BYU-Idaho has over 200 acres of farming land with which they train students in multiple types of farming. On May 10, faculty and students gathered to plant potatoes.
Before planting, they had to do the preparation work. there are several things that need to be done before starting to plant in order to make it go smoothly.
“There’s a good amount of prep time,” said Cheryl Werner, a senior studying plant science and technology.
They have to map out the areas of the field that are plantable. The pivots that water the plants can only reach a certain distance, so BYU-I only plants in that watered area. This is mapped out with GPS. As the school had a new tractor, some time had to be spent synchronizing the tractor to the GPS system.
“We’ve had it since Christmas,” said Jared Williams, the faculty member in charge of planting this semester. “It’s pretty new. We get new tractors once a year.”
Modern tractors use GPS to guide their routes. This enables the tractor to steer itself in straight, uniform lines while the farmer is watching to make sure nothing goes wrong with the equipment.
After the field is prepared and the tractor is synched, the students are ready to start planting. The fields they plant are relatively small, so they, unlike most farmers in Idaho, use a four-row planter. This equipment plants the seeds and sprays the fertilizer, insecticide and fungicide to help the potatoes grow safely and soundly.
They plant the first line and then jump ahead to what will be line four. it is hard to make sharp turns with the tractor, so staggering it is much easier for the driver. With the GPS, they know exactly where the next row will be so they can go back and forth planting row one, then four, then back to two, then five and so on.
It’s never easy
A control panel on the tractor starts acting weird. When Williams, the driver, notices, he stops the tractor mid-row. He opens up the panel to the smell of burning plastic. It’s hot to the touch.
“Something always breaks in farming,” Werner said. “Hopefully, it doesn’t break too bad and take too long.”
The wires inside the panel have started to melt together. Grateful they caught it quickly, the faculty fixes it.
“It’s not farming unless something goes wrong,” Werner said.
With the tractor back together, they continue planting.
After their eight rows are done they head to the trucks and refill on seeds, pesticides and fertilizer to plant some more.
