Soil blowing across a roadway in Kleberg County The weather has finally warmed up and planting of crops is in full swing in Kleberg County.

As usual, this time of the year brings plenty of wind and sometimes strong winds out of the southeast.

This is the most critical time of the year for potential of wind erosion occurring. The freshly planted fields are usually bare leaving no protection from the forces of wind.

At times, it becomes difficult to see across major highways. Once this soil leaves a field from the erosive forces of wind and deposited in bar ditches or other places, it is lost forever.

The wind erosion process is very complex. It involves detachment, transport, sorting, abrasion, avalanching, and deposition of soil particles.

Field conditions conducive to erosion are: loose, dry, and finely granulated soil; smooth soil surface with little or no vegetation present; sufficiently large area susceptible to erosion; and sufficient wind velocity to move soil.

Wind transports primary soil particles in three ways: saltation, suspension, and surface creep.

With the drought of last year and no crops harvested, there was virtually no residue produced to leave or manage on the soil surface. Of course, a bare soil is more prone to wind erosion than one that is covered.

With the recently planted crop emerging, a rotary hoe is usually run across the field to keep the soil from being picked up by the wind.

Before planting and especially in sandier soils, the moldboard plow is still used to stop the soil from blowing.

This is a temporary fix at best. With another rain and wind storm or extended dry spell, there goes the soil again.

One solution is to convert the field or fields to permanent cover of vegetation such as grass.

It can then be utilized for either haying or grazing.

Another choice would be to plant a crop such as wheat or flax which is grown at this time of the year and it provides a cover of protection. A few farmers have been planting wheat which keeps the soil in place.

A practice that has been applied in this area of Texas is herbaceous wind barriers (wind strips). This is mainly done on vegetable crops such as watermelons.

The strips are strategically placed across the prevailing wind to block the wind and thus prevent wind erosion.

A practice that has been utilized by some farmers in Kleberg County is the use of conservation tillage. Conservation tillage or minimum till leaves adequate amounts of the previous crop residue to protect the soil from the devastating forces of wind.

A clean tilled field has far greater chance of moving by wind erosion as evidence recently than a field that has some residue left on soil surface.

Since the county enjoyed the fall rains, a few tried a cover crop and then burned it down with a herbicide to provide protection against the erosive forces. Any cover will help to slow down the wind erosion process.

For any additional information on wind erosion, ways to prevent it and programs available, please contact the Natural Resources Conservation Service at 401 East King Ave., Suite 100 in Kingsville or call at 592-0309 Ext. 3.

More information will be provided on cover crops in next week’s column.

Quote: “Out of the long list of nature’s gifts to man, none is perhaps so utterly essential to human life as soil.” Hugh Hammond Bennett, father of soil conservation.