What farming activities have contributed to soil loss? How can farmers prevent this loss?

Question

What farming activities have contributed to soil loss? How can farmers prevent this loss?

Answer 1

Water running down a hill takes a lot of the soil to the bottom.  To prevent this, not very many farmers do this (we do) useing contuers and tarreces.  Wind is NOT a big factor, I have no idea what those people are thinking!  Many farmers get lazy and don't plant like us, but it does help.  Think of it this way, water runs down hill, with the planter, going around the hill, parrellel with it; it makes little hills trapping the water making it not wash the soil and seed away.

Answer 2

As John H says, wind and water contribute most to soil loss.  So to prevent wind loss, use cultivation methods that don't break soil into dust and make sure its covered - by crop or mulch as much as possible. Plant wind break trees to reduce wind speeds. To prevent water loss, use contour cultivation and install drainage systems to reduce water run off.

Answer 3

to prevent soil loss you need a good soil structure

to gain a better soil structure you need to stubble mulch or green manure (stubble mulch- ploughing whats left after harvesting)(green manure- ploughing crop into ground without harvesting when crop is green)

after you have a good soil structure try and use low to zero tillage equipment. direct drill is a good one.

if ploughing a paddock on hill DONT go down the hill go across (traps more water and stops seeds and dirt washing away) do your home work find out new and better ways to do things as our climate is also changing!!

Answer 4

The two biggest soil losses due to agriculture are through wind erosion and soil erosion. The biggest loss through wind erosion was in the 1930's dust bowl, the result of large stretches of exposed plowed ground.  Water erosion is always a problem on land that is plowed and left exposed to runoff.  Farmer have learned to help control Both wind and water erosion by the practices of no-till and minimum-till farming.  Other practices like cover crops in the off season, chisel plowing, etc have kept the ground covered and not exposed to erosion.

Answer 5

using farm machinery more than need, using fertilizers & plowing may cause soil loss, other than these, water run off and wind erosion are the other reasons for Soil Loss. by using Conservational Ag methods such as No-till, min-till and ... you may prevent soil loss .

Answer 6

Plowing has probably had the most adverse effect on the land....no-till farming and planting erosion barriers have been helpful in erosion prevention.  

Soil loss may take place where there is a great deal of animal traffic...the soil may be dislodged and then allowed to runoff.

Answer 7

Treed areas are often subject to deep water erosion, major gullies, even trees uprooted and floating downstream during floods. Plantings that channel water into narrow flows are always at fault, but avoiding it takes some serious planning, not a ten word answer.

In very windy areas with clay soil it becomes necessary to build soil tilth, a lot of roots  will keep soil from breaking down and drifting, Planting in strips rather than wide open fields can leave buffers to stop drifting... use of  wild rose plantings on ridges that are particularly subject to wind.

Rows of trees to break the wind where possible.

Where water tends to collect and run down gullies, collecting the water via tile drainage, and allowing the energy of falling water to be dissipated by falling into water rather than onto soil.

Soil is reclaimed by wide flat grassy areas that collect flood waters, Often that soil just lies there rather than being returned to land upstream. The  land upstream is often owned by  someone else who should have kept it on the farm.

Soil is also lost by way of salination, where very fertile land is poisoned by salts rising from below when the land is irrigated, or when land upstream is irrigated. Tile drainage and very careful irrigation from the top is often the only way to recover.

Overpasturing is seldom mentioned as losing soil. It loses the ability of the soil to produce.

Compacting of clay soils with heavy machinery, or working while too wet is another loss of function problem. It can make soil unproductive for decades, and is best dealt with by taking the land out of cropping, back to hay or pasture.

Soil is lost to production also when climates become too dry. This can be exascerbated when deep tillage is used in advance of a drought.

Answer 8

tilling the soil creates erosion because the roots of the plants are no longer holding the soil in place.   this can be lessened by no-till planting.   cover crops planted can also minimize the loss of top soil and improve the health of the soil in general.   the removal of trees to create farmable land is also a cause of soil loss, as is the damage caused by livestock to the existing foliage.   pasture rotation can help to reduce the effects of livestock damage.

Answer 9

planting more trees can prevent soil loss or soil erosion

Answer 10

What everyone has said is true.  In short, any activity that reduces or removes vegetative cover, and/or increases the amount of (water) runoff is going to artifically inflate the erosion rate.  While it's true that ag contributes to soil erosion, in Missouri construction causes more soil erosion than agriculture.  

Controlling erosion is my job and some of the practices that I use include building ponds, sod waterways, terraces, water and sediment control structures, converting cropland to grassland, improving the health of grasslands (to reduce runoff), designing grazing systems to better manage the amount and place where animals graze, planting trees, no till planting, fencing livestock out of streams and the shaping and seeding of eroding areas.

Answer 11

Soil erosion after plowing.

Can be reduced by No-till.

Planting cover crops.

Added comment:

Anyone out there use rice straw wattles?

Answer 12

Overgrazing - By removing the protective plant cover the soil get dry and exposed to the sun,wind and floods.

Reduce stock, and more so during droughts.

Repair and replant.