A couple of weeks ago, it was predicted that we were going to get 1.5-2" of rain. I fully expected massive runoff from our fields. It didn't happen. We are losing some water during the latter part of the day, but no huge amounts. The creek in front of our house has risen to < 1/2 it's capacity.
Our ULD-DS fields are handling the thaw quite well. Nothing seems to be displaced on our stubble ground. We have two WW fields west of St. John. One is seeded on CC ground that included radish, mustard, canola and other cultivars (see earlier post). I could not determine whether we were losing water or not. There was definitely displacement, but runoff from a cultivated field was going through our field, and I could not determine if we were adding to that flow. It appeared that the displacement wasn't more than 20-30' before the water disappeared. There are exceptions, --seeding vertically. I don't think you can stop water movement seeding vertically on a slope. Even as narrow as our slot is with the cross-slot (pic on the right). Maybe an exception would be where stubble was plentiful enough to hairpin it into the slot to slow the velocity. Our CC or WP ground definitely did not have that condition. The WW on WP ground was losing some water. There were no deep rooted, fast deteriorating radish plants in that field.
The jar on the right was taken at our WW on WP field border. It is nearly clear and I see no sediment showing on the bottom. I will be sending a sample to a lab to see what polluting elements may be present. Obviously sediment is not one of them.
The jar on the left was taken at the outflow of a conventional tilled field, and sediment does settle out.
The jar on the right was taken at our WW on WP field border. It is nearly clear and I see no sediment showing on the bottom. I will be sending a sample to a lab to see what polluting elements may be present. Obviously sediment is not one of them.
The jar on the left was taken at the outflow of a conventional tilled field, and sediment does settle out.
At Thornton, the WW seeded into SP residue looks terrific. Except for the drifts, which are large, the snow has pretty well disappeared. Again, without vertical blockage snow is displaced and drifts form. This condition is yield robbing, even if the water doesn't leave the field. There are areas that are short ≈2"moisture, and areas that have excess moisture but losing sunlight energy.
The pic on the left shows disappearing snow and a good WW crop exposed. The pic on the right is Thorn Creek. Our property is not contributing to this flow. Our property scores very well on the Slake test which is helping us with moisture infiltration.
I'm including a 7min (YouTube) video by Ray Archuleta explaining the Slake Test and it's meaning.
I remember the eight years I was in charge of runoff collection systems on a pair of drainages that we had down here near Helix. The larger of the two was a notill wheat pea wheat fallow rotation and the other was conventional. We had only a few clear flows, usually associated with frozen soils off the larger drainage. We had to redesign the equipment a couple of times because it was being overwhelmed with sediment on the conventional side. Looked like the difference between your jars.
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