Well it is obvious who has NOT found this site yet. ::: (like this icon thingy)
Anyways just a couple thoughts. The RRV will NOT lose it's top soil in 50 years. No reason not to try to manage soil erosion, but the "expert" is off a little there.
Outside of the RRV most land any more in ND is minimum or complete no till. The exception has been the last couple years trying to get rid of excess moisture that no one with any credibility can deny areas have dealt with. (plenty of pics of tractors and seeders ect buried in mud floating around the internet)
We had not owned a chisel plow or disk for many years but had to buy one 3 years ago just to try and get prevent plant ground into shape so we can get a crop on it to dry out the ground so we do not have to rely on an insurance program. We had ground that has not been cultivated for years, black just so no snow would be held and the sun could help dry it out this spring.
Definitely don;t like doing that but what is the best bet, do what it takes to get a crop in and risk soil blowing in the winter for one year or rely on an insurance program?
The prevent plant ground was just getting nice to seed into..............after 2.5 of rain (so far) it is going to be interesting again.
When it dries up and everyone is back to standing stubble and no till trying to conserve moisture, no one will remember what this "expert" said.
Tree rows? Lots of legitimate reasons for their removal. Many in our area are species that are dead or dying. Many were put in when "big" equipment was a 32 foot set of lla drills. Now 120 foot sprayers, 90 foot planters 60 foot air seeders many times the tree rows end up requiring large tacts of acres not to be planted in the spring becasue the equipment can not fit between the standing moisture from the melted snow the tree rows held and the tree row itself. Figure the cost of $40 an acre seed, $100 an acre fertilizer, $30 an acre spray on the size equipment listed above overlapping say 5 times @ 2 acres each overlap on a quarter section. Now with gps sectional control that is not such an issue, but not everyone is running the new equipment with that.
Now add that too say 5 acres per quarter that could not get seeded because of tree rows interfering time $300 net/acre. plus the 5 acres the tree rows take up themselves It is not out of the question to end up losing 3 - 4 grand a year from those tree rows. Times 10 quarters............. Maybe you make it up with additional moisture from snow retention maybe not. Wet years not.
I don;t like seeing them get taken out and we have planted far more than we have removed, but I understand why some people will do it especially on some of the lands they are on.
