Nice try gst but as you said no-till/min-till practices haven't been around long enough. The fact is there have been 2+ year droughts in our past and there will be again, to think otherwise is kind of foolish. Will todays practices help, certainly in the short term but none of us know about long term. It simply hasn't happened, yet.
And I think every tax payer has "skin in the game" whether you like it or not. I would much rather see my tax dollars going towards something that benefits every one of us like clean water, air and reasonable food prices then being given to some who like to work the system.
Whether or not you are willing to admit it there are indeed people out there who work the system. Who want the $ now and don't really care what happens 5, 10, 50 years from now.
If you have ever followed anything I have said, I readily admit there are those that "work the system", and that I don;t think much of the "system". But I don;t know what "system" you are talking about when it comes to removing tree rows.
Can you share the years that ND has seen a state drought that has
prevented any crops from growing as was implied?
Perhaps there is, I have only been farming 36 years and my family for 92 years so perhaps there has been.
I have seen two years out of the last 4 that a crop has not been seeded due to excessive moisture.
We know that DL has overflowed down the Tolna coulee several times from excessive moisture long before man impacted the land.
What we do know is as long as no till HAS been around, it HAS prevented soil erosion. What we do know is it DOES improve soil tilth and moisture retention significantly.
If you can predict the future well enough to accurately predict the next drought that will prevent any crops from growing for two years so I can plan and manage accordingly please let me know, you would be a wealthy man.
The simple fact is history shows droughts that severe do NOT happen that often in the northern plains. Does it mean they will not..of course not. But when you wish to tell people they do not know what they are doing in managing their business, it helps if you have some experience yourself in managing that business yourself.
I like to buy and wear comfy shoes............that does not mean I know enough to tell the shoe store owner how to run his business.
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Here is the deal guys if we do get a drought severe enough to keep any crops from growing tree rows will not STOP soil erosion. They will stop the soil as it is blowing if the wind blows it cross ways to them but they will not STOP soil erosion.
North/south tree rows will not stop erosion when the wind is from the north or the south, likewise east west.
The only way to prevent soil erosion in those cases is to surround the quarter with tree rows and then place them every 40 rods minimum. We farm a couple quarters that are exactly like that. THOSE two quarters have been by far the wettest quarters that we have NOT been able to farm two out of the last 4 years BECAUSE OF THE TREES and the snow they stop. There are pretty large parts of the fields that are in most years dry enough to seed, but are difficult if not impossible to get to because of moisture that prevents us from getting to those areas.
You just are not going to see that happen with todays large equipment.
Like I said, I like tree rows. We have planted several miles of them even though they take an incredible amount of work to get started and maintain.
But farming HAS changed whether people like it or not.
