Campus farm specializes in precision agriculture

Providing practical knowledge in precision agriculture is one goal of the West Hills College Farm of the Future in Coalinga, where many students enrolled in the program are already in the workforce and looking to upgrade their skills.

Agricultural science instructor Terry Brase said technology used in the program is installed for students' benefit, so they understand the practical value of it—such as saving water, energy or labor. Students also receive hands-on education by helping install the technology.

About two years ago, an automated irrigation system was installed in a pistachio orchard at the Farm of the Future, in cooperation with several companies. Once a week, the farm manager enters the irrigation schedule and the total number of hours it will run each day. He also sets when it turns on and off.

"All he has to do is set the hours, and then the system turns on, turns on the pumps, opens the valves and irrigates for the set time, and then it turns off again," Brase said. "And what that does then is it turns on the booster pump, so it pumps water from the reservoir, pressurizes the system and sends it out to the pistachio orchard."

The system also allows the farm's four blocks of pistachios to be irrigated differently, he said.

There are two wells on site, Brase said, "so if it's not filling fast enough with just the one well, the second well kicks on, and it's automated with the water level. The farm manager or I can see or adjust that" via the internet.

To improve soil moisture monitoring, the Farm of the Future uses GroGuru soil moisture sensors in the orchard.

"It's keeping track of the moisture at three different levels in the orchard, and then we can see how the water profile is moving through the soil," Brase said. "We can monitor the soil moisture through the internet, and that helps guide some of our decisions as far as the turning (the water) on and off, and what we have to do with the irrigation scheduling."

He said farm managers can also watch water levels drop online.

"It's very detailed. The first time I saw it, it was pretty impressive because you can actually see on a daily basis the soil moisture decrease as the tree is drinking. It actually looks like a stairstep, and so you can see when the trees are actually pulling more water out," Brase said.

The idea behind precision irrigation, he said, is that every plant needs a certain amount of water, and the technology enables farmers to apply only the amount that's needed without over- or underwatering.

"It's definitely saving water," Brase said, "and being able to apply the water where it's needed, either because of the trees or the soil type, and apply the water to individual blocks, is much more efficient."

The Farm of the Future also uses a system called PowWow Energy. This technology provides detailed information about evapotranspiration and allows students to see how efficient water use is by telling them if they're under- or over-applying water based on the system's calculations.

"It's also about energy efficiency and making sure we're maintaining efficient use of the pumps," Brase said.

The Farm of the Future includes 63 acres of land in row crops. Brase said the farm has purchased a complete set of Bermad valves with WiseConn nodes, to extend automation to the row crops.

"We're hoping that we're going to be able to do that this year," he said—but the COVID-19 outbreak has affected plans, because students have been completing classes online instead of coming to the farm every Saturday to do onsite classwork, Brase said.

The Farm of the Future also focuses on soil health, by using compost and/or cover crops.

"We've also started doing more research demonstration projects," Brase said. "That's where a company maybe has some type of new product that they want to have demonstrated to our students."

One project, he said, was a nanotechnology polymer-based tea: Zytonic from Zidex.

"It was applied, and it actually helped add pore space to the soil, which allowed more roots to grow. It also did a better job of retaining water and had proper water infiltration, because it allowed the water to move through the soil, then retained the amount needed for the soil and the roots of the plant," Brase said.

Using this product, Brase conducted a research project, growing broccoli with some student involvement.

"It was just amazing, the difference," he said, "and just by looking at, it was obvious which plot had used the product and which didn't. The line between them was very distinct, and so it was a case where it was very eye-opening for the students."

The Farm of the Future has blocks of fields dedicated to this type of experimentation.

"We're trying to work with the companies that would like to help our students in that way," Brase said.

A drone/UAF program is in the works for remote application of chemicals, he said. Though the program has been designed, it hasn't been approved, in part due to the pandemic and move to online classes.

"Our curriculum committee has been busy with that, and so they really haven't had time to move forward on the drone work," Brase said.

(Kathy Coatney is a reporter in Bend, Oregon. She may be contacted at kacoatney@gmail.com.)