Although the northern and southern Great Plains offer extreme diversity in climate, soils, and cropping practices, a common bond is lack of rainfall.
Winter wheat followed by fallow (a growing season without a crop, generally used to replenish soil moisture levels) is a common cropping system in the far western and more northern parts of the region. Continuous winter and/or spring wheat production is practiced in southern areas. Other crops commonly grown in the Great Plains include grain sorghum, cotton, corn, sunflowers, and soybeans, some of which are irrigated.

Challenges
Generally, this region is characterized by the most wind-erosive soils in the U.S., with the erosion potential greatest in western Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and eastern Colorado and New Mexico. In these areas, even small amounts of surface residue help control wind erosion and conserve moisture.
Limited precipitation is the major constraint to dryland crop production. Corn growers in the northern Great Plains also contend with dry spring planting conditions, poor emergence, lack of weed control with some rain-activated herbicides, and a short growing season.

This region includes:
Colorado
Kansas
Montana
Nebraska
New Mexico
North Dakota
Oklahoma (western)
South Dakota
Texas (western)
Wyoming

A mulch-till implement.

- Thanks for assistance from Jim Stiegler, Oklahoma State University.

Possible solutions
Reduced soil disturbance is essential for water conservation in the Great Plains. Crop residues are important for reducing evaporation rates and retaining soil moisture.
In the central and northern regions, eco-fallow provides weed and erosion control with higher residue while avoiding a traditional fallow year of low residue. Eco-fallow or chemical fallow relies on herbicides for weed control rather than traditional fallow tillage tools like rodweeders or wide "V" blade sweeps.
Ten years of research in Colorado suggest that no-till provides the "opportunity" to abandon summer fallow because it saves enough water to allow continuous cropping. The research shows rotations like wheat-corn-forage can work if the forage is harvested in August in time to plant winter wheat in September.
In the southern regions of the Great Plains where wheat is grown continuously, stubble mulch farming (a form of mulch-till) may be most beneficial for avoiding soil crusting while offering better moisture storage than fallow.
Research in the northern Great Plains shows the average soil moisture gain during overwintering was 1.5 inches greater for fields with upright stubble (10 to 17 inches) than for fields in which the stubble was flattened shredded or incorporated by tillage. Optimal stubble height is 8-12 inches. This height protects the crop from freeze-kill, maintains a warmer temperature longer into the fall, and helps trap snow, which prevents keep freezing of the soil profile. In the southern Great Plains these advantages are of little significance.
In Oklahoma and Texas, strip-tillage of cotton into a small grain cover crop offers producers an excellent system for achieving wind erosion and some water erosion control. Strip-till concepts may be beneficial elsewhere but caution is advised in dry areas since the removal of residue and disturbance of soil may speed evaporation.

For more region-specific information on conservation tillage, send for one of the publications listed on page 35.