RECLAIMING HILLY SLOPING LAND

By Mike Cabernel

My wife and I started farming on a half section in 1947 that was very badly eroded and about to be abandoned.

There were over 30 gullies, many if them too deep to be crossed. There is a ridge through the center that's over 300 feet higher than the outer side of the farm. The ridge goes through four half sections - ours being in the center. One side of the slope is over a half a mile long. Some of the gullies were about a half a mile long, most about one quarter mile. You can imagine how the water in a downpour would accumulate and gather speed as it came down.

Maybe I should explain here how all this erosion came about. When the land was newly broken, farmers sowed crop after crop - - but, after many years of this they found they should give the soil a rest. We called it summer fallow. When the dry years of the 1930s came, most farmers went to a three year rotation. One crop wheat, then oats or barley on second crop, and then summer fallow the third year. It's when the land was bare summer fallow that most of the erosion took place. By now there was hardly any organic matter left in the soil and a light second crop left very little residue on the surface, leaving the soil vulnerable to erosion. It was so hard you could hardly push a shovel into it, but yet it eroded.

I immediately knew I had to do something different than the former owner if we were to survive on this farm. We farmed with horses for two years and I filled in the smaller gullies with plow and disk. These gullies would be about a foot deep and up to two feet wide. At first I made some mistakes but soon learned.

When I filled in a gully I sowed it down to forage, using a mixture of alfalfa and Brome grass, and grain as a nurse crop. I liked this mixture for feed for the cattle herd. I also sowed down some of the most severely eroded areas of the farm to forage to feed our mixed dairy and beef herd. We quickly increased from ten to over fifty head. In time we established a 32 cow milking herd and about fifty head of beef cattle and replacement heifers.

Instead of bare summer fallow I sowed sweet clover in the second crop intended for fallow the next year. I cut some for feed, the rest was used for plow down. This helped stop erosion during the fallow year, but the soil was fairly black again by the fallowing spring. Some erosion could still take place.

In 1953 I hired a guy with a bulldozer to take out some big rocks. After we were done the rocks, I asked him to angle his blade and go up and down a gully to see what would happen. Well, it worked quite well, so I had him fill and shape most of the gullies that way. The larger gullies he pushed back and forth. By now there was only the one huge gully left which I was sure he couldn't handle.

The gully repair work was done in late fall as I couldn't get him any earlier, so I dormant seeded it to forage and grain as a nurse crop. I was lucky, we had a slow melt that spring and there was very little damage to the waterways. The crop and forage grew and by the time the heavy rains came the waterways were well protected.

In 1954 we contour stripped the longer slope into 220 foot strips. This helped control erosion a lot.

In 1956 the Agriculture Department, who had been watching me and saw that I had erosion fairly well under control, asked me if they could fill in and stabilize the big gully which they referred to as the grandaddy of them all.

This was to be a demonstration to see how large a gully could be stabilized. It was also an advertisement for Powell Equipment who rented them two D6 Caterpillar bulldozers to do the job.

This gully took some water off a neighbors farm and several of the feeder gullies on our farm. It was over a quarter mile in length. At the top end it was from ten to twelve feet wide and up to eighteen feet deep. As it got down to lesser slope it shallowed to about twelve feet deep but widened to 35 feet where one feeder gully came into it. Imagine trying to fill this in.

First they had a road patrol or maintainer strip back the topsoil. Then the dozers pushed the shoulders down, gradually filling in the gully. As it filled they had another tractor and sheeps foot packer packing the fill.

It took the dozers 30 hours to complete the filling and shaping and spreading the top soil back on. They had moved over 9,000 tons of soil. After this I disked and cultivated and harrowed to get a firm smooth seed bed. This was done on the 30 and 31 July. The next day I sowed it to alfalfa, aslike brome, and reed canary grass for the wetter bottom as there were some springs in it. On advice from soil specialists, I sowed it crosswise so the water wouldn't follow in between the rows. The seeded area was exactly three acres. I used fall rye as a nurse crop. It was also fertilized. It grew to about three or four inches before winter and was well rooted so it kept the waterway in pretty good shape the following spring. I had some repair work the first two years it has held perfectly ever since. It was a complete success. We can cross it with any machinery. It cost the department $840.00 at that time. I have put up hay in it for 24 years now - probably worth several times the cost.

In 1968 we purchased an adjoining quarter section which had been abandoned for twelve years. The former owner had sown it down to forage and neighboring farmers put up the hay on shares.

