Dryland farming is an agricultural technique for non-irrigated cultivation of land which receives little natural rainfall. Dryland farming is used in the Great Plains, the Palouse plateau of Eastern Washington, and other arid regions of North America, the Middle East and in other grain growing regions such as the steppes of Eurasia and Argentina. Dryland farming was introduced to the southern Russian Empire by Russian Mennonites under the influence of Johann Cornies, making the region the breadbasket of Russia. Winter wheat is the typical crop although skilled dryland farmers sometimes grow corn, beans or even watermelons. Successful dryland farming is possible with as little as of precipitation a year, but higher rainfall increases the variety of crops which may be grown. Native American tribes in the arid SouthWest subsisted for hundreds of years on dryland farming in areas with less than of rain.

Dryland farming has evolved as a set of techniques and management practices used by farmers to continually adapt to the presence or lack of moisture in a given crop cycle. In marginal regions, a farmer should be financially able to survive occasional crop failures, perhaps of several years running . Survival as a dryland farmer requires careful husbandry of the moisture available for the crop and aggressive management of expenses in order to minimize losses in poor years.

Dryland farming is uniquely dependent on natural rainfall, which can leave the ground vulnerable to dust storms, particularly if poor farming techniques are used or if the storms strike at a particularly vulnerable time. The fact that a fallow period must be included in the crop rotation means that fields cannot always be protected by a cover crop, which might otherwise offer strong protection against erosion.

Key Elements of Dryland Farming

Capturing and Conservation of Moisture - In regions such as Eastern Washington state, the average precipitation available to a dryland farm may be as little as . Because of this it must be carefully safeguarded until the crop can utilize it. Techniques for capturing the maximum amount of precipitation include using a summer fallow rotation in which one crop is grown on two seasons' precipitation, leaving standing stubble or crop residue to trap moisture (particularly effective in capturing wind-blown snow), and preventing runoff by terracing fields. "Terracing" is also practiced by farmers on a smaller scale by laying out the direction of furrows to slow water runoff downhill, a practice known as contour plowing. Moisture can be conserved by eliminating weeds and leaving crop residue to shade the soil.

Effective Use of Available Moisture - Once moisture is available for the crop to use, it must be used as effectively as possible. Seed depth and timing are carefully considered in order to place the seed at a depth at which sufficient moisture exists, or where it will exist when seasonal precipitation falls. Farmers tend to use crop varieties which are drought- and heat-stress tolerant, even if they may be lower yielding. This increases the likelihood of a successful crop if the seasonal precipitation ends sooner than normal.

Soil Conservation - The nature of dryland farming makes it particularly susceptible to erosion, especially wind erosion. Some of the techniques for conserving soil moisture, such as frequent tillage to kill weeds, are at odds with techniques for conserving topsoil. But since healthy topsoil is critical to sustainable dryland agriculture, its preservation is generally considered the most important long term goal of a dryland farming operation and conservation wins over moisture retention in those cases. Erosion control techniques such as windbreaks, reduced tillage or no-till, spreading straw on particularly susceptible ground, and strip farming are used to minimize topsoil losses.

Control of Input Costs - Dryland farming is a technique practiced in regions which are inherently marginally suitable for non-irrigated agriculture. Because of this there is an increased risk of crop failures and poor yields which may occur in a dry year regardless of the amount of money or effort spent on the crop by a farmer. Dryland farmers must evaluate the potential yield of a crop constantly throughout the growing season and be prepared to cut inputs to the crop such as fertilizer and weed control if it appears that it is likely to have a poor yield due to insufficient moisture. Conversely, in years in which moisture is in abundance, farmers may increase their input efforts and budgets in order to maximize yields and to help offset poorer harvests.

See also

• International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas
• Xeriscaping

Notes

External links

• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Dry Farming

Further reading

• Henry Gilbert, Dryland Farming: January 1982-December 1990 (Beltsville, Md.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library, 1991).
• Mary W. M. Hargraves, Dry Farming in the Northern Great Plains: Years of Readjustment, 1920-1990 (Lawrence: University of Kansas, 1993).
• Oklahoma State Board of Agriculture, Report (Guthrie, Okla.: N. p., 1908).
• Dr. John A. Widstoe,Ph.D. Dry-Farming, A System Of Agriculture For Countries Under A Low Rainfall (NY: The MacMillian Company, 1911)