With the 1960’s slogan Power to the People, young members of the United States expressed an aspiration for a society that was more participatory, more transparent, and more inclusive. These young people wanted to feel they had some control rather than all the power residing in The Establishment. I think that is how farmers must feel today. They must feel like that the environmental process lacks transparency. They must feel they have very little information to make decisions. Please note, that I am not making excuses for farmers. No …
Soil Triage
Triage, Triage, Triage…or the medical term for “setting priorities” Ok, so here is a stupid question. How important is it to take someone’s body temperature when you are assessing their overall health? Well that depends, doesn’t it. If the patient is at the doctor’s office for flu-like symptoms, then taking someone’s body temperature is pretty important. However, if the patient is in the Emergency Room with a severed arm and bleeding profusely, then taking their temperature is probably not high on the priority list. The same can be said …
Why Not Precision Conservation?
This week I am pleased to have as my guest writer, Jim Gulliford, Executive Director of the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS). SWCS is a professional society dedicated to promoting the science and art of natural resource conservation and has been a leader in encouraging the adoption of precision conservation. Jim has more than 30 years professional experience administering natural resource protection programs in agriculture and for the Environmental Protection Agency. I first met Jim back in the early 1980’s when I was a young NRCS …
We Need Soil Saviors
“If we had just controlled the soil erosion in past years,” Dr. Jerry Hatfield, ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, says “we would not be trying to figure out how to obtain 300 bushels/acre of corn.” Farmers would already be producing 300 bushels/acre with current technology.Obviously, agronomists need a new set of tools to communicate with farmers. Since soil erosion is not distributed evenly across the field, the farmer will want to evaluate those areas of the field where erosion is the worst and therefore costing …
Grassed Waterways – The Ugly Duckling of BMPs
Last week I was in a discussion with Dr. Mark Tomer, ARS National Laboratory of Agriculture and Environment, about the amount of research that exists, or more importantly the amount of research that does NOT exist, on the efficacy of grassed waterways. Dr. Tomer agreed there was very little research done on grassed waterways, but quickly added he could not imagine submitting a project proposal for grassed waterways because it is assumed, by most funding institutions, that grassed waterways are completely researched and …
Unintended Consequences – Part II
Last year, I wrote a column entitled Unintended Consequences. The column was about how my grandpa straightened his stream many years ago and the unintended results of that action. Of course, at the time, he had no idea of the series of events he was about to set off. I have a feeling I could start a whole new blog entitled “Unintended Consequences in Agriculture”. I doubt I would ever run out of material. Agriculture is complicated, and it is hard to predict what is going to happen and there seems to always be unintended consequences. …