This was an 8hr, two night presentation on the 10 year drought of the upper and lower midwest in the 1930's. Video is available through PBS.com for ≈$25.
The pictures showed unbelievable devastation! It's hard to imagine living in those conditions. Although the drought may not have been caused by the farming practices, the severity of the dust storms and slow recovery certainly can be laid at the feet of those practices and the attitude of the land owners. The program centered on the social aspect. I wish that more time had been spent on what went into solving the agriculture issues.
There is a growing consensus that the weather will become more extreme in the years ahead. Farmer attitudes expressed in the PBS program are still with us today. Many deny that they have an erosion problem, and yet, when you look at their land, they have no residue to protect the surface, and the land is worked to a fine powder. When the lands fragility is not recognized by it's Stewards, serious erosion from water and wind is inevitable.
The program stated that late in the 30's farmers wanted government to do something about those farmers who were continuing to allow their farms to blow away. The volume of dust coming off those fields was impacting crops of others that were improving their land. I see that potential today. Many no-tillers are disgusted with neighbors dirt that is deposited on their land and fill the drainage ditches. In our case it is mostly deposition from water. The only real impact from wind, that I remember, was back in Oct. of 1992 (fire storm). Some of our neighbors hilltops lost more than an inch of soil. Some of this soil was deposited in deep drifts at other locations. We experienced this. Drifted dirt was loose with no structure, and the tractors could not get enough grip to climb the hill effected. For a couple of years we had to work those particular areas from the top down.
We already see the public crying for government interference. Livestock operations across the state are being impacted by government scrutiny. The department of ecology is preparing to become more involved with crop operations. Government interference is being driven by farmers that deny they have an erosion problem and continue doing the same old practice. This past year an individual in Lincoln county was accused of polluting public waters following a rain event. His ground was ripped badly, and DOE had the pics to show. He denied the charge and presented pics to counter the DOE pics. Of course, he cultivated the fields to close up the ditches prior to him taking the pics.
I think our operation is on the right track by moving from cultivation 20+ years ago and now moving from a high disturbance direct seed system, to ultra-low soil disturbance direct seeding system. This past summer one of our fallow fields took in a reported 2.6" of rain. This field had a very high level of residue on the soil surface. There were no visible signs of soil or water moving across the landscape. The conventionally fallowed fields around us had no visible residue on the soil surface, and had been worked several times prior to the event, were gutted. Deep and wide ditches were prevalent. How much soil depth was lost to sheet erosion is not visually seen but it had to be significant. One millimeter of soil is several tons on each acre of ground.
I'm anxious to see how the tall stubble, left behind the stripper header this past harvest, fairs next summer. Will we retain more moisture?? To maximize soil health, we need to learn how to replace fallow with a living cultivar to feed the micro and macro fauna. Currently, our fallow periods create a desert for microorganisms, hence, soil building is slowed dramatically.
