Soil Resources

Conservation Practices to Control Soil Erosion

Photo courtesy of USDA NRCS

Many people have heard of the Dust Bowl days, a time in the 1930s on the Great Plains when poor farm management practices combined with drought resulted in huge losses due to wind erosion. It was during this period that the need for careful soil management was realized and that need played a part in the creation of what is now called the National Resource Conservation Service. The NRCS – originally called the Soil Conservation Service – is a part of the USDA and its functions are to develop conservation practices that help preserve the nation’s soil resources and assist producers in implementing these practices. Thus modern agriculture now uses many management practices such as:

• Wind breaks (tree lines to reduce wind erosion)
• Contour plowing (orienting crop rows perpendicular to the slope to reduce water erosion), and
• Conservation tillage (preserving crop residue on the surface and reducing the number of tillage operations – i.e., decreasing the number of times the field is cultivated to control weeds or plowed to stir the soil).

Through the years, erosion-control methods have remained fundamentally unchanged; specifically, to protect the soil surface and manage the influence of water and wind. The cost to replace soil functions and remedy off-site damage due to soil erosion has been estimated at $19 per ton; however the cost caused by productivity losses is even greater.ⁱ Therefore, the implementation of erosion-control methods is not only vital in maintaining agricultural viability, but also in the best interest of cotton growers – financially and environmentally.

Photo courtesy of USDA NRCS