What Happens If Farmers Do Not Use Contour Plowing?

Contour Plowing Definition

• Farmers must create furrows, or ditches, for cradling newly planted crop seeds. Contour plowing requires the furrows to be perpendicular to the land's slope, as opposed to furrows following the sloping land. This perpendicular technique was more difficult for farmers, as well as being dangerous, requiring solid balancing of the tractor across the slope.

Incorrect Plowing Effects

• Old plowing techniques that follow the land's slope contribute to soil erosion. The furrows create waterways for rainfall down the sloped hills. As the rain continues, the topsoil cannot hold more water. The excess water runs down the furrows, picking up loose topsoil as it rushes forward. More topsoil is lost as the rain continues. The topsoil is the most productive of all the soil layers, housing organic matter and nutrients for crop growth. Lost topsoil degrades the overall soil's quality, generating fewer and poorer-quality crops.

Complements to Contour Plowing

• Contour plowing is complemented with the use of terraces for preventing soil erosion. Terraces are multiple, flat soil levels, much like a staircase. When terraces combine with contour plowing, water runoff is slowed further with the levels, causing more water to be absorbed into the soil.

Historic Effects

• During the 1930s, the Dust Bowl occurred in the Midwest and Southern plains. For many years prior to the Dust Bowl, farmers overplowed their land, causing poor soil quality and erosion from both rain and wind. Contour plowing and terraces were not implemented at this time. As drought set in during the 1930s, the topsoil was blown away, leaving soil that could not sustain crop growth. In 1935, the Soil Erosion Service began paying farmers for practicing the new soil conservation techniques, such as contour plowing. The new farming techniques allowed crops to flourish once the drought terminated in 1939.

Crop Stubble and Contour Plowing

• Crop stubble or remains are typically left within the furrows after harvesting. The stubble layer protects the soil beneath it from rainfall impacts. This simple technique preserves the contour plowing furrow's shape, preventing rain drops from packing the soil into dense clusters that are difficult for seedlings to grow within.