STEEP: Impact of long-term conservation farming research and education in Pacific Northwest wheatlands

Abstract

Erosion took a serious toll of prime topsoil from wheat fields in the Pacific Northwest United States since farming began in the 1870s. By the mid-1900s, it had become a serious environmental and economic threat to the region that produces world-record rainfed grain yields and almost 13% of the US wheat crop. Of significance is that 80% of the nation's specialty soft white wheat is grown here for food grain, of which 90% is exported. To combat the severe erosion, wheat growers, the experiment stations, and the USDA in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington joined forces in 1975 to develop a multidisciplinary program named Solutions to Environmental and Economic Problems (STEEP). For more than 30 years, it has proved itself a national landmark in effective conservation farming research and education. The basic strategy was a systems approach that addressed all facets of farming from planting to harvesting in multi-year rotations. Its primary goal was to reduce soil erosion from the region's 3.3 × 10 6 ha (8.2 × 10 6 ac), consisting of highly productive but considerably steep cropland. Through the successful development and implementation of improved conservation technology and farming systems by the tri-state STEEP effort, regional soil loss rates averaging 45 Mg ha -1 y -1 (20 tn ac -1 yr -1 ) were reduced over the 30 years to a tolerable 11 Mg ha -1 y -1 (5 tn ac -1 yr -1 ) or less. In addition, financial returns to wheat growers using the conservation systems are equal or have increased, and long-term benefits to soil, water, and air quality have improved. A conservative estimate shows that the investment cost of saving soil and improving water quality was less than $0.50 ha -1 y -1 ($0.20 ac -1 yr -1) over the life of STEEP. Though STEEP can boast success, much more is needed to preserve and protect the Northwest environment, natural resources, and productivity to ensure that agriculture is fully sustainable for the future. Ongoing solutions are needed to resolve emerging issues relating to greenhouse gas emissions, carbon storage, energy costs, and other farm inputs that can affect agricultural health. Its proven success provides strong assurance that STEEP can deal with future challenges relating to changes in farm policy, economics, technology, and sociological issues. This paper documents the extent that program goals were achieved and qualitative estimates of return from money invested.

Sustainable Weed Management for Conservation Agriculture: Options for Smallholder Farmers

“…Instead, farmers will continue to rely on tillage which contributes to problems such as soil erosion, degradation of soil quality, high carbon footprint and yield reduction in the long run [48][49][50][51][52].…”

Winter Pea: Promising New Crop for Washington's Dryland Wheat-Fallow Region

“…These data on soil water use by WP agree closely with those reported by Miller and Holmes (2012) in Montana and Merrill et al (2004) in North Dakota. However, by late March, WP plots had only 13 mm more soil water than WW plots (Table 2) because: (i) the greater the surface residue cover, the more water will be stored in the soil (e.g., WP produces little residue compared to WW); and (ii) the drier the soil, the more overwinter precipitation will be stored in the soil (Kok et al, 2009). …”

Integrating Historic Agronomic and Policy Lessons with New Technologies to Drive Farmer Decisions for Farm and Climate: The Case of Inland Pacific Northwestern U.S.

“…The projects fostered collaborations among researchers, farmers, crop advisors and agribusinesses. Significant gains in conservation farming were documented, but adoption was not universal (Kok et al, 2009). …”

“…In the iPNW, conservation tillage has reduced soil erosion and sediment loads (Kok et al, 2009;Brooks et al, 2010;Williams et al, 2014). Brown and Huggins (2012) reviewed 131 data sets from the iPNW and found that 75% of native ecosystems converted to agriculture lost at least 0.14-0.70 Mg C ha-1 year −1 and that the conversion from conventional tillage to no-till practices was predicted to increase SOC from 0.12 to 0.21 Mg C ha −1 year −1 for 75% of situations.…”

“…Similar results obtained in drier traditional iPNW wheat-fallow systems led Janosky et al (2002) to conclude that since no "short-or long-term economic sacrifice" was required to shift to a minimum tillage system when using existing onfarm equipment, a neutral-win solution to soil erosion could be achieved when reduced-till and conventional-till wheat yields were comparable. Yet, strict no-till systems required fixed-cost investments in expensive, specialized direct seeding equipment, so these systems had only been moderately adopted (Kok et al, 2009). While projects like the USDA IPM project, described above, developed integrated strategies identified as essential for protecting soil and water quality by the USDA (Batie et al, 1993) and encouraged early adopting farmers to try direct seeding, they fell short in economically motivating farmers into universal adoption of these no-till systems that required new equipment.…”