BOW, Wash. — Skagit Valley potato grower Tim Wallace asked his sons to fix a problem. David and Connor did and started a company to fix the same problem for other farmers.

The trouble is that irrigation reels break down and stop retracting the sprinkler. One spot gets watered over and over until someone comes along and turns off the pump. This can go on for hours, or all night.

Water and fuel are wasted. The overwatered ground gets so compacted that harvesting potatoes means digging up dirt, too.

“I think David got sick of listening to me complain about that,” Tim Wallace said.

He had the right sons to gripe to, apparently.

David Wallace, 33, has a doctorate in solid state chemistry from Johns Hopkins University. Connor Wallace, 30, has a degree in physics from Reed College. Together, they invented FarmHQ.

The high-tech device attaches to the irrigation reel and monitors rotating magnets. If the magnets stop turning, the reel has stopped retracting. The FarmHQ then signals its companion device at the pump to shut off the water.

Meanwhile, the farmer gets a text message, alerting him that irrigation has stopped. An advantage is that farmers don’t wake up in the morning to a super-soaked half acre.

“I don’t miss that at all,” Tim Wallace said.

A company is born

To develop and sell their product, the Wallace brothers formed CODA Farm Technologies, a name that came from combining Connor and David.

Dan Oschrin, a computer programmer and former math teacher, and Gabe Martin, who has a master’s degree in robotics from the Colorado School of Mines, are on the development team, too.

Several farmers in the Skagit Valley, where irrigation reels are common, tried FarmHQ last year. The pandemic has slowed marketing and production this year — computer chips are in short supply.

The company hopes to go full bore next year, and David Wallace knows where he wants to go.

“I want our device on every reel in the United States,” he said.

The company named its product FarmHQ, indicating that it will do more than monitor the retracting reel. Farms can track the sprinkler’s progress and flow rate, and compile season-long irrigation records.

Skagit Valley vegetable seed grower Sean Galbreath was one of the farmers who bought units in 2020.

Because workers were able to track the irrigation remotely, they didn’t waste time returning to a field early and waiting for the sprinkler to retract, he said. “It saved us a ton of time,” he said.

In one case, the reel broke down, and the device saved red kale seed from being soaked and ruined. “We figured it paid for itself right there in one shot,” Galbreath said.

Back on the farm

The Wallace family farm traces its origins back more than 100 years to Irish immigrants.

David and Connor’s grandfather George and great-uncle Dick combined their initials in the 1950s and founded G&D Wallace, also known as Wallace Farms.

After graduating from Johns Hopkins, David Wallace worked as a data scientist for Amazon in Seattle. He returned to the farm in 2019.

“I was constantly feeling the pull back,” he said. “Almost immediately my dad brought this problem to me.”

After graduating from Reed College, Connor worked as a software engineer for companies in Portland and San Francisco. He said the farm project sounded cool and more fun, so he came home to work with his brother.

“It’s really exciting to build a company with him,” Connor Wallace said. “It feels like we’ve done so much already. I feel pretty confident about this year.”

Their father endorses FarmHQ.

“It works really well,” Tim Wallace said. “It’s one of the best improvements we’ve done on the farm in years.”

David Wallace

Occupation: Inventor, co-founder of CODA Farm Technologies

Age: 33

Education: Doctorate, Johns Hopkins University; bachelor’s degree, Whitman College

Connor Wallace

Occupation: Inventor, co-founder of CODA Farm Technologies

Age: 30

Education: Bachelor’s degree in physics, Reed College