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Contour plowing or contour farming is the farming practice of plowing and/or planting across a slope following its elevation contour lines. These contour line furrows create a water break, reducing the formation of rills and gullies during heavy precipitation and allowing more time for the water to settle into the soil. [ 1 ]
Contour ploughing orients furrows following the contour lines of the farmed area. Furrows move left and right to maintain a constant altitude, which reduces runoff . Contour plowing was practiced by the ancient Phoenicians for slopes between two and ten percent. [ 4 ]
Random contour plowing also becomes off contour but usually with the opposite effect on runoff, namely causing it to quickly run off ridges and concentrate in valleys. The limitations of the traditional system of soil conservation , with its "safe disposal" approach to farm water , was an important motivation to develop Keyline design.
Contour ploughing mitigates soil erosion by ploughing across a slope, along elevation lines. Alternatives to ploughing, such as a no-till method , have the potential to build soil levels and humus. These may be suitable for smaller, intensively cultivated plots and for farming on poor, shallow or degraded soils that ploughing would further degrade.
Contour strip cropping employs a crop rotation system down a slope to minimize runoff and rain velocity. [1] It is used mainly on gentle slope gradients. The width of protective strips is often higher than that of the row crop strips, so they may effectively intercept runoff.
The aged Bucher & Gibbs Plow Co. walk-behind horse-drawn "flip plow" Ken Recker found last fall in Everett, Pennsylvania, now sits in his garage.
Primary tillage is usually conducted after the last harvest, when the soil is wet enough to allow plowing but also allows good traction. Some soil types can be plowed dry. The objective of primary tillage is to attain a reasonable depth of soft soil, incorporate crop residues, kill weeds, and to aerate the soil.
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