Long Farm

The Long Water Technology Farm is owned and operated by Matt Long with Red Barn Enterprises, Inc. The farm is located 6 miles north of Marienthal, Kansas in Wichita County. Mr. Long has been an advocate to help educate the local community of the precious resource in Wichita County and has made efforts, along with others, to conserve and extend the life of the aquifer.

Technology

The Long Technology Farm has utilized various more-efficient technologies, such as, irrigation nozzles on the pivot spans, soil moisture probes, mobile drip irrigation, a weather station and irrigation management. This year the farm will also begin to make use of EC Mapping services and try other soil moisture probes for comparison. K-State Research and Extension will be working with Matt to study the crop development compared between the different span nozzles as well.

For the 2020 growing season, Mr. Long plans to incorporate some direct crop sensing Phytech Probes and a GroGuru soil moisture probe network. He plans to continue to compare various crop varieties under limited and full irrigation watering methods.

Water Conservation Areas

The Long Water Technology Farm is one of 24 consent agreements that make up the Wichita County Water Conservation Area (WCWCA). Matt Long was one of the 10 original members that came together in 2016 to form the WCWCA, with the purpose of sustaining their community by conserving their groundwater resources. The goal of the group is to achieve a 50% reduction in water use by 2038 in four steps of 7-year terms. The Technology Farm is still in the initial 7-year period which includes a 29% reduction in water use.

The WCWCA was designated and established in Wichita County on March 7, 2017. More information about the WCA's and the Long Farm WCA plan

2020 Sponsors

Todd & Diana Long