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Preserve the idea of conserving land forever
The conservation work that Chris McClelland has completed on his farm in Jefferson County, Kan., over the last 10 years began with an idea that his father had years ago. McClelland grew up on the 160 acres where he and his family live today but it was all grass or hay at that time. "My father always said he would terrace this place if he ever decided to farm it," McClelland said. And that is exactly what McClelland did when he purchased the home place after his father died in the early 1990s. Today he farms 900 acres that he owns and 400 acres that he rents. McClelland has completed numerous conservation projects since he came back to the farm fulltime in 1998. Terraces "All of the land we farm is terraced," McClelland said. "It is not steep ground like in southwest Missouri but it is all highly erodible and all has slope to it." McClelland grows corn, soybeans, and occasionally wheat. It is strictly no-till except for a little tillage when he needs to plow terraces or fill ditches in the fields. McClelland said no-till is helpful on the highly erodible fields but sometimes he gets combine or sprayer tracks that become ditches that need to be filled in. Soil type and structure varies from farm to farm. McClelland said the north half of his home place has very fine silty clay soil. It takes very little rain to move that dirt. Several other farms have heavier clay while others have fine clay with a lot more sand. Those fields are highly erodible and no-till farming is needed to control erosion and keep moisture in those soils. "In wet springs like this one we can can't even get on those fields," McClelland said. "Water pours out to a rock ledge and comes out in the middle of the field halfway down the slope. The top two terraces are dry, the bottom two terraces are dry and water runs out of the three terraces in the middle." McClelland has changed a number of terraces from gradient to tile terraces installing underground drainage basins where necessary, rebuilt several grass waterways and installed sediment basins as needed. A grade stabilization structure was constructed to eliminate sever gully erosion that was breaking down an established grassed waterway. Projects McClelland has done some of the projects on his own, used state cost-share funds, and used Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) on other projects. In 2005 he signed the first Tier III Conservation Security Program (CSP) in Kansas. A project he did on his own improved drainage on a crop field. A deep ravine ran down the middle of the field and collected runoff from nearly 200 acres. When he would get a four or five-inch rain a tremendous amount of water ran through the ravine. A dam with a failed tube was just not doing the job. "The small tubes could not handle the volume of water and it ran through the emergency spillway every time," McClelland said. To correct the problem McClelland hired a construction company to push up the dams, cut the centers down low, put in a 20-inch tube, then poured a concrete spillway in the center of the dam. This process was repeated further up the ravine as well. This has slowed the water down and reduced erosion in the ravine. As an added bonus the basin can be used to water livestock that pasture the corn stalks in the winter. Cost-share funds were used to rebuild gradient terraces with waterways out in the middle of the field. It was impossible to reach these waterways when the crops were growing. On one farm he did change the terrace layout but rebuilt the waterways that were old, silted in, and had inadequate tubes in the basins. Brad Grier, Soil Conservation Technician in Jefferson County, said most grass waterways have a life span of 20 years. These waterways fill up with silt over time and need to be dug out and reseeded. Grier said where a waterway would make short rows next to a fence or property line it makes sense to get rid of the waterway and make the field more farmable. McClelland likes to fertilize the waterways and cut them for hay if possible. "Now on all the farms we only have three waterways that we cannot get to when crops are growing," McClelland said. On the original 160 acres McClelland installed tile outlets. The problem has been that these terraces get so large that the terraces end up with two to three times the slope of the original ground. It is hard to hold the fine clay soil in place when there is a heavy rain. "We probably need a cover crop on those fields during the winter months," McClelland said. Grier said there is less maintenance with a tile outlet system. Producers can gain a little farm ground using tile outlet systems. McClelland finished a project to correct drainage on 140 acres of pasture. The existing ponds were small with no tubes in them. The emergency spillways would cut and erode after heavy rainfall. McClelland built a pond at the bottom of the drainage area and installed a tube and livestock waterers. The smaller ponds above this were cleaned out and had tubes installed. "We fenced off the larger pond and next year we will water cattle out this pond and shut the other off," McClelland said. The pasture next to these ponds is divided into paddocks for rotational grazing. McClelland runs 85 to 90 head of cows. About 30 head calve in the fall and 55 head calve in the spring. Moving large amounts of dirt to build new conservation structures or repairing older ones can affect yields for three to five years. On fields where terraces have been pushed up McClelland will double up on phosphate for the first two years to help offset yield losses. Just as McClelland carried on the conservation plans of his father, he hopes his conservation efforts preserve the land for his children. "For me conservation practices preserve the idea of conserving land forever," McClelland said. "I want this ground to be there for my kids and their kids after I am gone." Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com.
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