FARMING THE PALOUSE

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House in trees at center right

pivot irrigation location

Shop and equipment storage

TRACYE: Near St. John - Whitman County, Washington, United States; We operate a farm that the family has owned and farmed for over 100 years. We farm as a corporation with my son, my wife, and myself as stockholders. Having recognized the destructive nature of our operation back in the mid 1970's, I/we have been working on an alternative system to grow crops. After going through the stage of mulch (trash) fallow, and the steps of combining operations to reduce trips over the field, we settled on direct seeding, and bought our first single pass drill in 1992. The drill has been reconfigured three times --narrow hoe to double disc, to a wide hoe. We have developed a level of comfort with this system to where we are now progressing to what we think is the ultimate in sustainability of our soil by moving from "high" disturbance to "ultra low" disturbance direct seeding using the CrossSlot technology. There are new challenges doing this; however, there is a tremendous potential for rewards in the future. I feel good that we are on the path to slowly rebuild our soils instead of mining them.

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