Gone With The Wind

You might have noticed all the wind turbines that are along I-70 when you were driving through Kansas.  Let me just say this: they are there for a reason.  Sometimes the wind will be strong enough that it actually starts to blow the topsoil off of our fields.  When this happens we have to rough up the surface of the ground in order to stop the wind erosion.  We had a failed wheat crop on a dry land field. Hooray for drought... So I used the below implement to rough up the ground.  

You can see below where a ridge was formed and some dirt clods were created.  We ran about 20 feet between passes and this was enough to stop the dirt from blowing.

When a big wind storm hits our area it can actually make visibility as bad as blizzard.  Below is a picture I took after the worst of the wind had passed.  It looks like there is a cloud blocking the sunset, but it is actually dust. 

I feel fortunate to be able to start farming when I did.  It's hard to explain how nice it is to not have to be sandblasted dustblasted on a tractor without a cab when we were trying to stop the topsoil from blowing.  This storm also made me feel sorry for all the folks that were farming during the "Dirty Thirties".  They didn't have cabs on their tractors, or modern farming practices that eliminate most of the dust storms. 

-The Dusty Farmer Ryan

My Grain Headaches Suggested Viewing:

• The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns - Click the link if you have Netflix and want to add it to your queue:  If you are a fan of historical documentaries or just want to know more I would suggest checking this one out.