WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
FIGHTING FOR SOIL HEALTH
IN ARID EASTERN OREGON
COURTESY BILL JEPSEN
Bill Jepsen, a dryland wheat farmer south of Ione, Ore., uses a direct seeding drill as part of his no-till operation. No-till helps to preserve soil organic matter and reduce erosion, he said.
Dryland farmer uses no-till,
reduces wind and water erosion
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO MEDIA GROUP
D
ryland farming is
challenging enough
at Bill Jepsen’s fam-
ily farm in arid northeast
Oregon, where it rains just
about 12 inches per year
on average, providing pre-
cious little moisture to grow
a healthy crop.
Factor in poor soil health
due to erosion that strips
fields of organic matter, and
the problem only worsens.
For years, Jepsen said
conventional tillage left the
farm wide open to water ero-
sion washing down the open
hillsides. Land that once
held 3-4 percent soil organic
matter was whittled down
to 1 percent. Something had
to be done to improve long-
term sustainability.
“The erosion was just
killing us,” said Jepsen, who
grows 5,300 acres of mostly
wheat and barley 14 miles
south of Ione.
Jepsen, who began his
career as a veterinarian
in Hermiston, eventually
took over the farm from his
father, Bob, who retired in
1991. Six years later, they
converted entirely to no-till
and direct seeding to stem
the tide of erosion.
The recovery process has
been slow, with most fields
now containing somewhere
between 1 and 2 percent soil
organic matter. But Jepsen
said he’s never going back
— that is, unless he’s forced
to.
“No-till has been the key
to conservation,” he said.
“You don’t need as much
fertilizer. Your plants do bet-
ter. Healthier soils will grow
more. It’s a lot of things.”
One prickly issue, how-
ever, is putting no-till to
the test in southern Morrow
County.
Russian thistle, or tum-
bleweeds,
continue
to
spread as they roll across
the desert, depositing thou-
sands of tiny seeds along
the way. Invasive weeds like
Russian thistle compete for
limited moisture on farm-
land, lowering yields for
Northwest soft white wheat
that is already experiencing
depressed market prices.
And, unlike other pesky
weeds, Russian thistle has
developed a resistance to
glyphosate, forcing farmers
to turn to more expensive
herbicides.
“We’ve had to come up
with a plan,” Jepsen said.
“How do you deal with
resistant Russian thistles?”
The answer for many
farmers, Jepsen said, has
been to revert back to till-
age. He, along with seven
of his neighbors and Ore-
gon State University Exten-
GEORGE PLAVEN/CAPITAL PRESS
Bill Jepsen pokes his finger through stubble to find tiny
green barley seedlings growing at his dryland farm south of
Ione, Ore.
sion Service, did apply for
a grant in 2017 through the
USDA Regional Conserva-
tion Partnership Program
to eradicate Russian thistles
from approximately 100,000
acres, though the project did
not receive funding.
As for Jepsen, he has
managed to maintain no-till
farming practices by tar-
geting Russian thistles
using what is known as a
WeedSeeker sprayer. The
machine incorporates a
series of infrared sensors
which are able to detect the
young green thistles among
stubble. It then sprays only
when it encounters those
weeds, cutting back on the
amount of herbicide needed.
“It allows you to use
chemicals that kill thistles
that you couldn’t otherwise
afford,” Jepsen said.
Jepsen was recognized
as a Pioneer Direct Seeder
by the Pacific Northwest
Direct Seed Association at
the group’s 2017 cropping
systems conference, though
his on-farm experimentation
extends beyond just adopt-
ing no-till.
Jepsen has collaborated
with OSU Extension Ser-
vice on a multi-year trial
examining the effective-
ness of rotational crops for
dryland wheat, including
canola, garbanzo beans, len-
tils, flax and mustard. Ide-
ally, Jepsen said the best
thing for soil is to grow a
crop on it every year, though
the dry Eastern Oregon cli-
mate usually prompts farm-
ers to go with a crop-fal-
low rotation to rebuild soil
moisture.
“On dry years, every lit-
tle drop of moisture counts,”
Jepsen said. “When you
grow anything, it robs soil
moisture.”
At the end of the day,
Jepsen said he always turns
back to cereals like wheat
and barley.
“For the climate we have
here, those are the best
crops,” he said.
Mary Corp, regional
administrator for OSU
Extension Service in Mor-
row and Umatilla counties,
described Jepsen as a cre-
ative, innovative grower and
cooperator. The university
has conducted a number of
plot trials on Jepsen’s land,
from rotational crops to dis-
ease control.
“For extension, we rely
on growers to be so gen-
erous with their land, and
their time, and their equip-
ment, in order to do those
on-farm studies that pro-
vide the information farmers
need,” Corp said. “It’s really
critical to the success of the
extension faculty that are
based out in the counties.”
Jepsen said he is always
tinkering and adjusting his
practices, and keeping a
close eye on the latest tech-
nology. Five years ago, he
hired Infrared Baron Inc.,
out of Hermiston, to fly
over his farm and create
zone map showing where
wheat was growing well,
and where it wasn’t growing
well, in each field.
The data allowed Jepsen
to adjust his seeding and fer-
tilizer rates to get the most
bang for his buck, with
export prices still hovering
around $5.50 per bushel out
of Portland.
“There’s always a way
to do something better,” he
said. “That’s what makes
life interesting.”
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