Every field on the Delta is an account of water borrowed and water put back.

Rice is grown in bays cut flat to a tenth of a foot and filled a few inches deep. Soybeans follow it across the same levees. Underneath both sits an alluvial aquifer drawn on faster than it refills. This is the ledger: what moves, how far it is lifted, and what it is measured in.

How to read an entry

Each entry states the number it turns on — a fall in tenths of a foot, a lift in feet, a depth in inches — so two practices can be compared rather than described.

Nothing here is measured in one unit. Land is cut in cubic yards and judged in tenths of a foot. Water is bought in acre-inches and lifted in feet. Grain is sold by the bushel and argued over by the moisture point.

Aerial view of crossroads dividing farm fields, a canal, and a green crop from above — Dead level is a tolerance of a tenth of a foot across a whole bay, not a flat surface.

Water/Turns on 0.1 ft across the bay

Dead level is a measurement

Rice ground is cut to a fall of a tenth of a foot or less across a whole field, because the crop is grown standing in water and every low corner is a drowned one. What that tolerance costs to establish and what it buys.

By the aragriculture desk·Water·6 min read

The register

Twenty-five entries, by the number each one turns on

Every article on the site. No dropdown needed.

Water

Where it sits, and what it costs to move.All 7

0.1 ft across the bayDead level is a measurement6 min 30–50 ft of drawdownThe aquifer is a balance4 min 40–60 ft against 4–8 ftLift is the bill2 min

The other 4 entries

A third of the water pumpedTail-water recovery2 min A few feet of static headRelift2 min Tenths of a foot, or a slopeFlood and furrow3 min Sand, in parts per millionWhen the well runs sand2 min

Ground

Levelling, grade, and the tenth of a foot that matters.All 5

0.1 ft per 100 ftThe tenth of a foot4 min A 1:1 cut–fill ratioCut and fill2 min 8–14 cubic yards a passThe scraper2 min

The other 2 entries

Hundredths of a footPrecision grade2 min An inch lost over deep fillSettling2 min

Crop

Rice, beans, and the rotation between them.All 5

4–6 inches of floodRice stands in water4 min One day of pondingThe bean year2 min Emergence, cut against fillStand establishment2 min

The other 2 entries

68°F at nightHeading and heat2 min Twenty tonnes on wet clayDraining to harvest2 min

Store

Drying, aeration, and the bin as a machine.All 4

14% moistureThe bin is a machine4 min 12–13% commercial baseMoisture and shrink2 min 1–2 cfm against 0.1Aeration versus drying2 min

The other 1 entry

The void above the augerBridging and crust2 min

Levee

The line that decides which side floods.All 4

One side, then the otherThe line that decides3 min 12–18 inches of checkContour levees2 min One board at a timeGates and spills2 min

The other 1 entry

Months, not a crestBackwater2 min

A flooded rice bay with the water's edge dead straight — A bay holds its depth because the ground beneath it varies by less than the water on top of it.Photo: Acres of Film / Pexels

Browse

Five sections

Each one is a landing page with its own register.

Water

Where it sits, and what it costs to move.

Ground

Levelling, grade, and the tenth of a foot that matters.

Crop

Rice, beans, and the rotation between them.

Store

Drying, aeration, and the bin as a machine.

Levee

The line that decides which side floods.

Kept going by

Supporters of the register

Drainage districts, ag lenders, and equipment dealers whose work runs through the same watershed as this one.

From the register

Three places the number decides the practice

A small diesel pump sprays water across a green rice paddy field

Relift

A second pump doing nothing but moving water sideways, and why it earns its place.

Turns on A few feet of static head·2 min read

Orange tractor with front loader parked near grain bins and an auger

The bin is a machine

A grain bin is a dryer, a store and a hazard. What the fan is actually doing.

Turns on 14% moisture·4 min read

Brick pumping station with sluice gates on a riverbank under a blue sky

The line that decides

A levee protects one side by committing the other. How the line got where it is.

Turns on One side, then the other·3 min read