Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1983)
1 Special Farm Section, Thursday, February 24, 1983 Page S frozen soil below. Snow melt and puddies drill furrows, leading to or rain on top of this soil quickly severe erosion. Morrow Co. farms monitored for erosion Maintaining a good straw mufcli near the soil surface insulates the ground against evaporation, Improves moisture infiltration, and saves soil. s J Jrrfc sir it r , in - - . ., t ,--v; .? Interest in tile drainnne has increased in Northern Morrow County during this past year. Five projects were completed with many being recycled back into existing irrigation systems. results of mold board plowing. Several farms in Morrow Coun ty are being evaluated for their susceptibility to water erosion. Farms with significantly con trasting amounts of residue have been selected for this study. The primary objective is to consider the value of crop residue for reducing soil erosion. Decisions to maintain crop res idue must begin after harvest. For optimum water storage, stubble should be left standing over winter. An exception to this is serious weed problems or restrictive tillage pans, which .may need to be treated immedi ately. Primary tillage should be de layed in the spring for as long as possible to avoid working wet ground F.arly tillage in wet conditions typically reduces the largest amount of residue cover, does a marginal job of controlling weeds, and causes compaction and tillage pans. In addition, early tillage tends to be too deep, which buries too much residue. A good example of this last point is running a disk four inches deep. Surprisingly, surface resi due will be reduced 50 percent or more. With a 20 bushel wheat yield, initial residue cover of 2.000 pounds per acre will be reduced 1 ,000 pounds per acre or more after disking. Running a disk deeper can approach the Succeeding tillage may bring buried residue back to the soil surface, but in the meantime your field is susceptible to ero sion An early herbicide applica tion is probably a better alterna tive to early tillage. A well-timed herbicide treatment will accom plish better weed control, enable you to delay your first tillage and help you store more moisture by not disturbing the stubble. Fall tillage can create similar problems as early spring tillage. Kodweeding this fall had a dra matic impact in the top few inches of soil at our monitoring sites in the county. Abundant rainfall in September and Octo ber stimulated a seemingly un ending supply of cheatgrass plants. Many fields were rod weeded two to three times this fall alone, but cheatgrass kept emerging with additional rain. Two problems have become evi dent this winter on these soils with additional rainfall. First, a tillage pan formed by the rod weeder acts as a barrier to moisture penetration. Second, soil structure above the rod pan is destroyed by weeding, The rate of moisture penetration through the soil is strongly influenced by the structure. The more the soil is pulverized, the slower the per meability. With both of these tTil TURNER VAN MARTER 3 & BRYANT 107 WORTH MAM IIIHIT WIWWH, OMOOM tM wox au uoux Lfmuxanct LoVKXNE VMSiFTtR. JK HOWARX PHTANT ntzAs. associated problems, very small amounts of rainfall readily pud dle the soil surface. A saturated soil is extremely susceptible to evaporation losses and runoff. Obviously, dryland farmers can not afford to lose either moisture or soil. An unfortunate consequence of numerous fall rodweedings was late seedings. The wheat growth is poor throughout the entire winter erosion period when the planting is late. As of mid-January, fields planted in the begin ning of November had less than one percent growing ground cover. Fields planted in mid-October had about five percent growing ground cover. Both of these ground covers are not adequate in themselves to pre vent soil erosion. Consequently, crop residue must be relied upon almost exclusively to provide soil protection. Observations indicate that maintaining about 1.500 pounds - acre of residue at seeding time provides excellent protection against water erosion on moder ate slopes. The above photo shows a field with 1,500 pounds per acre of residue on the sur face, and there is an additional l.(KK) pounds per acre of residue incorporated in the top four inches. A well mulched soil con dition increases water infiltration and penetration compared to a bare ground condition. The form er also tends to freeze less densely and shallower than the latter. This characteristic is crit ical in the winter when warm temperatures begin soil thawing. An unprotected soil thaws slowly, leaving a layer of saturated soil on top of dense, impenetrable Whoro can you find good farm holp? HAPA XZZZJ Farm Equipment Bearings "We take farming seriously" Heppner Auto Parts f . f Heppner 676-9481 SUDDEN SERVICE ON THE FARM 1 at? -U ' r- Sorvico Truck Available 24 Hours A Day After hours call: Dale Thompson 676-5464 or John Smith 676-5106 f Q Ml I j y i E.I! J "All Your Irrigation Needs I For Less9 B vi rni rai fa l3TBTiyB f TKWJt I LOT' SPRINKLERS VALVES TIMERS PUMPS PVC pipe Vi-inch to 12-inch HERMSTON ELECTRIC & PLUMBING SUPPLY Ilermiston-McNary Hwy 567-3317
