DlB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 14,1984
Modem agriculture is doing
some tremendous things,
producing at levels not even
dreamed of a few years ago.
Average yields continue to in
crease and more and more acres
are brought into our modem Knowledgeable experts point to
system of intensive cropping. Over major changes that need to be
the past few decades, small farms made in the way we farm our soil,
have given way to larger ones, and And yet other knowledgeable
the old ways have yielded to abservers point to new yield and
modem mechanization. productivity levels across the
Prior to World War 11, the country and say that the con
typical farm included quite a few servation collision talk is a bunch
animals such as beef and dairy of baloney,
cows, draft horses, hogs and No matter which side of this
maybe even some sheep. But then conservation issue you line up on,
came the era of bigness and it’s hard not to recognize that there
specialization and those little is a growing national concern
farms were merged into larger about soil erosion. Maybe they’re
units. That meant fence rows and ill-informed but a lot of folks are
pastureland disappeared. And wondering about increased erosion
rolling hills once suited only for that’s polluting our streams and
grazing and hay production came lakes with silt, fertilizers and
under the plow. chemicals. And they’re wondering
As this kind of intensive whether this erosion, if left un
agriculture continues, some checked, will eventually reduce
conservationists are starting to the nation’s ability to produce food,
worry about the future, and they’re Knowledgeable or not, these
asking some pretty serious concerned citizens know that soil
questions. Some policy makers say erosion reduces agricultural
we are on a collision course with productivity while at the same
disaster. Our water supplies are time polluting water and air. And
being reduced, with whole those factors have serious con
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watersheds where the ground
water reserves are being depleted,
and we have mined our soil. In
fact, the erosion of America’s
farmalnd is probably at a record
level.
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sequences for our future security
and well being.
Locally, soil erosion may not be
a big deal, although I suspect it’s a
bigger factor than most farm
people want to admit. Nationally
there are some downright
disgraces going on. I’ve seen land
being farmed in lowa, for exam
ple, that had no business being
tilled. Fields that once proved
excellent pasture and hay crops
have been plowed and planted to
com and soybeans, and the erosion
is obvious even to passing
motorists on the Interstate.
Former secretary of agriculture
Earl Butz urged fanners to plow
their ground right *' l, ie fence
rows. That was his way of saying
we needed an all-out push to in
crease food output to meet
domestic and foreign demands.
Some farmers took him literally,
plowing land that should have been
left in grass.
A little erosion here and a little
there adds up to one gigantic
erosion problem one that may
require government action. It took
the government and its many
programs to stop the erosion
abuses of the 1920’s and 30’s, and
that may be just what will be
required again. When farm prices
were low, land relatively cheap,
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government incentives strong, and
when there was a surplus of farm
products, it was fairly easy to
change farming habits and em
phasize soil conservation.
Programs that encouraged far
mers to terrace, plant cover crops,
provide drainage systems, and
build waterways were effective.
But can that be done again when
farmers are anxious to till every
possible inch of ground and not be
worried with man-made obstacles
that stand in the way of large
tillage equipment?
Those in the forefront of the
current soil conservation
movement feel that farmers and
landowners aren’t apt to bite the
conservation bullet on their own,
and they’re calling for some
completely new approaches to
promote better conservation. That
includes:
Direct government rules and
regulations on how land can be
farmed.
More government incentives
to use conservation practices.
Cross-compliance with
commodity programs wherein a
farmer not using approved
practices would not qualify for
government loans.
There are two key points that
must be dealt with in any national
dialogue on conservation. First, is
erosion really increasing
significantly; and second, if
erosion is increasing, what’s the
best way to deal with it?
The most widely quoted statis
tics on soil erosion come out of a
study conducted by the Soil Con
servation Service following
passage of the Soil and Water
Resource Conservatin Act of 1977.
That study points out that of the
nation’s 413 million acres of
cropland, only two-thirds of 272
million acres are considered at a
safe level of erosion, meaning that
those acres are losing less than
five tons of soil per acre per year.
Conservationists believe on those
acres, soil is being rebuilt about as
fast as it’s being lost.
That means that another third of
our cropland is losing soil faster
than it’s gaining and eventually it
will be worn out.
Of course, these are only
estimates and there is con
siderable room for error. And you
can find experts on both sides of
the soil conservation issue. It’s my
guess that soil conservation will be
an important item on the national
agricultural agenda during the
upcoming farm bill debate.