Howard Wuertz

Since 1951, Howard Wuertz has farmed cotton and other crops on the sandy fields of Arizona's Casa Grande Valley. But when the Arizona Water Management Act of 1980 mandated that all irrigated farms achieve 85% water use efficiency, Howard faced a difficult choice. He would have to quit farming or develop a more efficient water management system. Even the best of the traditional surface furrow irrigation systems only reached 75% efficiency, so Howard switched to a subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system. By bringing water use efficiency close to 95%, the SDI system has done more than bring Sundance Farms in line with regulation, it has helped him cut costs, improve yields, and steadily expand acreage and profits.

Howard Wuertz (right) with family and crew

"Much of my work as a consultant in the 1980s focused on drip systems, and it took me to jobs in Israel and southern California where orchards, vineyards and specialty crops like strawberries were using drip irrigation effectively. I said 'If they can get up to 95% efficiency with those crops, why can't we do the same thing in our fields?'" Howard found Hawaiian sugar cane farmers using a "cane special" subsurface drip tape, and he borrowed the system to install at Sundance.

For 20 years, Sundance Farms has been using and improving the SDI system. Howard's consulting company, Arizona Drip Systems, has developed and patented four machines used in subsurface drip and minimum tillage systems, which together make up the "Sundance System."

In the Sundance System, one machine installs drip tapes just deep enough to allow equipment to run over and between the lines without doing damage to the system. Another machine removes old drip lines (made obsolete by improved technologies) from the ground, removing the overburden of soil, rolling the old tape up on a spool, and setting it aside - one row at a time. The tillage system they have developed includes a "Rootpuller," which pulls the plants up by the roots, leaving the bed intact to receive the next crop. Their Sundance Disc follows to perform light disking - opening the bed, working the sides of the bed, and relisting the bed in a single pass. "The Sundance System provides for minimum tillage, thereby reducing costs and damage to soil associated with standard farm equipment."

Howard now farms 4000 acres in Arizona's Casa Grande Valley, of which 2,500 acres are irrigated with the SDI system. "Sundance Farms is a highly diversified farming operation, including such crops as long and short staple cotton, small grains like wheat and barley, and seedless and seeded watermelons. We are currently experimenting with 35 acres of brocolli and 10 acres of bell peppers. We have adapted SDI to work with all of these crops, so we are able to rotate from one crop to another without disturbing the irrigation system."

"A properly designed, installed, operated and maintained SDI system is the cheapest irrigation system on the market today, when amortized over the life expectancy of the system" says Howard. "We use only enough water to wet the root zone, so fertilizer is not washed out of the soil profile. This reduces waste by 30% or more, and protects the environment. The SDI system allows us to utilize the inputs that are required in production agriculture, at their highest use and efficiency. This is the basis of our sustainable farming operation."

A sub-surface drip irrigated field

"As a result of this system we have been able to continue and expand our farming, while farmers all over the world are losing their land because costs are too high and prices for commodities they grow are too low." Howard says all his crops show a 25-50% increase in yields for that area, in some cases up to a 100% increase.

For those who would like to learn more about SDI, Howard suggests the best source of information and education are other practitioners. "Look around the country and find the farm with the closest climate and soil conditions to yours that is using SDI, and learn from what they are doing. See if you can capture the essence of the system’s efficiencies, and then adapt it to your farming operation and crops." According to Howard, traditional resources such as universities and extension services are behind the curve on SDI, and not the best source for help.

Howard Wuertz
Sundance Farms
3227 W. Bechtel Rd.
Coolidge, AZ 85228
Tel: (520) 723-7711

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