Crop residue removal and soil erosion by wind

Excerpt

Crop residue, particularly corn (Zea mays L.) residue, is often grazed by livestock or baled as animal feed or bioenergy feedstock. These practices are expected to increase to meet the increasing demands for forage and feedstock. Under irrigated, high-yield conditions, corn residue can pose some management challenges under no-till management. These can include slow soil warming in spring, delayed planting due to reduced soil drying, interference with planter operations, poor soil-seed contact, and increased pests and diseases. A strategy to address these challenges is the removal of corn residue.

High rates of crop residue removal can, however, increase wind erosion (figure 1). In the United States, soil loss due to wind erosion averages 4.7 Mg ha⁻¹ (4,197 lb ac⁻¹) annually (Van Pelt et al. 2013), which indicates that wind erosion is a major contributor to total erosion. In wind erosion–prone environments such as the Great Plains, rates of wind erosion rates can be above 4.7 Mg ha⁻¹ (Hansen et al. 2012; Sharratt et al. 2016) and may reach 18 Mg ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ (16,074 lb ac⁻¹ yr⁻¹) (Hansen et al. 2012).

Wind erosion removes the near-surface few millimeters of soil with the highest organic matter and nutrient concentration—the most physically, chemically,…