PNW Undercutter project gets an extension
Farm and Ranch December 9, 2009 The original grant for the Pacific Northwest Undercutter Project was to this current December but project manager Harry Schafer says word was recently received that an extension has been approved. Schafer: “We petitioned and were granted an extra 14 months to finish up on this particular project. Dr. Doug Young out of Washington State University is doing an in-depth economic analysis of this project. I think it will be of great value to the NRCS. It is going to tell them, yes, they spent their money wisely or no, don‘t look at this type of project again. I really anticipate it is going to be very positive. The growers who are using the undercutters really like them. It is minimum tillage. Less trips over the field so there is an economic savings in that light.” Thirty farmers from Washington and 17 from Oregon in the six to 12 inch annual precipitation wheat-summer fallow region participated in the undercutter project. The project covered up to 50 percent of the cost of an undercutter for those producers. The undercutter is a minimum tillage piece of equipment that leaves more residue and larger clods on the soil surface reducing wind erosion. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ? ? ?
