Moved topsoil boosts soil quality, adds $6,000/acre value.
What is in this article?:
- Reverse Erosion
- See the numbers
Think Different
Scraping accumulated rich topsoil from grass waterways, and adding it to eroded knolls, adds roughly $6,000/acre to eroded areas (see sidebar) for a cost of $810/acre (labor and machinery). to achieve a more uniform goal of 8 in. topsoil
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See the numbers
Here is information that enters into Clay Mitchell’s calculations on how restoring accumulated topsoil boosts land value:
Current Iowa land values:
- Low grade: $3271/acre
- Medium grade: $6,721
- High grade: $9,346
- Cost per acre: $810
- Yield increase per acre: 110 bu.
- Land value increase per acre: $6,000
- One acre-inch=134 cu. Yards
- Typical cost/cu. Yard=$2 translates to $270/acre-inch
- Total round trips with scraper: 1,480 trips
- Total hours operating scraper: 216 hours
- Estimated weight of soil moved: 19,800 tons
- Total area of reclaimed cultivated land: 0.6 acres
- Total area of landscape restoration: 17.8 acres
- Total volume of soil moved: 14,720 cubic yards
