Great Bend Tribune
Published January 21, 2018
Not that Kansans already didn’t know but the entire state now ranges from abnormally dry in the east/northeast to large swaths of moderate to severe drought as you head west and even a patch of extreme drought in the southwest border counties. The state needs well above normal precipitation yesterday and for an extended period of time, especially in the central and western portions of Kansas. Normally liquid precipitation for January and February here is around an inch and March around two inches so normal rainfall won’t do much good. The title of today’s column refers to a Bob Dylan song of the same name and the lyric; “The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.”
The extreme weather last Sunday night and Monday, besides freezing temperatures, consisted of some snow/rain accompanied by very strong winds. When the visibility cleared, the sun came out and the wind died down, the countryside in many areas was covered in brownish snow. The answer is blowing in the wind.
This won’t be the first or likely the last time you will read about this here but we continue to have a soil erosion problem. Certainly producers are doing a much better job than during the Dust Bowl and even in the 1980s. However, we are still dealing with significant soil erosion issues not just in Kansas but in many parts or the U.S.
Most people, not just producers have heard of no-till as a way of farming to keep soil in place by not aggressively disturbing soil with the only tillage being the planting of the seed. It keeps the soil structure intact and allows “residue,” crop plant material, to accumulate on the soil surface. This helps eliminate both wind and water erosion, conserves soil moisture and a host of other benefits. Is no-till a fit in every situation and are there situations where some tillage may be necessary? Of course. And there are other conservation tillage options less “extreme” than no-till including strip tillage and stubble mulch tillage that can be quite effective.
Since the early 1990s, acreage farmed with some form of conservation tillage practice has increased dramatically, especially using no-till. Much of this was possible with more effective herbicides and herbicide technologies such as Roundup Ready ® crops. Then over the last several years as weed resistance issues have increased, some producers went back to more aggressive tillage to control weeds and resulted in soils more vulnerable to wind and water erosion. A producer can get away with this if things go according to plan with the elephant in the room being precipitation.
This winter, for a variety of reasons, the wheat crop overall isn’t in great shape. Late planting, poor soil moisture, and cooler fall/early winter temperatures resulted in thin wheat, bare soil where it was aggressively tilled, and blowing “dirt.” The opposite of the conditions needed to get away with aggressive tillage.
The agricultural community, producers, companies, the USDA, and research and extension have to come together to address this issue today for two reasons. First, with climate change producers need to manage available moisture more efficiently. Second, under ideal conditions it can take hundreds of years for nature to replace an inch of topsoil.