PEA RIDGE — Like an oasis, a sea of green Vaughn Bermuda grass stood in the midst of the brown, droughtparched fields south of Lee Town Road this summer. Watered daily with a overhead irrigation system, the grass grew to more than the required 18 inches before being cut, providing farmer Larry Miser with one more cutting this summer.
Nearby, on the edges of the field, the non-irrigated Vaughn Bermuda isn’t three inches tall, not much more than common Bermuda would be even with irrigation, Miser said.
“There’s a difference of daylight and dark between this and common Bermuda,” Miser said.
Miser has repeatedly wonawards for his quality Bermuda hay.
Farming land that has been in the family for generations, Miser isn’t afraid to try new things such as switching to the new variety of Bermuda.
One of four of Olivia Miser’s sons, Larry said his mother is a vital part of the farming business.
Olivia, 91, has farmed that land for the past 72 years, she said.
“It was so hot and so dry, believe me, we were just baked when we got out of there,” she said about installing the irrigation system this summer. “I have worked that land for more than 70 years. We got part of it when my first child - he’s 72 - was little.”
The Misers, including brother Gene, dug the trenches for 3,500 feet of eight-inch pipe to run the water from the pond on the farmland to the hydraulic-driven irrigation system and to nearby ponds to water cattle.
“My husband dug that lake,” Mrs. Miser recalled, saying she and her husband were in the ministry and wanted the lake for a place to build a cabin nearby and to fish. But, “he died young,” she said.
The pivot irrigation system will put an inch of water on the ground in 36 hours, Mr. Miser said, explaining that during the dry spell, he ran the system at night and turned it off occasionally to let the spring-fed pond recharge.
An accountant, Miser was the financial planner at TRW for 29 years, but has farmed the family land for many years growing green beans, soybeans, wheat and running cattle on the land.
News, Pages 1 on 09/12/2012