On Friday May 27th 2011 we installed at Telford Rural Polytechnic in Balclutha South Otago as part of the Pastoral 21 programme in association with Agresearch our Soil Cells as a retaining mechanism for excess farm nutrients. The Soil Cells hold in place filtering agents designed specifically to filter out Phosphorus and nitrates. The Cells themselves will also collect silt.
The trial site itself is on a steep slope which is expected to release substantial flows during rain events. The water will travel down the paddock and be channeled into the Soil Cell structure before exiting through the gate and monitoring station.
The real advantage of using Soil Cells is that they are able to be installed higher up a hill and in some instances quite some distance from any waterways. They can also be shifted from paddock to paddock allowing for rotation of the wintering out paddocks yet still filtering the excess nutrients out of the runoff.
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Wintering out paddock which will provide the water containing the excess nutrients
Side view of the paddock with the Soil Cells and the monitoring system on the extreme right
Soil Cells laid out and connected together. The face of the Cells penetrates the top soil by 40cm allowing any leaching through the soil to also be collected and forced up into the bags.
Soil Cells laid out on another bank ready for the bags containing the filtering substance
Soil Cells and filled bags in position. The bags are anchored within the Soil Cells and the Cells in turn are anchored to the ground
Here you can see how the water from the paddock is being channeled through the bags containing the Ultra-Phos Filter which are held in place by the Soil Cells as the water flows from the catchment.
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