Through a Grow-a-Farmer Grant from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Fund and Region 9 Development Commission, LEC was able to purchase a new irrigation system for the Blue Earth County Community Farm.  The old system had been installed in 2021, when LEC took over management of the Community Farm and was showing its age. 

"The old system was dated and comprised of a lot of rigid tubing that was starting to wear out and tear," said Community Farm Manager SkyAnne Walker. "Those tears were leaking and we were both losing water pressure in other areas of the system and having water spurting out and creating little ponds at the tears. In addition, it was cumbersome to match up the tubing to the correct rows and there wasn't a lot of room for customization."

The new system is comprised of multiple valves and flexible tubing, allowing more control over which areas are being watered. "The new system was designed specifically to minimize bottlenecks that could affect water pressure and there are more valves and access points. Essentially it is both more simple and allows me to have more control," Walker said.  

The Grow-a-Farmer Grants were designed to support local sustainable farmers with the purchase of small equipment, implementation of new sustainable farming techniques, replacement of inventory lost because of extreme weather, and building repair or upgrades, and other similar projects.  "The grant actually covered the cost of the materials," said Walker.  "We were able to purchase most of the materials for our new system from a farmer who was getting rid of their system. We only needed to purchase a few new materials to customize it to fit our farm."

The new system was installed earlier this summer and its flexibility has helped conserve water usage at the Farm according to Walker, "I can turn on the water for specific rows as needed rather than having to water everything all at once. The materials are also a bit more flexible and easier to handle and manipulate."