Posted on 05/07/2022 3:43:02 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
(Excerpt) Read more at johnc9e.substack.com ...
My cousin, who worked at the Akron Co soil conservation district for the central great plains was head of a study done over many years about dry land farming. FYI. Its PDF.
“irrigating at night instead of all day”
common sense ... back in the day, i used to watch daytime pivot irrigators spraying water vertically in the air, with almost none of it ever hitting the ground due to evaporation ... i was surprised at how long it took every one to replace the sprinkler heads with down-spraying pipes that put the water directly onto the plants .... it’s not like upwards spraying was covering any extra ground anyway except at the very ends of the pivot pipe ...
The most common way to produce ammonia is Haber Process, where hydrogen comes from natural gas.
The funny part of his research was that it took 7 tons of manure per acre to equal commercial applications and that it actually REDUCED plant production because of the residual problems equated with manure....weeds, etc.
7 tons per acre? Just dam!
The remarkable finding was that deep plowing did add to the water retention..since it broke up the hard pan and created avenues for surface water to enter the soil system. But, it also created avenues for weeds to become more of a problem.
In short, his findings were to not over work the soil and create a way for water retention over the winter if the land was to be planted in the spring..or left to be planted the next fall with winter wheat. The best way was to strip farm to prevent winds from taking the top soils away. Commercial herbicide applications at the right time to prevent water hogging by weeds, and fertilizers at the right time to enhance crop production.
Never got to discuss soil conservation with him in length since our visits were to short.
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