Drainage, Methods, tips, tricks etc

[Bogweevil]

If money was no problem you’d buy 18 inch of topsoil sat on top of one huge chalk drain!

If money was no problem you would do as golf courses do:

Maximum efficiency is achieved because the surface area of Hydraway Sportsdrain is 40% greater than a conventional 80mm plastic pipe and double that of a 60mm plastic pipe. Also, water can enter the drain through 75% of its surface area compared with only 6% for plastic pipe. Furthermore, unlike conventional plastic pipe drains - which must be laid at a minimum gradient of 1 in 200 to prevent blockage through silt build-up - Hydraway Sportsdrain is effective even at zero gradient.

Minimum Disruption is gained because Hydraway Sportsdrain is less than one-third the width of 80mm plastic pipe and can therefore be installed in a much narrower trench.

Proven Performance. Hydraway has been used in a range of drainage applications world-wide since 1983. It is approved by the British Board of Agrément (BBA), and has been approved for schemes funded by the: National Lottery; Football Trust; Football Foundation; Rugby Football Foundation; and Rugby Football Union.

 

[cambsfarmer]

Grandfather always said “drain the hills and the holes will look after themselves “

 

[womble8350]

Grandfather always said “drain the hills and the holes will look after themselves “

This is so true. Worked for a drainage contractor and he always said catch it before it gets to the hole. He always went deep into the hill to find the water.

 

[Curt]

If you do decide to get a trencher have a look at a Shelton CT150. We bought one 3 years ago and have laid over 250,000 meters with it since. We farm on peaty black soils so you can see the difference in a matter of days and it is worth every penny!

 

[Secret Agronomist]

Are you sure there's no drains already there? Land won't have suddenly got wet out of nowhere, there's a good chance someone else had the same idea to drain that bit decades or even centuries ago. I've noticed on my place that if you look at enough old aerial photos, ones taken in summer in dry conditions will show darker lines in the crops and grass where the old drains are. The wet spots can even be where one of the old drains have become blocked and the water is being forced upwards. I've managed to dry out some pretty damp spots by locating the old stone drains and freeing them up to run again.

This website has been very useful:

Aerial Mapping - High Resolution Aerial Imagery - Get Mapping

We deliver accurate location-based intelligence by providing access to the most comprehensive aerial imagery and geospatial data on demand.

www.getmapping.com

Just put your postcode in and click 'Buy' and you can look at aerial photos of the entire country going as far back as WW2, but mostly in the last 20 years. No need to actually buy anything.

Its a river side flood plain field which is protected from high water by levees. The wettest parts of the field are the slightly lower bits (elevation probably only varies by a meter or so at the most). There are old tiles lying on the surface but none of the old drains are now working. getting an outfall is going to be the biggest problem, in an ideal world we would use a pump. There is one outfall into a ditch that then goes into a river through a flap valve so when the river is up it backs up. We are going to have to run a new pipe through the levee at the lowest point of the field then drain everything to there instead, will be the same situation that it wont drain until the river falls but having two outlets for this piece of land will help. The original ditch takes the surface water that runs from uphill, then the field drains will go the other way into a manhole and then into the river. The whole field is 30ha but removing the water from the lower spots will do most of the work. The situation its in means its as much about maximising movement of water when the river drops as keeping it dry year round. We probably spend half the year putting water on crops and the rest of the time taking it off.

 

[Secret Agronomist]

If you do decide to get a trencher have a look at a Shelton CT150. We bought one 3 years ago and have laid over 250,000 meters with it since. We farm on peaty black soils so you can see the difference in a matter of days and it is worth every penny!

Do you use gravel? What do you use for grade control?

 

[Curt]

Do you use gravel? What do you use for grade control?

No gravel, grade controlled by a laser automatically

 

[JD6920s]

No gravel, grade controlled by a laser automatically

Any pics or videos of your machine working please?

 

[Ray]

Here's a short video of my old 1980's Bruff BT3 trencher in action last spring. We're laying 80mm laterals into a 100mm main. This lands predominantly light so we used no back-fill and spaced drains 12m apart..

