NEMO | We have a half section all in one field. It is all tiled, part on 30 ft centers and part on 40's, I think. Laterals run in 1/2 mile lengths and drop into a large drainage ditch on the south end of field. Has so/so natural fall from north to south, I'm talking 2-3' on western side down to 1' or less in places going east. 4" laterals drop to 8" mains, mains drop 3-4 times a quarter. So prolly 25-30 acres on average main. My question is, what is the best way to increase my drainage coefficient? We could cut the mains and run another drop in between each old drop, thus cutting acres on each main by approximately 50%? We could dig a ditch running east and west the entire 1 mile width, install new mains into that ditch and ultimately have two 160 acre fields with 1/4 mile rows? With the field being this flat, we also have surface water drainage problems, most all the surface water drains naturally south to the large drainage ditch(also the one the mains drop to). If we cut the new ditch, we can use the spoil as a berm and force the north half of the surface and tile water to a large ditch that already exists along the east side of the field. This is pretty tough black gumbo river bottoms, so percolation is slower. Cheapest is to cut mains and expand acres on each drop, but I dont think it will be the best for drainage, wont shortening the length of the laterals increase the tile efficiency the most? We can also help the surface drainage as well, by not having all the north half of the field drain across the south half. These existing ditches are 8-10' deep and 25-30' wide at the top. Not a small ditch. Thanks. |