Just when you think you’ve seen most things unusual in drainage, you end up being surprised. Such was the case when we encountered Neil Carter, who operates his business in the northwest province in the north island of New Zealand. He operates Ditch Witch chain trenchers to install drainage systems for dairy farmers, sometimes on very dramatic terrain. Most jobs require 1000 to 2000 meters of pipe (3500 to 7000 feet), though some require up to 9000 meters (30,000 feet). In general, drainage projects are getting bigger.
by Peter Darbishire
In February (mid-summer in New Zealand), Carter was working on a job where extreme slopes tested his equipment. The R100 Ditch Witch was digging uphill, at an eight percent grade with some side-slope, using its four-wheel steering to maintain direction. Immediately behind, a tractor and hopper cart applied stone backfill (called “metal” in New Zealand). Great care must be taken by backfill
operators, since roll-over is a constant threat. Sometimes an excavator is used to provide extra stability, holding the top of the backfill trailer with a cable. Occasionally, a path must be dug for the trencher if the cross-slope is too steep.
Designing drainage systems for this terrain is part science and part instinct, and Carter’s experience provides ample quantities of
Neil Carter’s Northland Laser Drainage is thriving.
Photo by Peter Darbishire.
both. When he scans a hillside, he sees obvious signs that there is a drainage problem – like water-loving rushes –but he also sees where the top layer of soil has slipped downslope, this being the result of the top layer sliding on a saturated sub-layer. The trick is to intercept the water flow underground: “We want to cut off the water at the knees or chest, above the ‘rush line’,” he says. Often, the subsoil layers are stratified with some fine dense clay layers and the porous backfill performs an important role of intercepting horizontal flow of water in the profile.
Trench depths on many slopes range from 1.6 to 1.8 meters (64 to 72 inches) and backfill metal is usually 0.45-0.60 meters (18 to 24 inches). “Metal backfill is expensive,” adds Carter.
His reputation is such that farmers will wait two years for him to get to their job and some will not buy a farm unless they know he can drain it for them. He recently received inquiries for two jobs for farms planning dairy expansion, at 25,000 meters (80,000 feet) each. A recent comprehensive job is an example
installing pipe on a slope of eight percent takes strategy.
Photo by Peter Darbishire.
of how some farmers are now viewing subsurface drainage as a vital part of dairy production. The whole farm was laid out for modern production methods, with fences and paths for dairy cattle
to reach their paddocks from a central milking parlour, but this design was applied only after Carter had designed a comprehensive drainage scheme for
Continued on page 36
Irr IGAtI on A nd d r AI n AG e
Research promising for dual-purpose systems.
Although drainage is usually meant to draw water away, Canadian researchers are successfully irrigating through tile drainage and are improving crop yields not only through increased water uptake but also by reclaiming lost fertilizer nutrients.
At the Greenhouse and Processing Crops Research Centre in Woodslee, Ontario. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists have developed water management technology that combines tile drainage, reservoir and controlled drainage with sub-irrigation systems. Designed by Dr. Chin Tan, research scientist and water management specialist, the two facilities are fully automated, remotely monitored, and equipped with the most extensive and sophisticated water sampling capabilities.
The first of the two systems, the Long-term Crop Rotation Water Quality site, was established in 1959 to demonstrate the benefits of crop rotations, whereas the Great Lakes Water Quality site was constructed in 1991 specifically to study controlled drainage and sub-irrigation, and water recycling. On the Great Lakes site, riser pipes that were installed on existing tile drainage systems control drainage. Both sites were upgraded in 2008, with the addition of four storage reservoirs to capture and recycle surface runoff and tile drainage water at the Great Lakes site. Additional “real-time” measuring equipment was issued to the long-term site. Using these instruments, Tan and his team can now measure surface runoff and
sub-surface tile flow year round.
“Water has to balance and if you do not measure, you do not know,” says Tan. “If you look at the entire water balance, then you know where you want to control and where you want to reduce nutrient loss.”
Tan says that with his background in hydrology, it didn’t take long to establish that the prime conditions for nutrient runoff are when there’s residual nutrient left in the soil leading into the winter. With 70 percent of rainfall occurring outside of the cropping season in southern Ontario, it was easy to conclude that capturing and storing surface and tile drainage water during the non-cropping season would be the only means of intercepting sediments and nutrients. By pumping the same water back out of the reservoir during the next cropping season, all these nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrates, can be reused.
“In the summertime, you don’t have that much runoff so you want to encourage the crop to use water,” says Tan. “If the crop is using more water, it’s going to produce higher yields.”
In tests conducted from 20002005 on a Conservation Authority demonstration farm, Tan and his team demonstrated yield increases of 50 percent in soybeans and
by amy Petheri C k
nearly 90 percent in corn with the controlled drainage and sub-irrigation combination. In a commercial growers’ field, processing tomato yield also increased 40 percent. The increase in production and cost savings makes up for the cost of taking land out of production for water storage.
“There’s no question about it from my point of view,” says Tan. “This is not only good for crops, it is good for the environment.”
Water quality and environmental impacts
Subsurface tile drains are installed to remove excess soil water from agricultural fields so that crop productivity isn’t compromised by wet soils during spring planting. In Ontario, tile drained farms account for 70 percent of land in agricultural production. But from an environmental perspective, tile drains also remove excess nitrate during the non-cropping season and this can impair water quality. Tan says phosphorus loss in tile drainage water, especially in the poorly structured clay soils he often works with, has increasingly become a concern. Protecting water quality becomes even more important to the team as more farmers adopt conservation tillage practices, says Tan.
