This publication provides tables, maps, and guidance for determining the area on farms in western South Dakota that can be protected from wind erosion during the spring of the average year. It includes information on the causes of erosion and control measures to reduce soil loss

Boden, Paul

Derscheid, Lyle A.

Williamson, Edward J.

English

Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange

South Dakota State University Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange SDSU Extension Fact Sheets SDSU Extension 1972 Reduce Wind Erosion : Western South Dakota Lyle A. Derscheid Edward J. Williamson Paul Boden Follow this and additional works at: https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/extension_fact Recommended Citation Derscheid, Lyle A.; Williamson, Edward J.; and Boden, Paul, "Reduce Wind Erosion : Western South Dakota" (1972). SDSU Extension Fact Sheets. 1463. https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/extension_fact/1463 This Fact Sheet is brought to you for free and open access by the SDSU Extension at Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in SDSU Extension Fact Sheets by an authorized administrator of Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange. For more information, please contact michael.biondo@sdstate.edu. Historic, archived doculllent Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. SDSU ® Extension For current policies and practices, contact SDSU Extension Website: extension.sdstate.edu Phone: Email: 605-688-4 792 sdsu.extension@sdstate.edu SDSU Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer in accordance with the nondiscrimination policies of South Dakota State University, the South Dakota Board of Regents and the United States Department of Agriculture. FS 544 Reduce Wind Erosion Western South Dakota PE KINS SUTT! LAWR£NCt: "'NNING OH QJSTlR M.I. MIVEM Cooperative Extension Service South Dakota State University , Brookings U. S. Department of Agriculture ( FS 544 In Western South Dakota ... Reduce Wind Erosion By Lyle A. Derscheid, Extension agronomist; Edward J. Williamson, Extension agronomist-soils; and Paul Boden, conservation agronomist-SGS Annually, from 50,000 to 100,000 acres of South Dakota farmland are severely damaged by wind ero-sion. In 1971, this figure zoomed to 637,000 acres. This damage can be prevented. Losses can be re-duced by growing crops, crop residues, ridging, and strip cropping with solid-seeded crops in alternate strips. Width of strips or fields and amount of residue needed depends on texture of the soil, average annual rainfall, yield of crop residue and tillage implements used. Tables and maps in this Fact Sheet can help you determine the width of the area on your farm that can be protected from wind erosion during the spring of the average year. Step 1. Determine the amount of crop residue on your field. You do this by finding the total number of ounces of residue on three representative 1-square-yard areas in the field. Multiply this total number of ounces by 100 to estimate the total amount of residue per acre in pounds. Example: 10 ounces of residue times 100 equals 1000 pounds of residue per acre. (This works for small grain stubble. Use Table 2 to convert types of residue to small grain equivalent.) Step 2. Locate your farm on Map 1 to determine climatic ( C) factor. Example: Farms in Harding County have a C factor of 70. Step 3. Locate your farm on Map 2 to determine Wind Erodibility Group (WEG ). Example: Farms west of Buffalo in Harding County have a WEG of 3. Step 4. Use Table 1 to determine width of area that can be protected. Locate the WEG for your farm in column 1 (3 for farms west of Buffalo). Locate the lb/ A of crop residue on your field in column 2 (1,000 lb/ A in above example). Locate the C factor for your area in columns 3, 6, or 9 ( C factor of 70 for Harding County is in column 9). For the above example, reading across WEG of 3, crop residue of 1,000 lb/ A, C factor of 70 shows that a smooth area about 