As Brian mentioned, Water for Every Farm would be a good resource. He takes the principle and makes it more applicable to the US. In parts of Wisconsin there are many farms that farm on contour. It works well with their narrow and steep valleys. I have seen it in parts of Pennsylvania too. In a lot of the midwest it can be hard to practice true keyline on broadacre crops because the ridge often extends into a neighbor’s property. <font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”>As Shepherd notes in his book, keyline is great for areas where the rainfall does not correlate well with the growing season. Since many parts of the midwest receive </font>adequate<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”> rainfall in season, there isn’t as much incentive to practice it. Most farms already “disk rip” (with waaaayyy to much soil disturbance) so they feel they are already allowing water to infiltrate. </font>

In line ripping on contour isn’t a new idea either, but it isn’t necessarily practiced as religiously as Yeoman prescribes. Again, it often comes down to local context, geography, and field layout.