditional wide-row fields, soybeans grow in raised beds and irrigation water runs between the rows. For the hipper-planted method, rows are thrown up with a disk hipper when the field is tilled in the spring to control weeds.
Seed is broadcast with the airflow truck, then the ground is rehipped and rolled to cover the seed.
Once it's set up, hipper-planted fields are irrigated the same way as traditional wide beds, with water running between furrows. But the soybeans grow in a broadcast pattern instead of in straight rows. The third method is similar to traditional flat-field planting, but the soil is corrugated with a shallow plow to guide water down the field. In any of these, Vories says producers may need to modify their irrigation practices after planting. This prevents the loss of water that just runs off the end of the field if it's left running.