4.5 rods in width (column 10) will be protected from serious wind erosion in an av-erage spring if the prevailing wind is from the north-west and strips run straight north and south or east and west. If the prevailing wind is from the north-northwest this distance should be multiplied by 112.5% to deter-mine width of area that will be protected in east-west strips and by 87.5% for north-south strips. If these strips are too narrow to be practical, use shelterbelts or mechanical ridging to help protect the area. Trees will normally protect an area 10 times as wide as the height of the trees. Table 1 shows that, in the above example, an area about 90 rods in width can be protected if the field is ridged. Ridging should be done at right angles to prevailing winds with ridges that have a 1 :4 ridge-spacing ratio (3 in. depth for 12 in. spacing) similar to ridges left by a deep and semi-deep furrow drill or shovel-type implement. With the crop yields obtained in that area it is dif-ficult to maintain 1,000 lb./ A of crop residues if any tillage is done. Once over with the one-way disk will destroy half the residue. With only 500 lb/ A the pro-tected area is reduced from 90 rods to about 7 rods even though ridging is performed. Blade-type implements that do _pot turn under as much residue may need to be used. Chemical weed control may reduce tillage operations and help retain crop residue. Shelterbelts may reduce wind velocity so that residue will protect wider areas. Causes of Erosion Although drought frequently precedes wind ero-sion and dust storms, drought alone does not cause severe wind erosion. Soil blowing occurs only when high winds come in contact with loose, unprotected soil. Sufficient vegetation will protect land from blow-ing, regardless of how dry it gets, unless blowing soil from nearby fields kills or covers protective vegeta-tion. Much soil blowing starts on land that should never have been plowed. The soil may be thin or sandy or receive too little rainfall. It produces crops in wet years, but not during droughts. However, soil blow-ing also starts on good cropland that has been im-properly farmed or on rangeland that has been over-grazed. Frequently wind erosion begins on hill tops worn thin by mismanagement and previous erosion. When wind erosion once starts, it tends to spread from field to field and farm to farm. The wind carries loose particles across field and farm boundaries. Where a soil particle strikes bare ground, it blasts loose other particles which, in turn, are swept across the ground surface and cause still further erosion. These soil particles may cut off growing plants or cover vegetation with hummocks of sand or clay granules. When vegetation is removed or covered, the soil is likely to blow during the next windstorm. If high winds persist for several weeks, the soil blowing that started from a few fields may spread over an en-tire community. Control Measures Control measures for wind erosion depend on keeping a growing crop or crop residues on land at all times. Because it is difficult to establish cover on sandy and clayey soils during dry periods when cover is needed most, it is safest to keep these soils in perennial vegetation. Should these soils be used for grain or row I crops, residues ought to be returned and left on the soil surface or partly incorporated into the surface soil. If soils are bare when wind erosion starts, the soil surface may be roughened by tillage implements as "last ditch" control measures. The width of strips or fields depends on the amount of residue incorporated into the soil surface and the erodibility of the soil. As a general rule, spring wheat will produce 100 pounds of straw for every bushel of grain. In areas where wheat yields 12 bushels per acre, we can expect to have about 1,200 pounds of crop resi-due per acre. If all the straw is left on the surface in an area with a climatic factor of 60, for example, it would protect a field over three-quarters of a mile wide on a silty clay