Water is the first of the critical Earth systems. Without it, no life. With it mismanaged, no agriculture.
And yet on most farms, we have no idea what happens to the rain when it falls. A storm passes. The grass looks greener. The dam fills, or it doesn’t. The creek runs muddy, or it runs clear. But the actual fate of each raindrop — whether it soaked in, ran off, or evaporated — is invisible to the farmer standing in the paddock the next morning.
The Drip-Meter makes the invisible visible. It answers one question: what happens to every raindrop that falls?
PDF Download: Drip-Meter Read the carbon sponge in 100 drops
Drip-Meter 20-Litre Field Unit Unit is in operating configuration. Body and reservoir have not been cut into the soil. Elastic band secures reservoir here.
Why it matters
The soil carbon sponge is the biggest lever we have on the water cycle (Gies 2018) . Restore it, and a paddock can absorb a 50 mm downpour and hold it. Lose it, and the same rain runs off, taking topsoil with it.
To regenerate the sponge, we need to see its effect — not in a lab, but in the paddock.
Two units, both simple
- 20-litre Field Unit — two stacked buckets. Lightweight, cheap, fast to deploy. A dozen instruments a paddock in an afternoon.
- 210-litre Reference Unit — an HDPE drum. Tougher, more accurate, the anchor for calibration and longer-term trials.
A parametric spreadsheet sizes the instrument to whatever container is available locally. Open design, Creative Commons — free to use, modify, and share.
A work in progress
This is early. The design is refined enough to share, and field testing is underway. Manuals and calibration procedures are coming. We’re sharing now because the conversation about water and soil is happening now — and a tool that lets people measure it belongs in that conversation.
Have a go
Read the deck. Build a unit. Run it in your paddock. Share what you find.
Read the carbon sponge in 100 drops.
PDF Download: Drip-Meter Read the carbon sponge in 100 drops
With thanks to:
Walter Jehne — concept and vision. Benjamin Fox — engineering and design. Phillip Lee — agricultural expertise. Josephine Kammacher-Reich — production support.
And the whole Regenerate Earth team.