If you’ve seen one rain simulator demonstrating the importance of healthy soil, you’ve probably seen at least a dozen. Some are life-size, raining down water on full-size plots and collecting runoff in gallon jars. Others sit on tabletops. The “rainstorm” may be from a Mason jar with holes poked in the lid, turned upside down and simulating a rainstorm.

No matter the size, typically the rain falls on bare soil, on a field with cornstalks on top, and maybe on a grass field. The jar collecting water coming off the bare soil is dirty, with sediment soon settling out, compared to much cleaner water coming off the other plots.

The results are impressive — at least the first time you see it. After seeing dozens of demos, perhaps the message gets dulled, leading to complacency. Leave it to Ashley Waggoner to spice up a rainfall simulator demo. Hers captured the attention of many people visiting the tradeshow at World Dairy Expo, held in Madison, Wis.

“We wanted people to see it a bit differently, so I got soils from nearby farms and set up a demo that appeals to livestock producers,” Waggoner explains. “We often don’t think about runoff on fields where manure is applied, but it can happen. It can also happen in pastures that need renovating, too.”

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Waggoner, SHARE engagement coordinator, showed how adding cover crops into unique situations could help reduce nutrient loss and runoff. SHARE, or Soil Health Alliance for Research and Engagement, is a collaboration of the USDA Dairy Forage Research Center, the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute. SHARE’s goal is to develop and support practical strategies to help farmers build agricultural soil health.

Making rain simulator unique

Waggoner prepared four simulators and then explained the results to visitors:

Manure following no-till wheat, no cover crop. This simulator represented a field where solid manure was applied after wheat. In this case, the manure was applied on the surface. Even if liquid manure is injected, there may be a considerable amount of disturbed surface area afterward.

Manure following no-till wheat, with oats cover crop. Adding a cover after applying manure provides protection to the surface, Wagonner explains. More water infiltrates the soil and less water runs off when there is a cover crop seeded on the field.

Overwintered paddock grazed with sorghum-sudangrass and oats. Providing something green and growing, at least for part of the winter, provides protection and helps more water infiltrate the soil, as compared to leaving more bare surface without protection.

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Perennial, rotationally grazed grass and red clover pasture. Establishing a more lasting cover year in and year out helps more water infiltrate the soil. That means less water leaves the field as runoff.