05/04/05 Mustard for wind erosion control

05/04/05 Mustard for wind erosion control

Farm and Ranch May 4, 2005 Potato growers in the Columbia Basin who have been using mustard as a green manure for pest suppression have noticed that wind erosion was reduced during the spring in those fields compared to fields where mustard had not been used. Andy McQuire, Washington State University Extension Educator for the Grant-Adams area says those observations prompted some research. McQuire: "And we got a smaller wind machine and we test the soils. We can manipulate the wind speeds and we look for the ground moving. Our preliminary study showed that the ground that had the mustard would withstand a higher wind speed before it started to move than the ground that hadn't received the mustard. We are going to do some more in depth studies on that." McQuire explains what may be happening.. McQuire: "We think it has to do with the breakdown of the plant material once you incorporate it into the ground. That it stimulates growth of bacteria and fungi and some of those produce compounds, some people call them soil glues, that hold soil particles together." McQuire says the improvement in soil tilth is just one more benefit from mustard as a green manure. McQuire: "Farmers can harvest the potatoes faster. The dirt falls off the potatoes. They don't carry so much dirt into storage. So there are some of those other benefits we are seeing that we didn't originally think about really." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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