Farmers in Idaho are using clear water habits, meaning that they can control the quality of the water that runs off their crops and how it affects the river system. David Sparks, Idaho AG. Today with farmers Sheila and Eric Hasselstrom. But the way. Speaker2: That's design is as it comes out of the pond, it kind of goes in an S feature so that it slows down the water and it drops the sediment so that as it goes on down through the creek, it's a clean water. So you drop the sediment and a lot of the nutrients. If there was any nutrient runoff in the fields. Speaker3: One part of our soil test it gives us called a vasc score, and that tells us the structure of our soil and the aggregates that are in the soil, and how well water can infiltrate our ground. And there's some ground that I just picked up recently. And this is why it makes me another believer and kind of no till or reduced till situations, because my Vasc score is in the 20 to 25 range. The new ground that I picked up is five. What that also tells us is like on downpours is how much water is going to shed off of that ground, and that soil is also going to crush because there's no structure to that. When you get stuff mixed into that soil, it ain't just going to set up rock hard. When you get rid of all of this residue, you have nothing to let the water infiltrate down into the ground. So that's why no till makes me a believer. You can go across a lot of my fields, and anytime we get a big rainstorm, you see water running down the drawers. It's generally nice. Clean water. and how it affects the river system. David Sparks, Idaho AG. Today with farmers Sheila and Eric Hasselstrom. But the way. Speaker2: That's design is as it comes out of the pond, it kind of goes in an S feature so that it slows down the water and it drops the sediment so that as it goes on down through the creek, it's a clean water. So you drop the sediment and a lot of the nutrients. If there was any nutrient runoff in the fields. Speaker3: One part of our soil test it gives us called a vasc score, and that tells us the structure of our soil and the aggregates that are in the soil, and how well water can infiltrate our ground. And there's some ground that I just picked up recently. And this is why it makes me another believer and kind of no till or reduced till situations, because my Vasc score is in the 20 to 25 range. The new ground that I picked up is five. What that also tells us is like on downpours is how much water is going to shed off of that ground, and that soil is also going to crush because there's no structure to that. When you get stuff mixed into that soil, it ain't just going to set up rock hard. When you get rid of all of this residue, you have nothing to let the water infiltrate down into the ground. So that's why no till makes me a believer. You can go across a lot of my fields, and anytime we get a big rainstorm, you see water running down the drawers. It's generally nice. Clean water.
