Excerpt
IN a recent commentary in Farm Journal magazine (“You've Just Lost Your Best Excuse,” November 1984 and May 1985, depending on edition), I criticized three common excuses for permitting soil erosion. Of those excuses, the idea that large, modern farm equipment promotes soil erosion is perhaps the most popular.
It is understandable how this idea came about. Agriculture is replete with examples of farmers who are indifferent to soil erosion and who use their large farm equipment accordingly. These individuals and their equipment practices can be tremendously destructive.
It does not follow, however, that farmers can use large farm equipment only in a destructive way. A conservation-oriented farmer can use large, modern farm equipment to promote conservation goals.
Timeliness of operation
Consider two important sources of erosion. Late-fall tillage is perhaps the worst. It exposes soil to both wind and water erosion. Another source, less commonly appreciated, is tillage early in the spring, prior to the high-intensity rains common in the Midwest and Plains.
One reason many farmers carry out these practices is the need to complete field work. These farmers' machinery resources are such that they must take advantage of all …
Footnotes
Jim Bender is a farmer from Weeping Water, Nebraska 68463. His conservation practices on his 650-ocrefarm earned him the 1986 Master Conservationist Award from the Omaha World Herald and the University of Nebraska Institute of Natural Resources.
- Copyright 1987 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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