A fond farewell

As farmers well know, every season brings change, and our longtime economy columnist George Oamek has found the right season in his life to take things a little more slowly. This issue’s column will be his last with the magazine as he heads into retirement, and we’re sincerely grateful for the time and expertise he’s shared over the years. Thankfully, he gave us a few more insights for the road, which we’re sharing here.

What do you think of as the best things that came from your time in the industry?

I’m going to say “the relationships.” You’ve got to love what you’re doing. I’m not one of those guys who says, “I’ve never worked a day in my life.” I love my job, and I’ve worked hard! Working in engineering as a profession is a lot of pressure, but it’s very rewarding and wonderful. I’m from a farming background and I’ve always been very pro-agriculture. I’ve always felt comfortable around farmers. You can say anything to them. I’ve really enjoyed it these last few years especially because as you get older you get more confidence.

Try to find, in your first job, a way to get a lot of exposure to the people who are actually installing the systems and using the systems.

There are just some wonderful people in the water business in northern Colorado. I spent part of my younger career trying to keep my work friends and my friend-friends separate, but then it dawned on me eventually that there really isn’t any difference.

What are the trends in irrigation that will have the biggest impact right now?

I have a lot of opinions. On the crop side, I think irrigation is moving east and moving south in the sense that where I live, nobody irrigated here when I was a kid. Now a lot of people irrigate, due to climate change. We’ve got so much tied up in a crop now in terms of input costs. It’s not $200 an acre anymore, it’s $1,000 to put in an acre of corn. Your irrigation system is becoming a smaller and smaller proportion of the total cost. It’s crop insurance, basically.

I think the more you get tied up in that crop, the more you need that insurance that the irrigation system is providing you if you can find a source of water. I think there will be a lot more irrigation. Corn has been about $7 a bushel, which was about two or three times its historical level. You can invest in the system with those kinds of prices.

On the other end of the spectrum, I’m working on a turf replacement study with an environmental group. I strongly believe the irrigation industry is benefitting from that. There’s more investment in irrigation capital associated with those conversions than I think there ever was in the turf. These conversions are very expensive, and if you’re a landowner you’ve got a lot of money tied up in it and you’re not going to let it die for lack of water. So they end up getting a pretty good, sophisticated irrigation system to at least get it established. The capital expenditure for the conservation is usually more than the baseline would’ve been. So I think water conservation in general can only benefit the industry.

What’s your advice to people just starting in the industry?

Try to find, in your first job, a way to get a lot of exposure to the people who are actually installing the systems and using the systems. When I came out of school with my PhD, I was fairly useless, insecure and overeducated. It took a while before I got the guts to stop at a center pivot dealer and go in and ask him questions, or to ask if there’s someone putting in a pivot that I could look at. And they’re more than glad to let you do that.

The people who are actually digging, putting in the trenches and hooking up the electrical systems are really smart. You’ll learn a lot.

Irrigation Today Editor-in-Chief