No more dust bowls?

As a lad growing up in northwest Louisiana in the late 40s and 50s I experienced some effects of the “second dust bowl”, when dust from west Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma found its way to my house. I can remember many days when the atmosphere was laden with red dust, to the point that sun was dimmed as if by clouds. Everything in the house was covered with a not-so-thin layer of the dust, and grit found its way into our food. These events occurred at least twice during my childhood.

An article in USA Today says that we should not expect another dust bowl, despite the recent years’ drought in the west and mid-west. Nor should we expect widespread crop failure (depends on who you ask, I imagine) thanks to innovations in seed quality, planting practices and farming technology, the report says. It concedes there is cause for concern if the drought continues, as it demonstrates the vulnerability of corn crops to these vagaries of weather.

It says that during the past 20 years farmers have largely abandoned the practice of plowing 8-11 inches deep, instead adopting “no-till” or “conservation tillage” to minimize disturbance of the soil. Disease and insect-resistant plant varieties are helping to reduce the amount of travel over the soil by equipment(TRACTORS, combines), helping it to remain looser and more moisture-receptive.

The innovation that got my attention was in the realm of technology: “precision-farming” utilizing GPS and radio signals to allow “autopilot” and “tailor planting, fertilizing and insecticide application”. The precision-guided systems allow farmers to apply 1-inch-wide applications of fertilizer over the soil in the fall, and then plant seeds in the same 1-inch path in the spring.

The news article said also that another factor reducing the likelihood of a dust bowl is soil conservation. “Taxpayers paid roughly $1.7 billion last year to keep about 31 million acres of marginal farmland out of production through the Conservation Reserve Program. The land, planted in grass and other cover for wildlife, would be highly susceptible to wind erosion, the Department of Agriculture says.”

I've got a feeling some of the old hands on this board are going to say this is old news, no news or total krap. Me, I know nothing; just thought it was interesting.

While it is true that notil is making a difference, there can be no more dust bowls.EPA has mandated that dust must be regulated, and external_link has forbidden it.

Some of us in cold wet climates still do a lot of tillage - have to to dry & warm the soil.

But that's actually a pretty good summary of farming in the last 30 years.

The wiring on a new planter is unbelievable. With RTK GPS, they can plant the end rows, then plant the field and the rows shut off automatically so you never souble-plant where a row already has been planted.

However, we are seeing some weeds adapting to the not-till, and some insects, and some funguses - I guess that would be fungi.

Might have to rethink some of that as we move forward. Get strip till as a good compromise, or some such.

--->Paul

> I've got a feeling some of the old hands on this board are going to say this is old news, no news or total krap.

And I've got a feeling that you will get all three.

In SWND tilling is slmost unheard of these days, except CRP ground going back into production and mostly big discs are used for that. Far fewer trips over the field, less diesel,saves moisture ect. Most of that CRP land will be going back into production soon. When it all is producing again we can expect wheat under $2, a supply and demand thing. As for the GPS precision there has been some learning pains involving electrical towers, rock piles,ect. The pictures are worth a chuckle but I am sure the attitude on the ground is different.

One factor you didn't mention is the use of irrigation on the High Plains and its consequent depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer. There are millions of acres of marginal farmland on the plains that would not be productive without irrigation. Much of this will necessarily be taken out of production or switched to dryland as groundwater runs out. We know a lot more about soil conservation than we did eighty years ago, so hopefully this won't result in widespread wind erosion.

It should be noted that the dust bowl was caused by a combination of poor farming practices, drought and market forces. (The price of grain shot up during and after WWI, then collapsed in the late twenties and thirties.) Only the first of these three factors has been eliminated.

There is probably more of a chance of another dust bowl for two reason 1)Many fences and tree rows have ben taken out so the wind has no breaker in alot more places and 2)Alot of land that was pasture land back then has been put into
crop production.

Find a copy of a book The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan.Good account of the dust bowl years.I think it can happen again.Farmers are cutting down the tree belts that were planted to stop the problem.The Oklahoma pan handle was the center of the problem in the 30s.The drought is bad in the same area today.News says Arizona has been having dust storms last month.A Gallap poll says 18.6% of people called are having problems getting enough food.Worst across all southern states.Ms is running 20%.Last year summer Squash was 1.09 a pound in the stores,1.49 in July, 1.79 last week.We grow all we need in a 6x6 area and have some to sell.The old saying Ignorance is bliss is right on.Nationwide the corn crop is a failure.Hen grain was 15.50 for 50 lb yesterday,moving up fast.