loam soil ( WEG 7); almost 20 rods wide on sandy loam, clay or silty clay soils ( WEG 3 or 4); and 2 or 3 rods wide on the most erodible sandy soils (WEG2). Ridging with a field cultivator would increase the width of these areas to over three-quarters of a mile on all the soils, however, one operation with a one-way disk will cover half the residue, leaving only 600 p~unds per acre. This is only enough residue to pro-tect a strip about 15 rods wide on the silty clay loam; about 2 rods wide on the sandy loam, clay and silty clay soils; -and less than 1 rod wide on the sandy soil. Although ridging would increase the effective widths on the three groups of soils to ¾-mile, 10 to 12 rods, and 3 or 4 rods, it is obvious that it would be impracti-cal to attempt to protect the more erodible soils while raising spring wheat. In this case a shelterbelt might provide sufficient protection to make · it possible to use strips that are wide enough to be practical. Otherwise such soil should be protected with a permanent vege-tation. The amount of residue left on the surface is affect-HARDING PERKINS CORSON @ @ BUTTE MEADE @ @ LAWRENCE @ @) C!JSTER · @ TODD SHANNON @ Map 1. Climatic (C) Factors for Various Areas of South Dakota ed by the type of implement used for tillage opera-tions. Each operation turns under a certain amount: • A blade-type implement turns under about 10°/4 of the residue, • A blade and treader, duckfoot cultivator or flex-ible disk harrow 200/4 to 25%, • A tandem disk or one-way disk 50°/4, • An off-set disk up to 75°/4. Very little residue needs to be destroyed if weeds can be controlled with chemicals. These differences may make it desirable to use more blade-type imple-ments and herbicides. Three operations with a one-way disk on a field with 1,200 pounds of residue would leave only 150 pounds of residue per acre on the surface; whereas three operations with a blade would leave 875 pounds. All crop residue and growing crops are converted to equivalent amounts of residue from small grain stubble in Table 2. It indicates that the 500 pounds of small grain stubble is equivalent to 3,000 pounds of soybean residue, 1,500 pounds of corn silage cut 4 inch-.es high, 1,300 pounds of corn silage cut 8 inches high, 720 pounds of corn stalks after grain is harvested, 300 pounds of grain growing on a ridged surface, and 250 pounds of grain growing on a smooth surface. Table 2. Amount (pounds per acre) of other crops or residue equivalent to residue from small grain stubble. Corn or sorghum silage stubble grain Grain stubble residue Soybeans 4-inch 8-inch stubble Growing grain ridged smooth surface surface 250 --------1,300 600 500 270 150 500 --------3,000 1,500 1,300 720 300 250 750 --------------- 2,300 2,000 1,150 460 375 1,000 --------------- 3,100 2,600 1,550 620 500 1,250 --------------- 3,800 3,200 1,900 780 625 1,500 --------------- 4,600 3,800 2,300 920 750 MC Pt4£RSON @@ BROWN @ SPINK @ @ CLARI< CODINGTON @ DEUEL @ HA N @ 40 BEADLE 1<1NGSBUAY BROOKINGS @ @ @ LAKE MOODY @@ MINNEHAHA r l 1 t l I' I ' ,r Map No. 2 Wind frodibility ~roups Western South Dakota .,,. .,;, ) v'e. I ~ I ( S(J, '---,J"' "· tr ) '-.... "' .J ----\ \ 8 ' \. ,--r / 3 < ~ -----8 I I ' ~ 'I.. ( " \ Legend: Group 1-Mostly dune sand; single grain structure; vegetation difficult to establish; not suitable for cropland. Group 2-Mostly loamy sands; dry clod structure is weak; requires a combination of intensive practice. Group 3-Mostly sandy loams; dry clod structure moderately stable; requires at least two measures to control wind erosion in regions with high and intermediate climatic factor, Group 4-Mostly clays and silty clays; dry clod structure extremely variable due to contraction and swelling by freezing and thawing and wetting and drying; need a combination of at least two measures in regions with hig'h and intermediate climatic factor. '\_ I <:" ( \ ,r-/ ' I I ~ ,,, I I I ,J lands \. ~ - '-~- - -A~NON -..::_ "' ( , l L I I I ~c ' I '-8 ,! ---<- - ----- -- - - -- __ I Group 