Just like farm over terraces on crop ground. The local soil office is talking 5 foot high structures with tile.

Not sure how "farm over" some of them are.

I have several places I do brush cutting on with those terraces. Most you have to follow the terrace and the contour... You can't run up and over the berm with any pull behind equipment. Especially a large batwing cutter, or something similar that pulls from the drawbar.

While I understand why they do it, and can see the benefits, they sure can be a pain to deal with.

Here's a photo of me cutting a pasture with terraces. The land was done in terraces in the 50's. I still have to ride the top of the terrace and follow the contour, then ride the next one in the opposite direction, then cut the ground in between them. Notice how the wings are downward on both sides when riding the crest.

Slows things up a good deal. Much faster without having the terraces to follow.

That's it Barry. Keep the water where it works!

around these parts, if a pasture has terraces it's because the land was tilled at some point, and then turned back to pasture after someone figured out that the land doesn't produce crops for squat.

Down here you usually see it in pastures within a close proximity of a watershed where runoff causes erosion.

My Dad started farming the crop ground in 1959. Folks that don't understand contour farming make fun of it.

I hunt a place with some serious terracing done decades ago when it was a popular practice and put in CRP plus some pasture. Some was put back in crop recently where the terraces are a royal pain slowing equipment down, the terraces are also not needed with notill planting.

Same here. Cotton was king a century ago. I know where there are some rock terraces on a steep hill next to a creek. Most are just plowed terraces. It's all woods now, mostly planted pines.

I have about a 10 acre field that is terraced. Probably done back in the 1940's. Although it can be a pain to farm, it's needed.

I may need to drive the soil conservation man to the terraces, and show him.

Thanks all.

My pasture has tarraces probbly put in in the 1950 with government money. It has not been farmed I’m my lifetime 60 years but probbly was back then

That’s exactly the case on some of the land that my grandparents owned, both sets of grand parents, in west central Ks.

Yep. Same here.

Other than to help control erosion, I can't see why anyone would go to the expense of terracing cattle pastures.

Keep the water on the hill where it will grow grass.

I'd want to see a cost/benefit analysis.

There is enough mud in the Mississippi River now.

There is quite a bit of land here that is classified as HEL, highly erodible land. Terraces work well on that kind of land, and in some occasions may be the only way to keep that from becoming useless as far as cropland. Pasture is a little different, but if that land is needed as pasture, I can see the benefit.

That's it.

Those I see down here may or may not have been farms at some point, but the terraces I see are in steeper runoff areas and not only do they control erosion, but the retain the rainfall much longer on the acreage so the grass can benefit.

I agree that terraces can be very useful on crop ground. They've fallen out of favor around here for dry dams/water and sediment control basins. Most often designed with a backslope that can be farmed across.

I wouldn't tear out terraces on pasture ground that had them, but I do not think it would ever pencil to put them in on existing pasture. Better grazing practices and appropriate renovations/overseeding would be a more cost effective practice.

A lot depends on your annual rainfall. But solid practices of management usually pay off.

Down here we have to add brush control to the equation as well. That's what what I do.

My land used to be terraced, as was all of the neighboring land. Mostly has been disked down and leveled out starting back in the 1970's. My Dad built a lot of terraces for us and our neighbors back when I was very young. I never saw it used or remember it hooked up but the old terracing plow is out back. I did see a picture of one hooked up long ago, and it was hooked up under the tractor, small Ford, with the single rolling plow between the right front wheel and the back wheel. Just a few miles south of me is the beginning of the Grand Prairie, but where I live is a lot of clay and highly erodeable. miles

We soil test for lime, and dry fertilizer.

I work for NRCS and have got to disagree about the no-till planting comment. NT is great for controlling sheet and rill erosion but does nothing for controlling gully erosion. Gully erosion happens in areas of concentrated flow. Depending on crop rotation, soil type, slope and slope length, you may need terraces (or Diversions on steeper ground) and grass waterways or cover crops to control the erosion. I see lots of NT corn and soybean rotations that have problems with erosion. The soybean residue disintegrates and leaves the soil surface bare. Pretty soon, you get little rivulets of water that form into bigger concentrated flow areas and you have an ephemeral gully. Leave it go long enough and you have a serious size gully.

BTW, Terraces are designed to be farmed so are they flatter and broader than Diversions. They worked well but modern wide equipment doesn't fit very well on them anymore. Max field slope for building a terrace is around 6 or 7% if I remember right. Anything over that needs to be a diversion. Terraces can be designed to store water (and let it soak in) or sloped to drain or have a standpipe to drain. Diversions always are sloped to drain and are seeded to a grass mix.

I've been farming contours strips, waterways and diversions since I was a kid in the 70's. Yes, they can be a pain but fixing gullies each spring is a bigger pain. Not to mention losing your topsoil.

Dale

I agree. Around here, terraces have gone the way of the dodo bird. WASCOBs are the more common practices, especially since CRP re-enrolls have gotten harder and/or less rental payments.

When we put in culverts the cattle made paths that wash down the hills.