I can hardly stand to look at the farmland that is tilled in the fall leaving next to nothing protecting the dirt and nothing for wildlife to live on or seek shelter with crop residue. I am a farmer and do not till anything in the fall. I wonder what percent of this is done on rented ground. I really noticed this on my drive back from Montana to wisconsin on 94.
I totally agree. It is amazing how dirty the snow gets after the wind blows the dirt away. On top of that around my area – over the last few years most of the old fence lines are gone. Bulldozed away to gain another couple of acres. Absolutely sad to see the drop in wildlife because of that. I get and understand that farmers are trying to make a living – but in my opinion there has to be a balance and also become better stewards of the land. But that’s not just farmers – it is all of us.
It also affects our spawning fish in spring and our rivers aren’t what they could be with just a little help.
Mandatory buffer strips have been instituted in Minnesota along specific waterways including rivers, streams, ditches, drainage canals, etc. I am not sure if it is helping the wildlife but certainly having a buffer strip of grass rather than row crops is beneficial to water quality.
Not a whole lot you can do versus the agriculture industry. They have a lot of power.
I’ve been seeing more and more plant a grass like cover crop for the winter in my area. I know the neighbor said it all depends on how harvest goes if they get enough time to plant it again. Hope the trend continues. The addition of drain tile sure never seems to stop though.
Totally understand why they do it. Spring is so unknown when they can start field work. But, yeah, it sucks watching all the top soil blow away.
Fall tillage is so common with corn/soybean growers because in the northern tier everyone’s trying to maximize their growing season. Tillage in the fall gives the residue more time to break down so it doesn’t foul the planter and turning the fields black enables them to warm up and dry out in the spring much faster than residue-covered fields, so it can enable earlier planting dates.
Most producers in the northern tier look at spring tillage as wasted time that could have been spent planting. If you’re going to wait until things dry out enough to do all your tillage in the spring, they feel that puts them behind and wastes growing season that could have been used to increase yields.
Yes, erosion is an issue. But so is compaction and running big equipment over wet ground in the spring leads to greater compaction. Everything is a tradeoff. Most producers now are using less intensive tillage and going to the minimum possible disturbance to minimize erosion. A far cry from the old days when everyone was plowing and leaving high ridges of soil standing up in the wind.
I agree, I would like to see way more CRP, way less fencerow to fencerow, and far larger buffer strips. I would also like to see greater use of cover and conditioning crops for erosion prevention and soil health.
It is my understanding that most buffer strip legislation gets absolutely destroyed before it ever amounts to anything. Big ag has deep pockets.
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