Lesson Outline

Lesson Media Objects

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Erosion Control Measures

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ECM for Cropped Environments

Objective

By the end of this section the student/user will be able to:

Describe erosion control measures for cropped environments.

Accompanying - Exercise: (For students to print off, complete, and turn in for a grade)

Erosion Control Measures of Cropped Environments- Exercise (pdf)

Earlier in this lesson, some erosion control measures for construction lands were described. This section of the lesson will focus on erosion control measures of cropped environments.

Vegetation:

Vegetative cover is the single most effective and economical measure to protect agricultural soil. The degree of soil protection depends on the cropping system and the vegetation type. The table below shows the erosion hazard of different cropping system compared to a control example of continuous clover. For example, the relative erosion hazard of leaving the soil fallow (land area left uncropped or unplanted) is 244 times that of continuous clover.

Degree of Erosion Hazard Relative to Continuous Clover
Cropping System	Relative Erosion Hazard
fallow	244
corn-soybean	120
corn-corn-soybean	112
continuous corn	100
continuous clover	1
Source: Iowa State University; http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/icm/2000/7-24-2000/erosion.html

Thinking Question:

From the above table, why is the erosion hazard rated higher in the corn-soybean rotation compared to that of continuous corn?

Continuous soybean cropping is not listed in the table. How might the erosion hazard of a continuous soybean system compare to those listed in the table above? Justify your speculation.

Hint: See residue distribution difference in the erosion lesson at:

http://citnews.unl.edu/croptechnology/lessonImages/1088617068.gif

http://citnews.unl.edu/croptechnology/lessonImages/1095885859.jpg

This video explains the beneficial effects of vegetative cover in reducing wind erosive energy and trapping moving particles.
Video Clip by Dr. John Tatarko, USDA

This video clip explains how barriers alter the effect of the wind force on the soil surface. The video discusses the different types of barriers and their advantages and disadvantages.
Video Clip by Dr. John Tatarko, USDA

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