Re: Video on the Dust bowl

Posted by Hal/Eastern WA on January 17, 2013 at 17:16:18 from (97.115.181.136):

In Reply to: Re: Video on the Dust bowl posted by Nebraska Cowman on January 17, 2013 at 15:29:25:

Yes my uncle bought the farm after several years when no one in the area was having any luck with wheat crops. He may have farmed differently than his father did, as he had gone to college and had an agriculture degree. But the main thing that changed was that the area got more precipitation when my uncle was farming than it had for some years before.

Farming methods have changed. When my uncle farmed in NE Montana, they did all strip farming, to try to conserve moisture. They did considerable plowing and other tillage and used fairly small amounts of farm chemicals and fertilizer. For about 25 years, my cousins have been using low till farming, with lots fewer trips over the ground. Farmers in that area using the newer methods found that they no longer had to do strip farming, as they got good yields planting all their ground every year. But they have been getting quite a bit more moisture in that area in recent times. An interesting side benefit of using low till is that wind erosion of the fine, sandy soil is much less of a problem than it used to be. The air quality of that area is now really pretty good, while it used to often be dusty in conditions of good moisture. However now one of the largest expenses of production is various farm chemicals and fertilizer.

I agree that farming methods changed and continued to change over time, out of necessity. But I still believe that LOTS of people decided to leave the Plains during the dust bowl times, and went to places where there was more precipitation and opportunity to make a living.

Methods will have to continue to change. I have flown over the Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas area a few times recently and was amazed at the number of obvious center pivot irrigation systems that appear to be in operation. I have also read that the aquifer under that area has water levels going down alarmingly. It will be interesting to see what happens with that set of problems. There has to be some way to recharge the aquifer in times when there are flooding problems. I hope someone comes up with a solution. Irrigation works great, but you must have a source for the water, and using that source cannot be too hard on the other people of the area.

As we saw in many areas last growing season, droughts happen. On the other hand, the area where I live has received lots more than average precipitation the last several years. Will it continue? I wish I knew!

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