Bought the trencher about 12 years ago to drain my own farm and fitted it out with trimble laser equipment along with a dual grade trimble laser. Also have a gravel cart with trailed funnel on skids to maintain accurate gravel depth but only use this on heavier clay areas.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2488398261472160

 

[Curt]

Any pics or videos of your machine working please?

Nothing decent sorry, I've recently got a new phone.

This is a video off shelton website that shows a few different trencher in different conditions working. Ours is the blue one in the video, this was our first day setting up and our forward speed has been increased since then. We now travel anywhere from 0.7-1km/h on our soil depending on what's underneath us.

 

[Dukes Fit]

If money was no problem you would do as golf courses do:


View attachment 926710


Maximum efficiency is achieved because the surface area of Hydraway Sportsdrain is 40% greater than a conventional 80mm plastic pipe and double that of a 60mm plastic pipe. Also, water can enter the drain through 75% of its surface area compared with only 6% for plastic pipe. Furthermore, unlike conventional plastic pipe drains - which must be laid at a minimum gradient of 1 in 200 to prevent blockage through silt build-up - Hydraway Sportsdrain is effective even at zero gradient.

Minimum Disruption is gained because Hydraway Sportsdrain is less than one-third the width of 80mm plastic pipe and can therefore be installed in a much narrower trench.

Proven Performance. Hydraway has been used in a range of drainage applications world-wide since 1983. It is approved by the British Board of Agrément (BBA), and has been approved for schemes funded by the: National Lottery; Football Trust; Football Foundation; Rugby Football Foundation; and Rugby Football Union.

Golf courses also are much more freely draining because generally the first thing you do is strip the topsoil off and replace it with a screened mix of soil with a very high sand content.

Used to work for a golf course builder and it’s almost obsessive the way they do things, never drive in a straight line etc, once topsoil is laid it’s like baby’s hearts

 

[Sharpy]

Running sand here with iron oxide. (What do you call that?). The only way to drain is with open ditches. I have one pipe with a sleeve -- now silted up with that oxide. Without the sleeve, I could jet it.

You need lime as the ochre comes into solution at low ph.

 

[Dry Rot]

You need lime as the ochre comes into solution at low ph.

Plenty of lime a few feet down as my land is all sand thrown up by that tsunami 8,500 years ago. It is normal to pull sea shells out in the spoil when cleaning ditches. The "authorities" want the spoil tacken to land fill which is crazy as the humous and lime content give growth a boost when spread on the land with the back of the loader bucket.

 

[Sharpy]

Plenty of lime a few feet down as my land is all sand thrown up by that tsunami 8,500 years ago. It is normal to pull sea shells out in the spoil when cleaning ditches. The "authorities" want the spoil tacken to land fill which is crazy as the humous and lime content give growth a boost when spread on the land with the back of the loader bucket.

But if you ph test it it will be low, the sandy ground near here is very hungry for lime.

 

[Dry Rot]

But if you ph test it it will be low, the sandy ground near here is very hungry for lime.

Yes, it is the ditches with the least flow that have the most oxide.

 

[CPF]

Grandfather always said “drain the hills and the holes will look after themselves “

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch pail of water .

 

[Derrick Hughes]

What are people paying for drainage Stone
Being quoted over £30 ton delivered ?

 

[Brisel]

I was at a CSF meeting on a heavy high mag clay farm. They were spending £5k/acre to redrain entire fields with gravel backfill! They still reckoned they would get their money back in around 5 years. This is the year to show up good & failed field schemes. The difference between a field redrained 2 years ago & one due to be done next winter was immense.

What kind of costs would you budget for pipe only, 10m spacings with no backfill? Contractor doing the work on brashy soils.

 

[Overwelly]

 

[Overwelly]

Look at soil max gold digger plough, this is mine , using JD rtk gps to lay pipe accurately at 10 m spacing without gravel (although this is possible with the addition of a gravel box) I have drained 70 acres over the past 18 months, decided gravel was too expensive so laying pipes at 1 spacing rather than 20m with gravel, so far so good in good conditions we can drain 10 acres a day with 2 men plus a digger