Controlling water runoff on rolling farmland can be a big job. No-Till planting helps slow water down but there are still natural drains that can become overloaded during heavy rain events. When these areas collect water and get full too quickly soil loss or "erosion" occurs in those areas. The way to lessen the effect of moving water is to widen these areas and create a slope or "gradient" that lets the water flow down hill, but more slowly.
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| Gary Lillard, from the Simpson County Soil Conservation District, is pictured here calculating the slope in the waterway using a laser to pinpoint the grade. |
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| A rock structure was needed in this waterway to help slow the water flow down as the drain makes a large drop in elevation. The rock structure is used so we didn't have to cut as much dirt out for such a long distance in the rest of the waterway. |
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| Jackson Excavating performed the dirt work for this project. Chad Jackson's guys worked well with the Soil Conservation service to get the job done right. |
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| This project actually went across 2 farms. you can see we had soybeans in the field pictured above and corn in the field pictured below. |
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| Marsha Marklin assisting Gary Lillard in getting the grade right for the rock structure. |
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| After the waterway is built and sowed down in grass we installed straw erosion control mats to help hold the topsoil down while the grass gets established this winter. You may have seen these same kind of mats on roadside projects as well. This is a big job rolling them out and driving metal staples into the ground to hold them down. This waterway was about 1/2 of a mile long. |
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| The finished product. |
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