Dust Bowl. And Stuff

 I recently decided to tour through both panhandles: Texas and Oklahoma.  Dust Bowl country.  After the dust had settled down, the government bought much of the eroded land that was available.  Now, it is a patchwork of "National Grasslands".  Most of the lands remain in private hands and is mostly farmed.

I was surprised to see so much center pivot irrigation in the area.  And I was more surprised to see "dust devils" scattered about.  It turns out that the "dust devils" were clouds of dust rising from farm equipment doing plowing.  So, there is more wind erosion in progress than I would have thought.  The dust creation is likely very short duration, occurring only between crops.  Maybe two or three times a year.

I have (or had) a very nice sandy asparagus patch of about three acres.  With asparagus, you have a single opportunity to mechanically control weeds.  That is best done a week or so before the asparagus spears begin to appear.  The entire field can be disked at a shallow depth.  Hopefully staying above the crowns from which the spears arise.  I remember one year when we had inopportune winds following the annual weed clean up.  It hurt to see great clouds of dust rise from the field.  Good and irreplaceable soil lost.

So, I've been reflecting on soil conservation.  Over freshly plowed soil, wind will pick up and carry away the smallest particles first.  Leaving behind coarse sand and pebbles.  That changes the character and value of the soil.

One good remedy to such soil loss is "low till cultivation" or, better yet, "no till cultivation".  Both require increased herbicide inputs.  That raises the cost but avoiding or reducing tilling lowers cost.  So, the farmers are inclined to use more herbicides and use less tilling for the purpose of preserving soil.  There are, increasingly, market forces that discourage herbicide use.  Certainly, there is a a conflict.   Think about that the next time you demand "organic" from your fresh produce source.

I notice that there are a lot of what appear to be sand dunes in the panhandles.  Vegetated over and mostly stable.  Road cuts and other excavations reveal much sub surface sand.   I suspect that most of the center pivot land is smoothed up sand dunes.

From personal experience, I know that farming may not be profitable.  It has many economic ups and downs.  Most beyond the control of the farmer.  I recall that when I started growing peaches in about 1983, I knew I had to make about three crops of peaches out of each five years in order to stand a chance of being profitable over the long term.  In my first five years of peach growing, I made a single decent peach crop.  And, I branched out into blackberries, tomatoes and many other "truck" crops.  NONE were long term profitable.  Most farmers have similar stories.

One great fear of our government is agricultural failures resulting in food riots and maybe even starvation.  Because of that fear, agricultural subsides are wide spread.  Most modern farmers are dependent on "feeding at the trough" for economic stability.    Without subsidies, market forces would push many farmers out of business.  That happened during the Great Depression and dust bowl era.  The declines in production due to farmers being previously pushed out of business results in shortages later.  Hence, the government strives to keep farmers in business when short term market forces tells them that they should not be in business.  

Recall that the Russians, under Stalin, starved millions of Ukrainians as a political control method. 

Because of low profitability, aggravated by government subsidies, agricultural land is of generally low value compared the value for other uses.  "Development".  Ass backwards, IMHO.  Farming should be reliably profitable.  Farmers should be valued and honored members of society.   Farm land should be so valuable that "development" occurs only on "waste" land.  Dream on, Willie.