![]() ![]() General Mills doesn't own Gunsmoke Farms or control it directly. But 30,000 acres, poorly managed, is a really good sign for failure." It's hard to farm organically if you do it really well, and have your intensive management. "I don't know how you get it back out organically. "It's in a deep hole," Zimmer said, referring to the farm. But he said much of his plan was never implemented. Gary Zimmer, an expert on organic farming who collaborated with General Mills in launching the Gunsmoke project, said that he drew up a plan that incorporated many of these measures. That plan called for wide strips of native grasses across the farm to help prevent soil from blowing, and for the steepest slopes to stay covered, most years, with crops such as alfalfa that don't require annual planting. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service drew up a soil conservation plan for the farm. When the Gunsmoke project was just getting off the ground, in 2018, an expert from the U.S. A planting of winter wheat, which was supposed to protect the soil on those fields, failed to grow well. But the problems at Gunsmoke, they said, were worse. It won't have the stability and structure of healthy soil, held in place by the roots of plants.īeck and others who live near Gunsmoke Farms said that nonorganic farmers also struggled to control soil erosion in 2020 because of drought and high winds. ![]() "The soil that blew out of there, it will never be the same as it was before it blew," he said. He collected photographs of the damage: small drifts of wind-blown soil in a roadside ditch, and a country road that disappears into a brown cloud of blowing dust. Months later, Beck said his fears were realized. In 2020, though, they planted their first crops of wheat and peas, which involved tilling the enormous fields. But chemical weed control isn't an option for an organic business such as Gunsmoke Farms.ĭuring the farm's three-year transition to organic status, its managers grew primarily alfalfa, which doesn't require annual planting. To control weeds, these farmers use herbicides. ![]() Beck recalls dust storms so thick, cars crashed because drivers couldn't see vehicles just in front of them. This used to happen regularly in western South Dakota. It just turns into powder," he said, vulnerable to rain or wind that can carry it away. "Once you disturb it, nothing holds that soil together. The area developed from an ancient ocean floor, and the soil is full of clay. This is especially true of soils where Gunsmoke Farms is located, Beck said. But tillage also tears soil loose from the plant roots that help hold it together and also breaks down parts of the soil that are most rich in carbon and nutrients. "It scared me, because normally organic entails lots of tillage, and those soils are very fragile," he said.įarmers often till the soil - breaking it up with tools such as chisel plows or disks - to uproot weeds and get land ready for planting. Beck was skeptical about the project from the beginning. ![]() This equipment is used to characterize ballistics, aerodynamics, and parachute performance for artillery shells, bomb drops, missiles, and rockets.Among the critics is Dwayne Beck, a soil scientist who manages South Dakota State University's Dakota Lakes Research Station, 40 miles east of Gunsmoke Farms. TTR offers a wide array of signal-tracking equipment, including video, high-speed cameras, and radar-tracking devices. One of the primary facilities at TTR is a large airfield, consisting of a 12,000-foot (3,700-m) runway and numerous hangars. Situated between two mountain ranges, TTR's remote location and restricted airspace ensure that tests can be conducted with a high degree of safety and security. Located about 160 miles northwest of Las Vegas, TTR is an immense area of flat terrain ideal for rockets and low-altitude, high-speed aircraft operations. government agencies and their contractors. The range also offers a unique test environment for use by other U.S. Principal DOE activities at TTR include stockpile reliability testing arming, fusing, and firing systems testing and the testing of nuclear weapon delivery systems. Sandia conducts operations at TTR in support of the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration's weapons programs. Tonopah Test Range (TTR) is the testing range of choice for all national security missions. ![]()
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