Fertile topsoil loss through wind and water erosion is one of the greatest challenges in Washington agriculture. Management practices that reduce soil disturbance, keep the soil covered for more of the year, or build more resilient soil structure through organic matter inputs can help to reduce soil erosion.
Resources
Wheat Farmers Adopt the Undercutter Fallow Method to Reduce Wind Erosion and Sustain Profits. Douglas Young and William Schillinger. 2016. TB24. Washington State University.
Strip Tillage in Onions – Lorin Griggs. Video: Strip tillage and cover cropping in onions and sweet corn to reduce wind erosion. Part of the WSU CSANR Farmer to Farmer case studies project.
Strip Tillage of Vegetables with Livestock Integration-Eric Williamson. Video: Increasing soil health in vegetable systems of the Columbia Basin with strip tillage and cover cropping. Part of the WSU CSANR Farmer to Farmer case studies project.
Conservation Tillage Systems. Chapter 3 from Advances in Dryland Farming in the Inland Pacific Northwest. Prakriti Bista, Stephen Machado, Rajan Ghimire,
Georgine Yorgey, Donald Wysocki. 2017.
Conservation Tillage in a Winter Wheat-Fallow System–Ron Jirava. Video: Conservation tillage in a winter wheat-fallow system. Part of the WSU CSANR Farmer to Farmer case studies project.
It’s Time to Get Serious about Soil. Blog post on WSU CSANR by Sylvia Kantor. 2013.
Tillage: When Less Is More. Blog post on WSU CSANR by Karen Hills. 2017.
Conservation buffers please the eye, protect the landscape. Seth Truscott. 2015.