Economic Analysis Of Level Bench Systems For Forage Production In North Dakota PDF Download

Excerpt from An Economic Analysis of Level Bench Systems for Forage Production in North Dakota The use of level benches can more than double alfalfa production, increase brome grass yield by almost 75 percent, and increase wheat yields by 5 or 6 bushels per acre over the yields produced on natural slopes. The increased yields are largely the result of the benches' ability to hold snow and snowmelt water. Benches, though similar to terraces, are much wider, level overall, and diked at the ends and front. Not enough benches are in actual farm use to provide cost and return data. Limited tests and experience elsewhere show that cost of bench construction is mainly affected by width of bench and complexity of slope. The cost per acre for construction may range from $25 for the narrowest benches on the gen tlest slopes to $353 for 70-foot benches on lo-percent slopes. Operating costs would be higher on a level bench system than on a natural slope, because each bench and its contributing area (an unter raced area above the bench), if there was one, would be treated as a single field for harvest ing and other operations. However, data on the increase in costs are fragmentary and some of the values were estimated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.