Maybe they are right??? Maybe they are wrong???

Buttttttttttt If USA Today and/or the USDA says its so and you DARE disagree you could be summarily dismissed called names (you might even be called a racist bigot or homophobe or right winger lol) and the subject is closed. Thats one political technique and method for dealing with diversity (thought we were supposed to celebrate diversity ???)

All I DO KNOW is its been hot n dryer then a popcorn fart here in Southern Indiana, I havent researched Dust Bowl myself (to form my own non USA Today opinion) and studied if it could ever happen again?? I find it hard to believe it couldnt however??

Take care yall, "Let go and let God" I trust n believe in him more then USA Today

John T

It could happen - but the draughts would have to be worse than in the dustbowl because no-till and limited till farm practices.

While many blame "global warming" for the current draught they seem to forget that it flies in the face of global warming theory. More "global" heat results in more moisture in the atmosphere from water condensing over the oceans. More water in the atmosphere results in an unstable atmosphere with more storms - remember how they explained Washington getting record snow fall and Hurricane Katrina? If it were truly "global warming" and not a regional weather pattern we should be getting even more rain – not less.

Guys, My thoughts, Having seen 1 real dust storm, While I was @ Tarleton State Uni. @ Stevenville, TX. 67 mile Sw. Ft Worth. The sky turned dark with red dust, On the Stop lights, the Green was Blue!
Also having lived in the Okla, Tx Panhandles when CRP came into Being, the larger part of marginal High Plains Dry Land and Short water irrigated land went back into Grass! IMO. I just don't see a full fledged dust bowl happening again.
The New Farming (minimum, Strip till) techniques have slowed down to almost stopped erosion on most most farms, especially in Sand Country.
the largest percentage of High plains Irrigated land is under some sort of Min/Strip till practice.
The Dry Land areas are still using a stubble cover and undercutting to kill weeds and hold moisture. Also better spraying techniques and chemicals allow for better weed control ans moisture savings.
The Dust bowl was caused by Clean plowing Techniques coupled with many yrs of horribly dry weather.
Will / Can it happen again! I do not think so , But any thing is possible.

