Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1006706
www.SugarProducer.com 13 Story and photos by Tyrell Marchant While Payne does expect irrigation pivots to become more common in the area over the next few years, he says the gravity-flow systems set up nearly a century ago continue to provide plenty of water to his crops. most ubiquitous crop in the area. "We don't have a set rotation, but we love to follow onions with beets because it helps scavenge the nitrogen," says Payne. "But I'm not afraid to follow hay or wheat or corn with beets, either. Some of our ground, we just use whatever is available." If a guy pays attention while driving around the fields of Payne and his neighbors, he will at one point notice something different from the farms on the east side of the Snake River: Very few sprinklers can be found. Hand lines, wheel lines, pivots—there simply aren't very many of them. "Our biggest difference is that so much around here is furrow- and flood-irrigated," says Payne. While Payne has been and intends to continue adding about one pivot per year to his operation, he maintains that furrow irrigation remains a viable practice. "When irrigation in this valley was established, it was all put together for gravity flow. It used to be 100 percent furrow- irrigated around here. It's still a good way to grow a good crop, even if it may not be the most efficient when it comes to labor." Payne's sugarbeet season typically runs from mid-March into the latter part of October, with a lot of the beet calendar dependent of the progress of the onion crop. (Payne is a partner in an onion-packing shed.) When beet harvest time does come, most of his fields are around a very manageable five-mile haul to the beet dump. Payne is a firm believer in the value of raising a family on the farm, and believes there is no better place he and Darci could have chosen to raise their three children. He is, however, also a firm believer in the value of childhood. "Malheur Butte has become sort of an icon for us," says Chris Payne. The butte can be seen for miles around the flat valley.