Cambria area farmer Carl Stiemsma credits grass waterways he maintains in his crop fields for minimizing the damage from this month's "gully-washer" rains and severe flooding in Columbia County.

He says he has a lot of those grass waterways and he might get some more.

According to Stiemsma, if his waterways were planted in crops instead of soil-saving grasses, the crops and soil would have been swept away onto roadways or neighboring fields. And that means the yield in his fields of corn, soybeans, green beans, wheat and other crops would have been drastically reduced.

Lodi area beef farmer Dick Ryan has a similar story. He says his practices since the late 1970s have included covering his land with grasses and legumes and moving his cattle between fields to make sure no one field's plant cover is depleted.

He says this month's flooding affected 5 to 10 percent of his acreage but it would have been much worse without the rotational grazing practice he uses.