While at school one day, Jennifer Eyolfson of Leslie was told that in order to look after the soil properly, the land needed to be left idle and given a rest at regular intervals. That information came as a surprise to Jennifer. "At home, my dad has been continuously cropping for years and direct seeding since 1993. I wondered who was right."
With a science fair project to think of, Jennifer decided to gather information on soil conservation and the benefits of direct seeding. Since the winter of 1995-96 had been so windy, it was easy to see the differences in soil loss between the fields where the stubble had been left standing and those fields that were either summerfallow or had been worked a couple of times in the fall. After compiling her information, Jennifer put together a project entitled "Direct Seeding vs Conventional Tillage: Which is better for us and our environment?"
Jennifer's display featured a graph and charts, a number of photos of soil degradation and soil conservation practises and a news article she found in the Foam Lake Review on the importance of soil conservation. She also had an interesting demonstration at her booth. "I filled 2 plastic tubs with soil and cut holes in the side of each tub. The first tub contained bare, black soil. The second tub held soil with standing stubble. To illustrate how well -- anchored soil is much less susceptible to the forces of water, she poured water over both tubs. While the water not only poured out of the tub with the bare soil, great amounts of soil were carried with it. The tub containing the stubble, however, allowed only a small amount of water out of it and that water had no soil mixed with it."
Jennifer's project showed a lot of people at the Science Fair that some of their ideas about farming and what is good for the land need revising. Hats off to a student who took the initiative to check the facts and present them in a meaningful manner!