IBC totes for cane and vegetable farms

Sugar country

Belle Glade, on Lake Okeechobee, is the center of the sugar industry. The Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative mill there employs about 550 people in the crop season, which runs from October to the spring. Farms grow on black muck soil in the Everglades Agricultural Area, where canals and pumps manage the water.

Cane farms use tanks for herbicide and fertilizer mixes and for cleaning equipment. Totes are handy on trailers and truck beds, and they are cheap enough to dedicate to one product.

Vegetable fields

Palm Beach County leads the nation in fresh sweet corn and sweet bell peppers, and the Redland in Miami-Dade is its ornamental plant and produce district. Farms in both use drip irrigation, fertigation and spray rigs.

Records and rules

Farms keep records of every input. A tote that held a pesticide must be tracked, and a tote that held a food ingredient must be labeled. Keep a log of which tote held what, and rinse and label accordingly.

Ask your extension office about rules for rinse water and pesticide containers. Pesticide containers are regulated differently from food containers.

Muck and sand

Muck soils settle, and sandy soils shift. A tote on bare ground sinks within a season. Use a gravel base with pavers, and check that it is level.

Grading the farm's own empties

A farm that buys fertilizer and chemicals in totes will have its own stream of empties too. The empties from fertilizer can be rinsed and reused on the same farm for water or fertigation. The empties from pesticides must be handled under the product label and the state's rules on pesticide containers; they are not for resale as water totes. Keep the two piles separate and labeled, and put the pesticide empties in a locked area. A farm manager who keeps a one-page log of what each tote held and where it went has an easy answer for an inspector and for a buyer.

Water in the Everglades Agricultural Area

Farms around Belle Glade draw water from canals managed by drainage districts and pump it into fields. Water levels are controlled for the crops and for the lake, so a farm's own storage in totes is a small buffer rather than a main supply. Keep canal water out of totes unless you screen it, because algae and silt will foul emitters quickly.