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Show Soil Conservation Practices Improve Mortensen Farm Senor F. Mortensen came to Ihc Uintah Basin in 1918, approximately approx-imately twenty-seven years ago, for the purpose of making a home and earning a livelihood by farming and stockraising. He selected se-lected a piece of ground located approximately six miles southwest south-west of Roosevelt, which is his present farm. He was advised of nis bad purchase by neighbors who claimed to know trie country, coun-try, but his mind was made up and it wasn't be be changed. When Mr, Mortensen had broken brok-en the ground, he found that parts of it would produce fair crops of alfalfa but other crops were poor. He was interested in the livestock business and set out to produce feed and pasture for them. As with every farmer in the Basin he first planned to acquire ac-quire additional water. This he purchased from Moon Lake Irrigation Ir-rigation Company, It increased his expenses, cash was hard to raise, and he was constantly reminded re-minded mat he had to earn a living. liv-ing. Sonic of tne first problem: which confronted Mr. Mortensen in his quest for better crop production pro-duction were: how to increase soil fertility, drainage to remove surplus water and alkali, land leveling, seeding of better quality qual-ity of pasture grasses and clover, and checking the wind erosion on his farm. He heard about the assistance as-sistance offered farmers in work-1 ing out their conservation prob-lems, prob-lems, so he applied to the Uintah Basin Soil Conservation District i for assistance. The District as- signed SCS technicians to work out a conservation problem with him. In company with Mr. Mortensen, Mort-ensen, they made a careful study of the conditions found, and a cooperative co-operative farm plan was worked out during the summer of 1943. The practices planned included a definite cropping system which consisted of four years alfalfa, two years small grain, one year row crop, and one year of alfalfa with small grain as a nurse crop. I They planned to treat at least ten acres each year with superphos- phale. Mr. Mortensen agreed to follow the practice of seeding sweet clover with all small grain crops and plowing it under in the fall of the year as green manure. Also, whenever an alfalfa or clover clo-ver field is to be rotated on Mr. Mortensen's farm, he irrigates it in the fall and permits it to grow up six or eight inches before plowing the growth under. The irrigation system was improved im-proved by making new ditches in more convenient places, and the length of the runs was shortened. Now Mr. Mortensen says he can handle his irrigation water more easily and put it over more land in less time without swamping the ground at the lower end of the runs. He also makes use of the waste water by leading it onto on-to higher ground. It was decided to drain the area affected by a high water table with an open drain. This was accomplished during 1944 and 1945 by digging a drain 2,000 feet long and approximately ap-proximately 4Vi feet deep. The drained area began drying up in che summer of 1945. Much of the inferior water grasses began dying and some of the better pasture grasses commenced to .how improvement adjoining the rained area. Mr. Mortensen purchased a .oil auger several years ago and nas made hundreds of borings on his farm. He is indeed quite a specialist on the soils and drainage drain-age of his own and neighboring farms. He says he can see that drainage will be successful, and he plans to install additional drains next year. Blasting was tried on this farm in December of 1945 in two places. plac-es. The first of these was not entirely en-tirely successful, owing to the lack of experience with frosty ground. But the second trial was successful. The planting of irrigated pasture past-ure has been one of the outstand-, outstand-, ing practices on this farm during the past two years. Approximately Approximat-ely 30 acres were seeded to pasture past-ure in 1943 as recommended in the agreement which was prepared pre-pared with Mr. Mortensen. Then 20 acres were seeded in the fall of 1944 and 50 acres in 1945. Most of the pasture seeded in September, 1944, showed an excellent ex-cellent stand, All the species planted were well . represented. Mr. Mortensen now has a total of 250 acres earmarked for pasture-seeding on his farm. M.r. Mortensen said he applied to the Soil Conservation District for technical help on some prac-I prac-I tices which he couldn't do himself. him-self. These pratices have helped to increase the earning capacity I of his farm. H says that his con-1 con-1 servation program has made it possible for him to handle more land provide for more livestock with less labor than previously, and that he is now producing more and a better quality of feed for his stock. |
