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Video promotes farmers’ commitment to water conservation

A new video produced by the Nebraska Soybean Board (NSB) explains how one Nebraska farm family uses technology to conserve water.

In the video, farmers Ray and Kevin Kucera of Cedar Bluffs share how they monitor soil moisture and time their irrigation using SoyWater, an online tool developed by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with funding from the Soybean Board.

Ray Kucera says the SoyWater program has taken a lot of the guess work out of irrigating soybeans.

“I think we’ve just learned more about water use on soybeans and when they really need to be irrigated—more in the pod-setting stage and not so much in the vegetative stage of growth,” Kucera says.

AUDIO: Ray Kucera

Dr. James Specht, professor emeritus in agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, helped develop the SoyWater program. He says it can save farmers two to three inches of irrigation water annually.

“We believe that producers using SoyWater will not put so much water on at the beginning of season, maybe saving one to two inches,” Specht says, “and then if they time the end of their irrigation correctly, they can save an inch at the end.”

AUDIO: James Specht

Drew Guiney of the Nebraska Soybean Board says the video has a dual purpose.

“We wanted to get a video out there to help promote not only what farmers are doing in terms of stewardship, but to make people aware of it so they can utilize it on their farms,” Guiney says.

AUDIO: Drew Guiney

The video is available at nebraskasoybeans.org and the NSB YouTube and Facebook pages.