This page is about an effective Water-Cycle, and why it will provide additional wealth for your farm business...

Run-off and evaporation
In a fully effective water-cycle, all of the rain that falls on your land will go into the soil, and very little of the rainfall stored in the soil will be lost through evaporation. In fact, eventually it will move right through your soil profile and you can expect to see streams and springs returning.

You achieve this glorious condition by focusing on your the condition of your soil surface. Ideally the soil surface should be covered all of the time.

Think of the soil surface as being like your skin. You know by experience and probably instinctively as well, that loosing skin cover is a painful experience. Lose enough and you will probably die. It is the same with the soil surface. Bare soil kills farm businesses stone dead.

Effective water-cycle
In June 2006 these heifers are grazing plant material that finished growing in October 2005. The soil has been covered with litter all of the time since then, and even though there has been very little rain, there is green growth coming through the dead material.

Ineffective water-cycle
This expensive concrete structure is collecting water from a vast area of bare, cropped soil. The water-cycle is shot to pieces, erosion is significant, organic matter is declining, and recently tree lines were planted nearby. Do you think there problem is a shortage of trees, or of overall biodiversity?

Ineffective water-cycle - waterlogging
Waterlogging is a further symptom of poor water-cycle. Certainly, all soils will reach field capacity in extremely wet times, but most soils are low in humus content, and therefore are not able to hold anywhere near their potential water capacity in normal or moderately wet seasons. This severely limits productive potential, and of course the water not stored in the soil means that there is an increased risk of future drought.

Run-off
If you think about it, allowing rainfall to run off is a bit like having a great big roof right over a property - whatever rain happens to fall there is of no use to that property because quite simply, it goes away. It is diverted to somewhere else, perhaps even adding to a flood somewhere. The diversion occurs right at the very soil surface. If the run-off is happening on your property, you are responsible!

It is your management approach that allows you to create soil surface conditions that make it easy for water to move into your land, whilst others around you are supporting bare or poorly covered soil. This approach requires a different combination of management skills when compared to the thinking that assumes you have no control of the situation. Regretably, especially in zones of relatively low rainfall the prevailing bureaucratic belief system says that full cover is not achievable. And of course, this is a correct belief under conventional approaches to stock and cropping management.

Evaporation
There is a second part to the effectivness of the water-cycle story. Holding moisture in the soil is just as important as getting it there in the first place, and again it is soil surface cover (known as litter) that determines how well this is done. A deep litter or organic matter cover on the soil surface will break the direct contact of sun to the soil, massively reducing the potential for evaporation. Water that does not evaporate is water that is available for future plant growth.

Where you should start...
Changing the soil surface is the starting point for a more effective water-cycle. This is achieved by changing tillage and conservation techniques in a cropping regime, and by changing grazing practises if you are a grazier.

You should monitor...
Keep an eye on soil cover. There are some excellent and very simple monitoring procedures you can use to assess soil cover. If you are using livestock, begin proper grazing planning, and be prepared to adjust stocking rate early, so that soil cover is maintained. Some people suggest that the biological consequences of creating bare soil during a low rainfall season or drought can require up to six years to heal. That is a big cost whichever way you view it. Covered soil is king!

Other evidence that the water cycle is improving will include:

• Droughts and floods tend to become less severe
• Underground water supplies tend to increase
• Springs begin to open and remain flowing
• Vegetation productivity rises
• Plant growth rates getter faster
• Soil organic matter increases

Other things to consider...
The water cycle is one of four linked cycles. Be watchful for evidence that any cycle is moving out of line, as deviation by one will eventaully pull all of them down, dramatically increasing costs and reducing profitability.