soil erosion poll

Farmallb

Well-known Member
Which do you think leads to more soil erosion, plowing, or 30+in rows?
PLEASE DONT SAY BOTH. I know that that's true. I want to know WHICH you think causes more erosion.
Myself, I think the 38/40in rows cause more, as the ground exposed to those wide rows for a longer time, then the ground is exposed to being plowed. Cultivating rows that wide, I think helps along erosion due to rains.
Plowing, the grounds plowed, and a day or so later disced, then planted, so the ground, in a plowed state, is no where the amount of time that the ground is in a planted state. I think 16/20in rows has done more to stop erosion than not plowing
 
I still plant 38 inch rows and do not feel that we get any more soil erosion than narrow rows do. I contour as well as plant in strips and use grass waterways and some notill along with minimum tillage. I sure do not want to see the results of moldboard plowing on my ground. I see enough erosion in the amish that plow everything as well as cultivate it two or three times. Tom
 
Around our place many of the fields are so flat that water erosion is a non-issue - we have the opposite problem of not being able to get excess water off the fields. However, the same winds that cause the Dust Bowl still blow in Kansas. For wind erosion the land is most vulnerable when clean tilled and smoothed for planting but before anything has grown tall enough to be a windbreak. From what I've seen the row spacing doesn't matter at all here - I've seen dust coming off of early growth wheat fields sown in 7.5" rows. A certain amount of residue left on the surface, even if tillage is used, is the key factor to preventing soil erosion in this area.
 
Around here in the wet clayish soils and rolling hills in row cultivating created much, very much soil erosion.

We would create a loose ribbon of fine textured soil up and down the hills an inch deep three times in 2 months, exactly when the rainy season was upon us. That would wash off that inch of soil 3x a year, it was terrible. Row cultivation is/was 75%+ of the soil erosion around here.

Fall plowing or chisel plowing is still common on nearly every acre here, but erosion is very low. Our ground freezes up solid and is snow covered for 4+ months, spring snow melt is typically a slow deal on frozen ground. Any rain or water movement is from one little cup to the next in the very rough, plowed or chiseled ground, each cup of dirt catches any silt washing from the previous cup, and so erosion is a 1 foot deal of little concern.

In the row crop cultivation water would wash 1000 feet picking up speed as it went, carrying an inch of loose dirt with it the width of the row space, set up a channel in the field we cultivated again and it would then wash even faster in that channel, repeat a third time, what an aweful thing.

I can't state strongly enough, in my conditions, fine row crop cultivation is terrible creating soil erosion. Rough fall tillage is negligible in our climate and conditions.

Paul
 
The trick with grass waterways is mow them flat in the fall. When i first heard this it didn't sound right but my current renter is a firm believer in this and i can see the difference.What happened is that when mowed flat it allowed water to run on the waterway if you didn't the water follows the edge of the grass causing a ditch to form and in time the side with the most water gets eroded the worst and your waterway will eventually move uphill strange but I've seen it several times
 
I'm going to say it depends on the grass. Where I have them it's tall Fescue and the leaves lay over when the water hits them and forms little bridges to the next plant for the water to run across. So having the grass at about 4-6" is what works best for me. Course, you have to have a bowl, not a flat plate obviously, which I have.
 
I have been no-tilling for some forty years, and have little or no erosion. Never thought that 30" rows were the reason for no erosion.....
 
30 inch spacing was developed to increase production, not soil erosion prevention.

No till and cover crops prevent erosion.
 
I just can't resist yanking your chain some. But, I have been plowless for a long time. As far as erosion, I would say that we have literally 0% erosion. With little exception after heavy ice and snow melts I have had no gullies and ditches to fill in for many years. No till works, but you have to do it right.
 

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