"Conservation, from my perspective, is the effective use and sustainability of the natural resource that are given on a piece of property," USDA-NRCS Assistant State Conservationist for Programs Mark Haviger said. "We are not preservationists -- we are for using the resource within its capability, whether that is to grow crops or to grow grass and raise livestock, or if it is beyond that capability, then to leave it alone."
One of the first things that the USDA-NRCS can provide to aid a farmer or rancher to start a conservation program is a soil test.
"We have a soil survey that classifies every soil in the United States of America and there are capability classes and we give our recommendations as to what the soils are capable of," Haviger explained.
In addition to a simple soil test, the agency also works to help landowners establish conservation plans.
"We have what we call resource management systems, and that is a complete addressment of the farm or ranch's resources," Haviger said. "For instance, let's use croplands as an example. We would have a system of conservation practices that would include crop rotation, conservation tillage, which prevents soil and wind erosion, we have pest management which addresses weeds as well as insects, and nutrient management which addresses the nutrient use of specific crops, and not all crops and grasses require the same amount of nutrients. Those practices would then comprise what we call the resource management system and we work with cropland, rangeland, wildlife land or pasture -- we have several practices that we use to help that farmer sustain their resources at a level where he can use them and profit off of the farm."
Erosion across the state is what keeps people like Haviger busy helping producers across the state.
"Probably the number on thing that we deal with in Texas would be wind erosion," he explained. "Especially up in the Panhandle and in West Texas. As you work your way east, it kind of changes from wind erosion to water erosion, and then we get into some water quality issues when we get into what we call confined animal livestock operations.
"Texas is basically the size of five other normal-size states... we have a myriad of erosion problems. Most of what we deal with are grazing concerns and the lack of proper maintenance and rangeland and sustainability to rangeland."
Conservation is an important part of management, therefore a specialized conservation plan can be the key to any operation.
"Conservation of cropland is much more maintenance-intensive," Haviger explained. "A farmer is on the cropland, checking his crops, irrigating, or maintaining the crop... they quickly recognize problems and they can address in the early stages.
"When you start talking about rangeland or pastureland, those are larger acreages and there is a lot of times that the farmers and ranchers are only concerned with their livestock and they won't see a portion of, maybe they have 5,000 or 6,000 acres," he continued. "They won't see a portion of all that ranch and sometimes problems can get away from them very quickly. Especially if you have a bare spot and they have a high intensity rain, it will wash very easily because those soils are very thin. The scope and magnitude of problems on rangeland are bigger in size than typically on cropland."
Regardless of land size or use, the USDA-NRCS has many tools available for landowners to utilize. To find out more about how to get a conservation management program, contact a USDA-NRCS office.
"We will be glad to come out there," Haviger said. "Our conservation plans, we take a look at the soils that they have, what the capabilities are and we can recommend a crop rotation, a grass species that will help them achieve their goal and we can also help them determine the number of head they should run on their farm and use their capabilities without overgrazing or without running into erosion problems."
To find a USDA-NRCS office, visit http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/.
