west Nebraska northeast Colorado | I would say that the how they tried to grow wheat in the 1930's was a major problem. In the book Farming The Dust Bowl by Lawrence Svobdia (University of Kansas Press, ISBN 0-7006-0289-5), Svobida, who was a farmer in Meade County, Ks, describes trying to grow continuous crop wheat by burning the stubble from the previous crop, using a oneway or spring tooth for subsequent tillage, and then planting with single disc drills that had a limited ability to reach moisture and that didn't leave any ridge. I think we have learned a lot about growing wheat since then and that well managed systems (including those that use tillage) are much less prone to wind erosion.
In sort of a repeat of history, the worst wind erosion in my area last month was on the wheat on continuous crop no-till (sunflower-field pea-wheat, wheat seeded with a single disc air seeder). It confirmed my belief that wheat-fallow, with tillage, still has its place. |
2004 NASA Study on cause of Dust Bowl
