Clean stream water

Farmers in Idaho use clear water, which means they can control the quality of the water that runs off their fields and how it affects the river system. David Sparks, Idaho AG. Today with farmers Sheila and Eric Hasselstrom. But that’s the way it is. Speaker2: The design is such that when it comes out of the pond, it’s kind of an S shape so it slows the water down and settles the sediment so it’s clean water as it goes through the stream. So the sediment and a lot of the nutrients get settled. If there was nutrient runoff in the fields. Speaker3: Part of our soil testing that we get is what’s called a Vasc score, which tells us the structure of our soil and the aggregates in the soil and how well water can penetrate our soil. And there are some soils that I just recently included. And that’s why I’m another believer in no-till or reduced-till situations because my Vasc score is in the 20 to 25 range. The new soil I picked up has a score of five. That also tells us how much water is going to run off the soil during downpours and that the soil also crumbles because it has no structure. When you add things to the soil, it doesn’t just become rock hard. When you remove all that residue, there’s nothing left to let the water penetrate the soil. That’s why I’m a big believer in no-till. You can walk through a lot of my fields and every time there’s a big rainstorm, you see the water running down into the gullies. It’s generally beautiful. Clean water. And how it affects the river system. David Sparks, Idaho AG. Today with farmers Sheila and Eric Hasselstrom. But that’s the way it is. Speaker 2: The design is such that when it comes out of the pond, it’s kind of an S shape so it slows the water down and settles the sediment so that when it goes through the creek, it’s clean water. That’s how you settle the sediment and a lot of the nutrients. If there was nutrient runoff in the fields. Speaker 3: Part of our soil testing that gives us what’s called a Vasc score tells us about the structure of our soil and the aggregates in the soil and how well water can penetrate our soil. And there’s a soil that I just recently picked up. And that’s why I’m also a believer in no tillage or reduced tillage situations because my Vasc score is in the 20 to 25 range. The new soil that I picked up has a score of five. That also tells us how much water is going to run off that soil during downpours and that soil is also going to crumble because it has no structure. When you mix stuff into that soil, it doesn’t just get rock hard. When you get rid of all that residue, you don’t have anything to allow the water to penetrate the soil. That’s why I’m a believer in no-till situations. If you walk across many of my fields, every time there’s a heavy rainstorm, you see the water running into the drawers. Usually it’s nice. Clean water.