This quarter suited us as there was some low land adjoining our pasture so we were able to increase our pasture acreage. Also in those days grain quotes were tight, and forage acres counted as quota so we were able to get rid of more grain. There were 16 fairly large gullies going through this quarter and many smaller ones, but the soil in between was quite good especially with having been in forage so long. So I went to work again filling gullies, some with dozer but most with maintainer. A maintainer does a smoother job and is cheaper, plus you need it to strip back the topsoil. I stabilized about half the gullies one fall, but got the machines too late and had to dormant seed again. I sowed them with forage and wheat as a nurse crop. There were nine acres and all but one held good the following spring. I was able to repair the one.

I harvested 25 bushels wheat per acre so that pretty well paid for the work. We have filled and stabilized all the rest of the gullies.

Since 1978 I have belonged to four soil associations. They are Agro-Man., Agri-Food, St. A&B Soil and Water, and Farming For Tomorrow. I was chairman of these associations for the next ten years. I have now resigned so a younger person could take over.

These soils associations provided some dollar assistance towards the different projects we were doing. We had a membership of over 50 farmers. I broke up part of the forage to grow grain leaving about a third in forage. As long as we had cattle we always had a third of all land in forage, which we rotated.

About 20 years ago we started to continuous crop. Eliminating summer fallow really helped to control erosion. About the same time I purchased a heavy-duty cultivator and parked the plow. Now erosion was practically nil.

Soil conservation pays, I know. Since we changed our farming practices we have been growing 40 - 50 bushels wheat per acre and 60 - 80 bushels barley. For our hilly land this is fairly good considering we were once growing 20 - 25 bushels wheat and 10 - 15 bushels barley on second crop.

The change has been from summer fallow to continuous cropping, from plow to one way disk to tiller and now some zero till. From 30 gullies on the half section to 15 grassed waterways now. The soil has gotten a lot more mellow and takes in water more readily.

In 1981 we sold our dairy and beef herd. We now keep about a quarter of the land in forage, which we rotate every four years. We only sow alfalfa now as this sells better. There are a lot of dairies in our area.

When we work up alfalfa ground, we again have the problem of more or less black summer fallow the following spring. Two years ago I broke up a field of alfalfa in spring, disked it several times till I felt it was firm enough and sowed oats on it, so it was bare only a short time. The oats went 70 bushels per acre and last summer wheat went 40 bushels per acre. This might not work out in a dry year though.

Five years ago I started zero tillage some land and now have about 80% of the farm under zero till. We leave all straw on the land. We harrow a couple times in fall on a hot day, and give it another pass with harrows in spring. We use a Noble hoe drill which seems to suit our purpose.

We have a ten acre strip inside a fifty acre field which has been zero tilled five consecutive years and only one year did I see a slight reduction in yield. Other years you could see no difference.

There are advantages and disadvantages to zero tilling, but other speakers will probably cover this.

Now if zero and minimum till can prove successful our soils could remain productive for future generations. This is essential.

You might ask, how did I become a soil conservationist? Well, we had the kind of farm where I had to do something different than what the previous farmer had been doing. It has been said if our farm could be reclaimed most farms can be.

I don' t pretend to be smarter than the next guy. I took advice from soil specialists, Ag. Reps., and others, and I read material I could get on soil conservation - - and still do as I believe I can still learn. I used a lot of ideas of my own. I also believe I had lady luck on my side at times. It was a lot of hard work for all of us. My wife and kids all helped with the operation. It took many years, was sometimes disappointing, but paid off.

Now some do's and don'ts:

If you have gullies on your farm that you intend to fill in and stabilize, try to do that work in late August or early September and start at the top of the watershed. Get that under control first.

Strip the top soil back first, then fill them and spread the top soil back on.

Keep them saucer shaped and not too shallow or flat as soon they will fill in some and then the water may go on both sides and form two gullies.

If you have stones you can put them in, provided you have about eight inches or more soil over them.

Do not put straw or wood in them as this will rot in time and your waterway will V and wash out again.

Sow your forage with fall rye as a nurse crop and fertilizer. The rye helps to hold the soil for the spring runoff. If it looks like the rye might choke the forage later on, you can always cut it early.

Working Your Land to Control Erosion

Sow your crops as early as possible to have some growth by the time the heavy June rains come. Always work on the contour if possible, keep all residue on top, continuous crop, rotate with legumes which should always be inoculated, and strip your land if steeply sloped. However, if you zero till you won't have to worry about stripping your land.

Whatever you do never work up and down the slope. Do your headlands first and if you have waterways work up and down along them, then as you finish working across the slope you do not leave the little furrows which water could follow.

Some environmental people are concerned about farmers using fertilizer and chemicals. Well, I hope they never get to curtail the use of these as the only way to save hilly land is to continuous crop and for that we need to use fertilizer and chemicals.

I have had some experience with sod seeding, but won't go into it unless there are questions about it.