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 Research: July 2008 Other Articles |
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by Billy Cook |
One of the strengths of the Noble Foundation's research programs is having access to the seven different research farms that make up over 12,000 acres. These farms represent very different resource bases that are used for many research projects and agricultural enterprises. We like to say, "If you are a cooperator in our service area, we have a farm that is similar to yours." The farms offer a great advantage that allows our consultants to take the results of our applied research and resource management efforts and share applicable information with our cooperators. Over the last few years we have been focusing on infrastructure development on these farms that will allow us to do an even better job with our research efforts. I want to share some of these developments with you.
Aerial photo of the Noble Foundation Dupy Research and Demonstration Farm. The Dupy Farm is used for small plot research.
Irrigation is becoming an increasingly critical tool for the development of new crop and forage varieties, and other agronomic work. In most of our programs, irrigation is typically not used to maximize production, but used to mimic "normal" rainfall. Many resources have been utilized in order to develop new crop or forage varieties in the small plot stage, and often the availability of seed to continue this development is very limited. As a result, we want to use irrigation in limited amounts when we don't get normal rainfall to ensure that these new varieties survive. Over the last few years, we have drilled five new high-volume water wells on two research farms and installed two pivots and three linear irrigation systems. Three areas have been developed under these irrigation systems, giving us over 50 (0.5 to 2.5-acre) small plot areas on three farms with different soil types.
We currently run cattle for various purposes on six of our seven research farms. Our cattle facilities needed updating at several of these farms. However, instead of repairing and updating these existing facilities, we were able to build a single cattle facility on the Oswalt Ranch that is located centrally to our other farms. We find ourselves frequently sorting cattle into numerous groups for different trials. This facility was designed with 10 (50'x 100') sorting pens that can easily be converted into 20 (50' x 50') sorting pens to facilitate sorting. This facility has a hydraulic turret-crowding tub that leads into an alley that splits into two different hydraulic working chutes. One of these chutes is designed to handle cows and bulls, while the other is primarily for calves, stockers and heifers. Another need was similarly sized feeding pens where studies could be conducted. Adjacent to the working facility are 11 (6-acre) feeding pens that will have fence line bunks. A four-bay commodity barn was also constructed to allow for bulk commodity utilization.
The Red River Farm has one of the oldest improved pecan orchards in the state of Oklahoma, in addition to a large number of native pecan trees. These orchards have allowed us to have extensive experience in this enterprise and to conduct numerous pecan-related projects since the 1970s. To stay on the cutting edge of this enterprise, we have just finished establishing a pecan orchard with about 800 trees on the McMillan Farm. These trees are irrigated, and about 25 percent of the orchard will be dedicated to an irrigation method research project. Several other research projects are also ongoing with this new orchard.
One of our goals is to supply you, the producer, with current and applicable information that helps you manage your operation to achieve your goals. These developments, along with many others, should allow us to stay in the forefront of applied agriculture research and to continue to provide information for our ever-changing industry.