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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 ]
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.
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.
Keyline refers to a contour line extending in both directions from a keypoint. Plowing above and below the keyline provides a watercourse that directs water away from a purely downhill course to reduce erosion and encourage infiltration. [58] It is used in designing drainage systems. [59]
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.
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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.