The following is a guest blog contributed by Vicki Carter from the Spokane Conservation District

The farm producers of Eastern Washington are fortunate to live in one of the most fertile and productive farming regions in the world; the Palouse.  Agriculture is a $6.4 billion industry in Washington State and the rolling hills of the Palouse region of Eastern Washington is a major contributor to that.  The Palouse begins just south of Spokane and extends south through Whitman County to the Snake River. The eastern boundary is the beginning of the mountains and forests of northern Idaho with the channeled scablands forming the western boundary.  The highest dryland wheat producing county in the United States is Whitman County just south of Spokane.

The crops being grown in the region are primarily cereal grains; spring and winter wheat and barley along with peas, lentils, garbanzos, bluegrass and some oil seed crops like mustard and canola.  The Palouse is the largest lentil growing region in the U.S., exporting lentils to the entire world. Wheat is the primary crop with the other crops put into rotations with wheat to minimize disease and insect damage.  The typical yields for winter wheat are 80-90 bushels per acre and can go over 100 bushels.  Spring wheat yields average anywhere from 45 to 70 bushels per acre, depending on precipitation.  Annual precipitation will run anywhere between 12 to 22 inches with most of that occurring during the winter months.  Summers are typically hot and very dry.

The effects of wind and water on rock are what, over the course of several millions of years have made and deposited the deep, rich loess soils of the region.  But in just over a hundred years of farming, nearly half of the soils that were there are now gone, washed and blown away.  The terrain has a lot to do with that, with virtually no flat land within the region; 20 – 60% slopes are common as is severe soil erosion.

A hundred years ago the only way to farm the rolling hills of the Palouse on a large scale was with horses and oxen.  The technology of the day was primitive by modern standards, but quite effective in opening up large tracts of land for production of crops.

Once the native Palouse Prairie and the soils were no longer protected by permanent vegetative cover, severe erosion was not only possible but predictable.  Mechanization allowed for higher production levels as well as higher rates of erosion as the farm implements were pulled up the hills by powerful tractors.  Researchers at the two Land Grant Universities in the Region, Washington State University and the University of Idaho along with the local conservation districts and USDA Soil Conservation Service recognized the problem and are trying valiantly to introduce new programs and come up with best management practices to reduce soil erosion.

On a typical “conventional tillage” farm, anywhere from 4-7 trips over the same field are required to establish a crop.  Since the early 1970’s there has been an effort to reduce the amount of erosion on the Palouse by reducing the number of tillage operations on the ground to just one or two.  Farmers now have the technology available to them that allows them to place the seed and fertilizer in the ground directly through the residue of the previous crop.  Using Direct Seeding or No-Till provides savings in fuel consumption, more than paying for the equipment, and saves the precious topsoil of the Palouse.

A fairly new concept on the Palouse is cover-cropping.  There are currently several operations within the region that are introducing cover crops as a means to prevent soil erosion and to save moisture.  When combined with No-Till and precision ag techniques, soil erosion could be virtually eliminated on the Palouse while increasing yields and profitability.  Saving moisture, saving soil, saving fuel, saving money and quite possibly saving the farm, the farmers of the Palouse are adopting the very latest and best technology available to insure that the Palouse Region of Eastern Washington will remain one of the most highly productive farm regions in the world.

Tags: Soil Health, Agriculture, no till, Palouse, Washington, Cover Cropping, tilling