330-CPS-1

NRCS, NHCP

October 2017 

NRCS reviews and periodically updates conservation practice standards. To 

obtain the current version of this standard, contact your Natural Resources 

Conservation Service State office or visit the Field Office Technical Guide. 

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Natural Resources Conservation Service

CONSERVATION PRACTICE STANDARD 

CONTOUR FARMING

Code 330

(Ac) 

DEFINITION

Aligning ridges, furrows, and roughness formed by tillage, planting and other operations at a grade near 

the contour to alter the velocity or the direction of water flow.

PURPOSE

• Reduce sheet and rill erosion

• Reduce sediment transport to surface waters

• Reduce excess nutrients in surface waters

• Reduce pesticide transport to surface waters

• Improve the efficiency of moisture management

CONDITIONS WHERE PRACTICE APPLIES

Conservation Practice Standard (CPS) Contour Farming (Code 330) applies on sloping land where crops 

are grown. For orchards, vineyards, and nut crops use CPS Contour Orchard and Other Perennial Crops 

(Code 331). 

CRITERIA

General Criteria Applicable to All Purposes

Row grades must be designed to be as near level as possible while allowing drainage. The maximum 

row grade must not exceed one-half of the up-and-down-hill slope percent used for conservation planning 

with a maximum 4-percent row grade. 

When the row grade reaches the maximum allowable design grade, a new baseline must be established 

up or down slope from the last contour line, and used for layout of the next contour pattern.

Design the row grades with positive row drainage of not less than 0.2 percent on slopes where ponding is 

a concern. This includes sites with soils with slow to very slow infiltration rates (soil hydrologic groups C 

or D), or where crops are sensitive to ponded water. 

Up to a 10-percent deviation from the design row grade is permitted within 50 feet of a stable outlet. 

Farming operations should begin on the contour baselines and proceed both up and down the slope in a 

parallel pattern until patterns meet. Where field operations begin to converge between two nonparallel 

contour baselines, establish a correction area (areas in the field where two different contour systems 

meet) that is permanently in sod or established to an annual close-grown crop. 

Where contour row curvature becomes too sharp to keep machinery aligned with rows during field 

operations, establish sod turn strips on sharp ridge points or other odd areas as needed. 
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NRCS, NHCP

October 2017

For row spacing’s greater than 10 inches, the minimum ridge height will be 2 inches during the period of 

the rotation that is most vulnerable to sheet and rill erosion. Document ridge heights from the operations 

using the current approved water erosion prediction technology. 

For row spacing 10 inches or less, the minimum ridge height will be 1 inch for close-grown crops, such as 

small grains. Document ridge heights from the operations using the current approved water erosion 

prediction technology.

Concentrated flow from contoured fields must be delivered to stable outlets. 

CONSIDERATIONS

Several factors influence the effectiveness of contour farming to reduce soil erosion. These factors 

include: 10-year, 24-hour rainfall in inches; ridge height; row grade; slope steepness; soil hydrologic 

group; cover and roughness; and slope length. Cover and roughness, row grade, and ridge height can 

be influenced by management and provide more or less benefit depending on design.

Contour farming is most effective on slopes between 2 and 10 percent. This practice will be less 

effective in achieving the stated purpose(s) on slopes exceeding 10 percent and in areas with 10-year, 

24-hour rainfall of 6.5 inches or greater. The practice is not well suited to rolling topography having a

high degree of slope irregularity because of the difficulty meeting row grade criteria.

This practice is most effective on slopes between 100 and 400 feet long. On slopes longer than 400 feet, 

the volume and velocity of overland flow exceeds the capacity of the contour ridges to contain them. 

Increasing residue cover and roughness will change the vegetative cover-management conditions and 

decrease overland flow velocities, thus increasing the slope length at which this practice is effective. 

Increasing roughness alone is not sufficient to produce this effect.

The closer the row grade is to the true contour, the greater the erosion reduction and the greater the 

improvement in soil moisture use efficiency. 

Prior to design and layout, obstruction removal and changes to field boundaries or shape should be 

considered, where feasible, to improve the effectiveness of the practice and the ease of performing 

farming operations. 

CPS Field Border (Code 386) may be needed to allow farm implements room to turn and control erosion 

along the field edge.

If using ridge till on the contour, avoid crossing over ridged rows at correction area, because this will 

destroy the effectiveness of the ridges. Sod turn strips may be established if correction areas are 

unavoidable.

The width of correction areas, and the distance between baselines, should be adjusted for equipment 

operation widths.

Ridge height is created by the operation of tillage and planting equipment. The greater the ridge height, 

the more effective the operation is in slowing overland flow. The ridge height value for each field 

operation can be viewed in the currently approved soil erosion tool.

CPSs Grassed Waterways (Code 412), Water and Sediment Control Basins (Code 638), Underground 

Outlets (Code 620), or other suitable practices should be used to protect areas of existing or potential 

concentrated flow erosion.
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NRCS, NHCP

October2017

PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS

Prepare specifications for each site and purpose on the implementation requirements document 

Document must include— 

• Percent land slope and slope length.

• Planning soil map unit.

• Planned contour row grade.

• Minimum ridge heights and row spacing.

• Minimum and maximum allowable row grades for the contour system.

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

Perform all tillage and planting operations parallel to contour baselines or terraces, diversions, or contour 

buffer strip boundaries where these practices are used, provided the applicable row grade criteria are 

met. 

Where terraces, diversions, or contour buffer strips are not present, maintain contour markers on grades 

that, when followed during establishment of each crop, will maintain crop rows at designed grades. 

Contour markers may be field boundaries, a crop row left untilled near or on an original contour baseline 

or other readily identifiable, continuous, lasting marker. All tillage and planting operations must be 

parallel to the established marker. If a marker is lost, reestablish a contour baseline within the applicable 

criteria set forth by this standard prior to seedbed preparation for the next crop.

REFERENCES

Flanagan, D.C., Nearing, M.A. USDA-Water Erosion Prediction Project, Hillslope Profile and Watershed 

Model Documentation, NSERL Report #10, July 1995

Foster, G.R. Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, Version 2 (RUSLE2) Science Documentation (In 

Draft). USDA-ARS, Washington, DC. 2005. 

Renard, K.G., G.R. Foster, G.A. Weesies, D.K. McCool, and D.C. Yoder, coordinators. 1997. Predicting 

soil erosion by water: A guide to conservation planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation 

(RUSLE).U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Handbook 703.