a few things you have to remember about the dust bowl days.One, and the main one, is that there was afarm on every 40-160 acres. NOT a cattle ranch,not a hobby farm,but a true working farm with most if not all available ground tilled.it didnt matter that it was marginal ground, we had to work it simply to survive.They,and we, did it first to feed ourselves,then to take the remainder if any to market. There was NO electricty, so you couldnt irrigate if you did have the well.There were very few gas stations,most gas was bought in five gallon cans at the hardware store. Most places didnt even have water wells,and water was hauled. Very few actual maintained roads ,(the first paved road western okla was not even built yet) very few tractors, 99% of this work was done with horses and mules.Most places 160 acres was considered the very minimum a family of four could own and simply survive after feeding your livestock and your self. So when families made a bumper crop or a little money like they did for the few years before the dust bowl they did it,just like folks are now with crop prices being high. Tillage practices have NOT changed all that much.We were subsoiling,chisel plowing,minimum tilling with listers etc. you had to to make a crop to feed yourself in areas with less than 25 inches of rain in the BEST of years. To put it quite bluntly railroads ,shysters,and in fact the us gov itself promised poor immigrant families who were rioting in the streets of eastern cities for the jobs they were promised,free land and once they got here they were simply forgotten.They farmed like they had before in their home countries and some made a lot of money at first.But all the while folks who lived here before were telling them to it couldnt last.Those families are the ones who survived for the most part because we knew from prior experience what would happen. COULD it happen again? not like it did then in my opinion.you have to remember that the dust storms you recall,and that often left 1/4" of dust on decks of ships 100 miles out in the atlantic, didnt happen at first.it was a combination of vast areas of marginal ground plowed up,not simply one year ,but year after year as folks desperatly tried to feed themselves and their stock.You had to try to feed yourself simply because there was no other choice.there was no welfare, no assistance,no food banks ,no commodity programs ,no school lunches.You either made a garden or crop,or you starved (and many many many DID starve) in 1936 the life expectancy of a person on a farm in the west was exactly half that of a person in even the worst eastern city.cholera,disentary,malaria, killed thousands,and scurvy was very very common simply because you couldnt get enough vegetables and fruit. so we had to TRY to farm or simply leave,and most couldnt afford to go anywhere,OR were not allowed to leave by the gov because of their indian blood. so by about the fifth or sixth year of trying to feed our selves the soil was literaly as fine as talcum powder.It didnt matter here if the wind was blowing or not,simply walking down the road stirred the dust and it hanged in the air constantly. today its not likely to happen that way again simply because there is not 1/10 of the land there was then plowed up. tree rows wouldnt have helped,and they actually didnt do anything to stop the dust bowl ,thats a 100% MYTH!!! you couldnt have got a tree to grow anyway or anyhow! the wind and sand would have and did strip the bark right off. the grasshopers and wildlife ate the handles out of shovels, a tree would have been like a five course dinner! if youve never seen grashoppers and locusts two inches deep as far as you can see you cant imagine what they eat. tree rows were planted AFTER the dust bowl,after we took bull dozers and scoops to relevel the land.the ONLY THING that stopped the dust bowl was rain.nothing else had a chance in the world of helping. folks who tell you gov programs stopped the dust bowl, are telling you quite simply a lie,or a untruth.nothing the gov could have done even would have helped.the most they did was to help feed folks. nothing could have stopped it,just like nothing can stop the current drought.nothing whatsoever could have prevented it at that time and in those conditions. my family were luckier than most because we werent farmers,we were ranchers.but once the drought started we ran all our cattle into pens and shot them to keep them from starving to death.horses and mules dropped dead in the harness of folks trying to leave,cars and tractors wouldnt run.(we, believe it or not would drain the oil out of our cars,and the cars oil bath oil filters and strain them through a cloth every day in an attempt to keep dirt out of the engines.some folks even gave up trying to dig theirs out simply because it was better for one to be burried than out in the sand storms.it was simply a different time in a different world.. IT CAN ABSOLUTLY happen again its happening as we speak all over the world. but could it get that bad here again? no i dont think so simply because we know what to watch for and can adjust accordingly. in many ways the dust bowl here was driven by desperation, just like it is in countries all over the world today. despite all the scientific theories ,the social/ political rhetoric,the american farmer was then exactly what those poor folks in those third world countries are today.we and they did and do what we had to simply to survive. sorry to go on but you expected to be flamed!LOL

Great on-the-scene perspective.

few other memories,since were discussing the "good old days". another thing that made the dust bowl as bad as it was,was simply that no body had any money.The depression took care of that.so folks who had a farm were often better off simply because they could for a while feed themselves.work off the farm was almost nonexistant and what few jobs there were had 100 guys waiting in line for it. This created a situation where families,who normally were the backup and helpers of that day and time simply couldnt help because they had nothing either.Folks who wanted to leave the farms simply had nowhere else to go for help.my own family survived because in addition to raising cattle we raised turkeys.once we shot the cattle because they were starving, we turned to those turkeys simply because they could survive on the grasshoppers and locusts. we and several other families in the area hauled water from a spring a mile from our house because wells went dry. turtles got so bad in that spring hole and were so hungry that they would bite the heads off the turkeys as they went to water. my dad sat there day after day shooting them. he also shot crows,and gave them to a neighbor who had four girls,they survived by eating them. jack rabbits were so bad that the state would give you two shotgun shells for each one you killed,sort of a bounty type deal.dad would shoot them with his 22 and keep the shotgun shells because they were worth more.he had at one time two 55 gallon drums full of loose shotgun shells.and after the drought finally ended no one in the family ever ate a jackrabbit again and most dont like turkey. as i say,several factors contributed to the dust bowl being as bad as it was.it wasnt just the farming practices,it wasnt just the drought, it was simply a combination of things that all came together in the dirty thirties to make it one of the worst times in our history.

The only thing in that article I will take issue with is the "marginal" land that has been put into the CRP program. I basically have no problem with the CRP program if the land placed into it was TRULY marginal and highly erodable, but most of the CRP acres around here are rolling hills, not steep at all, and have already been terraced many years ago. That land WOULD be very productive otherwise.