How do we make the Ogallala Aquifer survive to support irrigated agriculture for generations to come?

That thorny question has plagued farmers, ecologists, water resource engineers and the municipalities that rely on Ogallala groundwater for at least three decades.

This year, on three separate working farms, the researchers at Kansas State University's Southwest Experiment Station in Garden City are participating in a public/private partnership with 22 partners to get full-farming scale answers to water conservation questions.

"We have had demonstration plots at the research station testing different water technologies, but this was an opportunity to bring these technologies into commercial scale farming operations and gather data on how they perform in the real world," said Jonathan Aguilar, water resource engineer for the southwest station.

"For farmers, there is a reluctance to believe the small-scale demonstration plot results," he said. "For something this important, they want to know how it works in the real world."

One of the Water Technology Farms, T&O Farms LLC, is located about 15 miles southwest of Garden City and owned by Tom Willis. This year, Willis has 10 center pivot irrigation systems dedicated to testing the water conservation comparing traditional center pivot against a new technology called Dragon Line.

Monty Teeter, owner of Teeter Irrigation, perfected the Dragon Line system. It adds drip lines to the drops on a center pivot system to essentially convert a center pivot into a drip irrigation system. Its advantage is that it gives most of the benefits of drip irrigation at a fraction of the cost of installing a subsurface system.

THE PARTNERS: This sign at the T&O LLC Farm project identifies the 23 members of the public/private partnership funding the expansive irrigation research project in southwest Kansas.

THE PARTNERS: This sign at the T&O LLC Farm project identifies the 23 members of the public/private partnership funding the expansive irrigation research project in southwest Kansas.

At T&O, irrigation systems are being evaluated on circles of sorghum, soybeans, corn, wheat and alfalfa. Willis has irrigated four circles with Dragon Line -- two of sorghum and one each of soybeans and alfalfa. He has six under conventional spray center pivots -- two of alfalfa, two of soybeans, one of wheat and one of corn.

He has harvested or is now harvesting and collecting yield data from all fields. Data on water use was collected during the growing season.

His nephew, Dallen Willis, farms with Tom and was running the combine on the sorghum circles on the last days of September.

So far, he said, the data collected from soybeans already harvested and the milo he's still cutting have been very positive from both a water conservation and a yield standpoint.

All fields have moisture probes and are monitored so irrigation only runs when needed -- which was less this year than in many past years because of better-than-average rainfall.

COUNTING HEADS: Kansas State University water resource engineer, Jonathan Aguilar, works at the southwest Kansas State University Extension Research Station at Garden City. He is shown counting heads on milo plants in the station's research plot in the T&O Farms irrigation project southeast of town, which doubles as a site for a planting population plot to explore populations and yield.

COUNTING HEADS: Kansas State University water resource engineer, Jonathan Aguilar, works at the southwest Kansas State University Extension Research Station at Garden City. He is shown counting heads on milo plants in the station's research plot in the T&O Farms irrigation project southeast of town, which doubles as a site for a planting population plot to explore populations and yield.

In past years, center pivot irrigation nozzles for the sorghum circles were set for 350 gallons per minute, Dallen Willis said. This year, the Dragon Line nozzles were set at 250 gallons per minute. Early yields were coming in at 156 bushels per acre, he said, compared to 125 bushels per acre when the same fields were in milo two years ago.

On the soybean circle, where harvest is complete, the Dragon Line pivots were nozzled at 300 gallons per minute compared to 600 gpm with traditional center pivot. Yields were slightly better at 80 bushels per acre under Dragon Line, he said.

"For me, being able to use half the water and get the same yield is a real win," he said. "The big difference is you are putting the water right at the roots where the plants need it. When the field is under canopy, you have almost no evaporation like you do with a conventional pivot. You can also add fertilizer to the Dragon Line, where you can't to the center pivot.

All the fields in the study were planted in circles to optimize the ability of the Dragon Line hoses to be pulled between the rows.

The TO Farm project is a water conservation project.

Another farm, owned by Dwayne Roth north of Holcomb is comparing the relative efficiency of conventional spray, bubbler and I-WOB technologies.

A third, smaller acreage project is on the ILS livestock farming operation south of Larned.