Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..
Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
Updated: August 25, 2026 @ 11:10 pm
Rick Elnicki standing in front of a solar panel with the 22-acre pond in the background. (All photos by Morgan Earl.)
The blue containers are the filtration system that the pond water runs through before it goes out to the field.
Subsurface irrigation feeds water directly to the plants’ root system. Meaning, the soil surface is dry most of the time.
Rick Elnicki standing in front of a solar panel with the 22-acre pond in the background. (All photos by Morgan Earl.)
In the 1980s, when Rick Elnicki started farming Northeast of Frontenac, Kansas, he had hopes of irrigating. Unfortunately, those plans fell through. He was left farming dryland until 1993, when he eventually sold out and started Cameo Grain. “The reason I got into the grain business was because farming was so tough. If it doesn’t rain, you don’t grow a crop, and it was very hard. You’d have years that you’d go through and invest a lot of money,” said Elnicki. Little did he know, 33 years later, he’d finally get the opportunity to irrigate. FARM TALK recently visited Elnicki’s operation, where he explained how he went from farming dryland to using solar energy to power his subsurface drip irrigation system.
Elnicki has been interested in irrigating since 1980. “I always thought in the back of my mind that someday I’m going to irrigate, and then I can go out there during a drought, and I’ll have a lush crop,” he said. The opportunity came 12 years ago when his son purchased farm land with a 22-acre pond, Northeast of Frontenac, Kansas as well. The pond eliminated the need to dig a well, which is a costly endeavor. They just had to figure out how they were going to get enough water in the pond to irrigate 113 acres throughout the growing season. With a lot of preparation and dirt work, they were able to build waterways directly to the pond to collect runoff water. Once that was done, it was a matter of figuring out how he could pump water out of the pond and what kind of irrigation system to use.
The blue containers are the filtration system that the pond water runs through before it goes out to the field.
About seven years ago, he started to research NutraDrip Irrigation and reached out. He attended a few informal meetings and watched videos of how the system worked. He decided to utilize the subsurface drip system. This type of irrigation directly waters the crops’ root system, making it a more efficient method. The company didn’t have a sales representative in the area at the time, so when Travis Rokey later moved to the area, they were ready to start the process. The only thing left to figure out was how to pump the water out of the pond.
Subsurface irrigation feeds water directly to the plants’ root system. Meaning, the soil surface is dry most of the time.
Elnicki noticed how much input cost other farmers were putting into their irrigation practices. The cost of fuel and oil needed to keep the generators and sometimes tractors running to pump water adds up quickly. He wanted to go in a direction that would cut down on costs in the long run. That’s when he decided to integrate solar panels into his operation. He applied for a USDA grant program that helped fund half of the initial cost and got started. He worked with Daniel Zywietz from SEK Solar to get the panels working and pumping water out of the pond. Elnicki has two panels on the property, one facing east and one facing west. That way, as the sun rises and falls, he can collect as much energy as possible. He also has a battery station that houses twelve batteries. “By having batteries, you can start earlier in the morning. Then in the afternoon, after the batteries are depleted, you start generating more energy than the pump uses so it fills the batteries back up”, said Elnicki. He added that the batteries allow him to pump more water either in the morning or at night.
This will be the first year of irrigating using the solar-powered energy on his soybean crop. Elnicki said, “It sounds like a lot, 13 million (gallons of water), but on 113 acres, that’s only 4 inches down where it does the most good, in the root zone.” When asked about future plans, he said: “We probably will eventually add some more batteries just so we’ll be able to run a little longer, or we could add more acres.”
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