soil washing away

ok..so the neighbors culvert rusted away and
they had to replace it..They replaced the two 5 ft
culverts with three 5 ft culverts. Their lane had
been holding some of the water back when we had
big rains. Not so much anymore. Last big rain,
the creek started making a secondary channel
through one of my fields. Im looking for options
as to what to do. I cant pass the water on, there
is a county bridge that serves as a bottleneck on
the way out of my property. So...to save the
soil..do i seed down 20' on either side of the
creek? Or is there anything else I can do?

Without a topo of the plot, I will only venture that putting in rip-rap on the bank where it is flooding out of the banks. Keeping the creek depth good across your property is another good tactic.
Jim

If I were you I would go to the county and see what they say. If they approved the culvert installation they may be able to help you out. I would go to the county before I did anything to the ditch. Jim

wish you could send sum my way. we started out this year @ 50 percent irrigation water allotement. this all irrigated ground so another snow sparse winter and there will not be any farming in this valley next year. the S.W. monsoon should start bout 1 st of august and will help some save a bit of what's been planted but wont do diddly for next year

Do you have a USDA Soil and Water Conservation Department?

I was wondering about that..if the nrcs was worth going to? I was really hoping to graze the land once or twice a year instead of cutting it. I dont think thats allowed under the govt programs?

The Soil Conservation Department has programs that cost share on water way improvements. You can still hay them or pasture them. This is not a CRP program. You have to have it done to their plan and after you have seeded it down and passed inspection they pay you as much as 80%.

Realize this is not as gravy as it sounds because they will make you do it in ways that will cost more money than if you just had it done yourself. Usually wider and flatter than I would usually do them. Also may require rock spills ways and such.

They can come out an figure a plan without you committing to do the final project. Do not sign the plan. If you do then you just committed to doing it. Even if you never do the first thing you can have to pay back 1/3 of the plans cost just because it was passed in their budget.

Friend had a plan done to put in water control dikes. They changed the plan from the first one they did. It would have really messed up the ability to farm the field the way the "NEW" college kid planned it. My friend refused to do the "revised" plan. Cost him $4500. He refused to pay any of it at first as he stated that the Government had not spent any moneys. They told him they had done the plan and had it in their appropriation budget. So they just took the money out of his other farm payments for the next year or so.

The other thing to watch is it might make you need to do a manure management plan for your whole farm. Once you are required to do this you will have to do it every year. You have to take manure samples the first time. Then you take in your fertilizer receipts and they look them over. They will tell you if you can put so much of this and that on. IF you go over on something they can cut your payment that you would have got on the water way.

Because of this manure management plan requirement I do not use the Soil conservation office anymore.

Also they have gotten real slow at paying after final approvals on water way projects. I mean 12 months or more after it is passed is not uncommon. You have to show them PAID bills too. SO you have to pay the cost then wait on the government to pay you back.

Some still fool with them I don't. It is your call.