The path to solar irrigation
Rick Elnicki standing in front of a solar panel with the 22-acre pond in the background. (All photos by Morgan Earl.)
In the 1980s, when Rick Elnicki started farming Northeast of Frontenac, Kansas, he had hopes of irrigating. Unfortunately, those plans fell through. He was left farming dryland until 1993, when he eventually sold out and started Cameo Grain. “The reason I got into the grain business was because farming was so tough. If it doesn’t rain, you don’t grow a crop, and it was very hard. You’d have years that you’d go through and invest a lot of money,” said Elnicki. Little did he know, 33 years later, he’d finally get the opportunity to irrigate. FARM TALK recently visited Elnicki’s operation, where he explained how he went from farming dryland to using solar energy to power his subsurface drip irrigation system.
The Decision to Irrigate
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The blue containers are the filtration system that the pond water runs through before it goes out to the field.
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Subsurface irrigation feeds water directly to the plants’ root system. Meaning, the soil surface is dry most of the time.
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