Eden Valley Guest Ranch.

Summer-Fallow in Okanogan Highlands near Oroville and Tonasket, Washington

Dry Gulch Farms in the Okanogan Highlands near Oroville and Tonasket, Washington utilizes a procedure known as summer fallow.  Straw is tilled into the soil, which controls erosion, evaporation and promotes microbial activity which fixes nitrogen and helps ready other nutrients for future crops.

The direction of tillage and straw in the soil helps prevent erosion.  To control running water from possible fast snow loss or summer cloud bursts, grass strips are carefully engineered with the topography.  The black tilled soil absorbs heat from the sun in early spring to raise temperatures suitable for growing plants faster than other methods.

During the summer fallow process prior to seeding, the soil is fluffed and the weeds killed mechanically with a machine called a rod weeder pulled by a tractor.  Weeds are one enemy as they consume resources and their seeds can migrate to other areas causing further invasions.  Two years of water is collected to grow one year's crop.  Fluffing the soil breaks the capillary action and helps prevent evaporation yet allows rain water to soak in.  Through the freeze and thaw effects of numerous season transitions, rocks from below migrate to the soil surface.  Rocks are another enemy and must be removed to prevent damage to equipment.  That too is performed with a large machine with a reel that scoops rocks into a hopper which dumps into a farm truck with a hoist that carries the rock from the field.