4L-Calcareous loams and silt loams, clay loams and silty clay loams having less tlhan 35% clay; lime comprises more than 1 % of plow layer; variable clod structure; highly erodible due to Ii.me; at least two practices needed to control wind erosion. Group 5-Mostly loams and sandy clay loams; dry clod structure quite stable; a combination of at least two measures is needed in a region, with high climatic factor. Group 6-Mostly silt loams and clay loams; dry clod structure stable; requires a combination of at least two measures in a region with high climatic factor. Group 7-Mostly silty clay loams; dry clod structure extremely stable; usually a single practice is sufficient to control wind erosion: Group 8 -Soils not generally suitable for crops because of wetness, stoniness, steepness of slope, etc. Isolated areas that are farmed should be treated according to the texture of the soil. Most will be in Groups 3, 4, 5, or 6. \ \Z ;, Table 1. Maximum width of areas that can be protected from wind erosion on the several erodibility groups in the various cli-matic areas of Western South Dakota with various amounts of crop residue with and without mechanical ridging. ~ 0 C Cli- Width of areat Cli- Width of areat Cli- Width of area+ W.ind Crop matic (rods) matic (rods) matic (rods) erodibility residue factor factor factor groups (lb/A) C smooth ridged C smooth ridged C smooth ridged (l)* (2)* (3)* (4)* (5)* (6)* (7)* (8)* (9)* (10)* (11)* 2 0 50 0 2.7 60 0 2.0 70 0 1.3 Fine and 250 0.5 3.5 0.4 2.5 0.4 1.9 medium 500 0.6 5.0 0.5 3.6 0.5 2.4 fine sands 750 0.8 9.6 0.8 6.8 0.8 4.3 1,000 2.0 36.4 1.3 15.9 1.0 9.1 1,250 4.0 275+ 2.7 182 2.0 40.9 1,500 12.7 ------- 8.2 -------- 3.6 275+ 1,750 275+ -------- 90.9 -------- 18.2 ___ ...,__ __ 3, 4 & 4L 0 50 1.2 4.8 60 1.0 3.6 70 1.0 3.2 Sandy loams 250 1.8 7.5 1.3 5.2 1.0 4.5 silty clays, 500 2.4 12.7 1.9 10.4 1.3 6.8 clays and 750 3.5 54.5 2.7 29.6 2.2 18.2 calcareous 1,000 9.6 275+ 6.8 275 4.5 90.9 1,250 114 -------- 20.5 -·------- 11.8 --------1,500 275+ ------- 275+ -------- 63.6 --------5 0 50 3.5 18.2 60 2.4 12.7 70 2.0 9.1 Loams, 250 4.0 36.4 3.0 22.7 2.5 13.6 sandy clay 500 6.4 136 4.2 59.1 3.4 25.0 loams, sandy 750 18.2 275-+ 10.9 275+ 5.9 118 clays 1,000 227 -------- 40.9 -------- 15.9 --------1,250 ------ -------- 275+ -------- 275 --------6 0 50 5.2 38.7 60 3.5 18.2 70 2.2 2.7 Silt, loams, 250 8.2 82.0 4.5 45.4 3.6 29.6 clay loams 500 12.8 275 6.8 100 4.5 50.0 750 34.5 -------- 20.5 275+ 11.8 275+ 1,000 275+ -------- 182 -------- 54.5 --------1,250 ------- -------- -------- -------- 275+ --------7 0 50 7.3 63.6 60 4.5 45.5 70 3.6 30.1 silty clay 250 12.8 145 9.5 100 5.0 50.0 loams, silt 500 30.0 275+ 14.1 275+ 7.3 123 750 275+ ------- 59.1 -------- 25.5 275+ 1,000 -------- ------- 275+ ------- 275 --------•column Number tWidth of area that can be protected from NW wind by either E-W or N-S strips, for NNW prevailing winds, multiply this width by 112.5% for E-W strips and by 87.5% for N-S strips. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture. Duane Acker, Director of Extension Service, South Dakota State University, Brookings. The South Dakota Cooperative Extension Service offers educa-tional programs and materials to all people without regard to race, color, or national origin and is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. SM-10-72-File: 3.4.1-2677; Reprint ZM-1-73-5281 ~ @ "' i != :r n ~ fl'I ~ (II 2 Cl> ,. ◄ z i ◄ --~co "' -4 % :JI z "' . C 0 r \ ~ ::::s Q C, :ii--""C < ,0 Co Cl> "' i (I) - ... : C I :e. s::, ""C C 9, C ~ -• .... a, ... - < =- a, - C Cl> ~ it m ~ i I I s::, l ::, c~ (II I Q .... - :I (I) % ,, 0 -· :I • i "' a, s:: -< Ill z " A> ... (I)-· ! I ... )> "'I 0 C, cc !e. :I z ,-:- ::s 0 ::!.-< ~ 0 a, n .. Cl> ~ C 0,""' .... :. ... < A> CO n' --al ~(I) 0 :I cc ::::s Ill "'II "' UI ,,. ,,. 

Reduce Wind Erosion : Western South Dakota

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Reduce Wind Erosion : Western South Dakota

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