No-Till, Summer fallow stores water in Central Great Plains

Storing just one inch of water in an acre of soil is worth US$25 to US$30 per acre. That gets the attention of Central Great Plains farmers served by U.S.D.A. (USDA) researchers. Soil scientist Merle Vigil and his colleagues at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Central Great Plains Research Station at Akron, Colo, calculated this by using 10-year average crop prices in equations they developed to relate crop yields to stored water levels. ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency, and this research supports USDA's commitment to agricultural sustainability.

Four to six passes with various tillage equipment to kill weeds over 14 months of leaving land idle or fallow result in a loss of three acre-inches of water to evaporation. Those six passes also cost US$24 to US$48 an acre in fuel and labor costs. Add that to the cost of water lost, and you have US$99 to US$138 an acre that never makes it into the farmers' pockets. Plains farmers traditionally grow wheat only every other year, leaving fields fallow in between, because most years there isn't enough precipitation to grow wheat annually. Read more...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine from Perendale Publishers.