The Grand Slam of Soil Conservation
Just imagine, you’re in a softball game, you have just rounded third base and are trying to beat the ball home. In a desperate effort to score; you slide, and dust flies- making it momentarily impossible to see. Your eyes, nose, and mouth are covered in the freshly raked earth of the ball field. This scenario is something that most of us today can relate to. But in the early 1900s, in several counties across Oklahoma and throughout the Great Plains, many days when men, women, and children would venture from their homes, the dirt they were overwhelmed with wasn’t part of a fun and thrilling ball game; it was from one of the most devastating man-made ecological disasters in American history. This decade-long …show more content…
Every year, roughly 75 billion tons of fertile topsoil are lost worldwide due to wind and water erosion; and in the United States, we lose about 6.9 billion tons of valuable topsoil each year.
If improper soil uses, some farming practices, and the use of tillage tools that leave the soil bare are the main causes of soil erosion; through Agriculture we must look to practices such as no-till farming to reduce soil erosion and preserve topsoil. No-till farming, also called zero tillage or direct planting, is a way of growing crops from year to year without disturbing the soil through tillage. In no-till farming, planting is done right through the residues of previous plantings and other material with a device that cuts a slot a few inches wide, followed by equipment that places the seeds and closes the trench.
The benefits of no-till are as varied as the many aspects of farming itself. The most powerful benefit of no-till farming is the improvement in soil biological fertility, making soils more resilient. Conservation-wise, there is less soil erosion. Agriculturally, water infiltration and soil holding capacity increase, so plants are less affected by dry spells. Ecologically, soil quality and soil life improve. Economically, fewer trips over the field to save fuel and
Just imagine, you’re in a softball game, you have just rounded third base and are trying to beat the ball home. In a desperate effort to score; you slide, and dust flies- making it momentarily impossible to see. Your eyes, nose, and mouth are covered in the freshly raked earth of the ball field. This scenario is something that most of us today can relate to. But in the early 1900s, in several counties across Oklahoma and throughout the Great Plains, many days when men, women, and children would venture from their homes, the dirt they were overwhelmed with wasn’t part of a fun and thrilling ball game; it was from one of the most devastating man-made ecological disasters in American history. This decade-long …show more content…
Every year, roughly 75 billion tons of fertile topsoil are lost worldwide due to wind and water erosion; and in the United States, we lose about 6.9 billion tons of valuable topsoil each year.
If improper soil uses, some farming practices, and the use of tillage tools that leave the soil bare are the main causes of soil erosion; through Agriculture we must look to practices such as no-till farming to reduce soil erosion and preserve topsoil. No-till farming, also called zero tillage or direct planting, is a way of growing crops from year to year without disturbing the soil through tillage. In no-till farming, planting is done right through the residues of previous plantings and other material with a device that cuts a slot a few inches wide, followed by equipment that places the seeds and closes the trench.
The benefits of no-till are as varied as the many aspects of farming itself. The most powerful benefit of no-till farming is the improvement in soil biological fertility, making soils more resilient. Conservation-wise, there is less soil erosion. Agriculturally, water infiltration and soil holding capacity increase, so plants are less affected by dry spells. Ecologically, soil quality and soil life improve. Economically, fewer trips over the field to save fuel and