With all the eroded soil from the tilled farms washing onto our farms we are constantly repairing our waterways. They keep silting in and/or washing out along the sides.

This year we have put in more Switchgrass to help alleviate this problem. These pictures show the problem. The water jumps the creeks and waterways and runs amok in our fields. The Switchgrass will filter the water and keep the soil from the tiller's fields off our fields. Hopefully the Switchgrass will slow down the water flow and keep floating residue out of our fields too.

Above you see a small creek that jumps its banks during heavy rains.

This is what happens to our No-Till fields where the neighbor's water runs amok in our fields.

 

Above is the 100 foot area we seeded to Native grasses for the CRP program. You can see where the flood waters have already eroded the new seeding this spring.

Last year 3 of the 4 floods on another farm were held back by a
13 year old CRP filter strip (look at the third picture).

We've added Switchgrass filter strips to 6 farms this year.

July of 1999 --- 13 year old CRP filter strip with Native Prairie Reed Canary Grass

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