Montana farmer-stockman. [volume], July 01, 1951, Page 30, Image 30

About Montana farmer-stockman. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1947-1993

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
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Border Dikes End 21-Year
Battle of the Ditches
By JERRY LESTER
FIVE STACKS of good alfalfa hay
instead of two small ones—that's the
story of increased production cm a
23-acre field recently leveled and
border diked at the Alois Schai dairy
farm, Madison county. And another
19 wagon loads of hay were put in
the dairy barn from this first year's
seeding of alfalfa.
But this real increase in produc-
tion was not what Schai was most
excited about. For 21 years he had
fought the battle of the ditches. Con
stant maintenance was necessary for
the field laterals and use of equip
ment had to be patterned around
the ditches. Now he has found the
answer to his problems and there is
no holding down his enthusiasm for
his new border-diked field.
With the land leveled, there are
no low spots to hold too much water
or high ones to give a dry spot. And
the border dikes do a perfect job of -
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Alois Schai. Madison county dairy
farmer, was once a Swiss cheesemaker
and followed his trade for a few years
after coming to America. Then he de
cided to try his hand at farming and
has had a dairy herd ever since. But
his first love is still good cheese and
big moment is one of these periodic
visits from a fellow Swiss cheesemaker
working now at a Salmon. Idaho, fac
tory. He brought Schai the 150-pound
Swiss cheese seen in photo. This cheese
had been aged for about 5 months and
lasted perfect to this reporter out
Schai will continue aging it in his
32-degree milk cooler room, using wine
in th* process.
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Her* is a part of the 23-acre newly leveled and border diked alfalfa field at the
Alois Schai fatm, Madison county. Some of the 5 large stacks of hay obtained
in two cuttings on this first year stand of alfalfa are seen in the background.
Besides the stacks. Schai put 19 wagon loads of hay in the barn loft. Production
was more than doubled because he ordinarily would have a hard time getting
even two small stacks from this field.
distributing th* water in M to 40
foot section* down the field. They
are at the same time hardly high
enough to notice and don't bother the
use of machinery in any way. Buck
rakes, mowers, drills and any type
of machinery needed can be operated
easily over the low dikes,
The Jefferson valley soil conserva
tion district helped Schai through
engineering assistance in surveying
the leveling job as well as staking
out the border dikes. The leveling
was done by a contractor and cost
$640, which Schai considered not at
all expensive for a job that would
solve his irrigating problems for
good. He put in his own borders
using a homemade "V" type drag
with open end the width of the dike.
This job just took him 2% hours
which is a real contrast to the days
spent on keeping up the old field
laterals.
The alfalfa is for a herd of about
50 Holstein dairy cows. Schai sells
whole milk to Butte dairies. He has
also had as many as 70 head of Duroc
hogs on the place and still keeps a
few. Farm land includes 150 acres
of which about 100 is good irrigable
cropland. Another 80 acres of sub
irrigated pasture is also available.
Schai's next project is to level and
border dike a 40-acre irrigated pas
ture that has been a constant source
of trouble. Every time cows are
turned into the pasture the ditches
are crossed and banks torn down de
spite electric fences and every other
means he could think of. He is sure
that this field of Huntley mixture
pasture will grow much more forage
when leveled and border diked than
under the present unsatisfactory field
lateral system.
His advice to farmers planning to
level and border dike their fields is
to grow a grain crop on the newly
leveled land the first year. This will
allow the fills to settle. Then if the
field is plowed up and an ordinary
leveler used, it should be in good
condition. Subsequent plowing
should be with a two-way plow and
done so that the soil will fall back in
the same place. New dikes must be
built each year but this is just a mat
ter of a few hours work.