BRUCE TILE
_
Chesterville 1-800-449-2806
Comber 1-800-265-1447
Orangeville 1-800-265-2446
Forest 1-800-265-1447
Walkerton 519-392-6929
Dresden 519-683-6231
ARMTEC.COM |
Armtec provides a complete range of products from steel and plastic pipe to tubing designed to collect and remove subsurface water in various situations.
With several different tubing diameters, a variety of perforation patterns, and an extensive range of fittings and accessories, we have the solution for your drainage needs.
“There’s no question about it, conservation tillage has a lot of advantages besides reducing soil erosion; you improve soil structure and use less energy,” says Tan. “But the disadvantages include nutrients coming out, in particular if you have tile.”
The improved storage of no-till soils promotes higher water in the upper levels of the soil profile, says Tan, which is a good thing during the cropping season but not during the non-cropping season. Dr. Dan Reynolds is one of the members of the research team who has been heavily involved in studying the relationship between tile drainage and nutrient loss. After conducting an experiment that followed N fertilizer and a chloride tracer in the fall and winter through five agricultural soils, Reynolds was surprised by how fast and deep these nutrients moved down the profiles.
“We found, for all five soils, between 60-96 percent of the chloride tracer leached below the 60-centimetre depth over the fall, winter and spring,” says Reynolds. “So based on that, we’d have to say that the N leaching risk was high for all five soils, even though some of the soils had hydrologic soil group designations which suggested low leaching risk.”
In Ontario soils are classified by the Nitrogen (N) Index, which rates the risk for contamination of surface and ground waters by nitrate leached out of the crop rooting zone. Reynolds says that in the States they’ve been using N indexing for 20 to 30 years in various forms and Ontario’s version is a hybrid of the two main tiers. But it’s still based on hydrologic soil group and his research is making him think the soil survey information these designations are based on might be lacking.
“Water and nutrient movement are strongly affected by the cracks and worm holes making up the soil’s structure, not just the proportions of sand, silt and clay making up the soil’s texture,’’ says Reynolds. ‘‘But soil surveys tend to focus on texture as opposed to structure, because structure is hard to quantify numerically, while texture is relatively easy to quantify.”
Reynolds says farmers and drainage contractors need to have a better feeling for just how permeable the soil is and suggests collecting more of the fundamental data, such as saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, and designing your drainage systems partially on that, as opposed to solely soil texture, topography or tradition. To address nutrient leaching, he thinks controlled
drainage is worth considering in fairly flat areas and where precipitation can be erratic.
“Controlled drainage will definitely decrease nutrient leaching losses, partially because it changes the hydrology of the field by slowing down the rate in which the water moves,” says Reynolds.
So far, Tan says, the system they have designed can reduce total nitrate and phosphorus losses by up to 40 per cent. But he warns that controlled drainage with sub-irrigation still requires care in order to avoid making higher surface run-off problems worse.
“Once you do sub-irrigation, the soil becomes moist and, with a heavy rainfall, you create more surface runoff,” says Tan. “But when you think about it, you really have a win-win situation in terms of improved nutrient management and increased crop productivity.”
Tan says there is renewed interest in drainage management outside of Ontario and even Canada. He says that in much of the Lake Erie basin, the majority of corn production areas have tile drainage and that his research
sub-irrigation system.
Photo courtesy of aaFC.
is earning him some new attention, particularly in dry years.
“Our climate is changing to be drier but even if you only get 600-700 millimetres a year of rainfall, about 40 percent goes into the tile and surface runoff during the off season,” says Dr. Tan. “With that amount of water we collected in the storage reservoir, you can irrigate for two months, every day, without drying out.”
One of Tan’s colleagues in neighbouring Manitoba recently came to see the Ontario facility in operation. Bruce Shewfelt, a senior water and biosystems engineer, is developing parallel research and development activities on controlled drainage and sub-irrigation. He says addressing drainage management is becoming a hotter topic west of Ontario and to the south of him in the Dakota states.
“There’s been a lot of interest and uptake in tile drainage in the last three to four years and the industry is growing very rapidly here,” says Shewfelt. “Dr. Tan’s experimental setup is second to none and provides a great deal of information in a very controlled environment.”
Shewfelt says that in their own trials, they address the technical differences between the clayey soils Tan has worked with in Ontario and the fine sands of Manitoba’s special crops areas. Seasonal rainfall variations make drainage in the spring extremely important but in those same locations there is often a need for water by July and August. Manitoba growers of high-value crops could be particularly interested in subirrigation and controlled drainage says Shewfelt, if the large-scale studies he is conducting continue to support and build on Tan’s findings.
“In a year like this year when we didn’t really get much for spring moisture, if you’re considering means of adding water to the soil and you don’t have overhead irrigation, sub-irrigation might be a method to supplement water available to the crop,” says Shewfelt. “Our contractors and producers are certainly watching what we’re doing and waiting to see what the advantages or disadvantages might be.” DC
by tree Na h ei
the doublel I nk plow
A look back with one of the inventors.
The story of Ontario’s first double-link plow began with sugar beets. In the 1960s, the Redpath Sugar company of Chatham, Ontario, was doing a brisk business processing beets, and demand for more was very high. Farmers in the area certainly wanted to up their production, but to do that, they needed more drained land.
Tate & Lyle, the British company that owned Redpath, solved the issue by importing the high-speed Yates Badger plow from England to Canada, making it available for lease to tile drainage contractors in southern Ontario. By the early 1970s, many contractors had signed on for leases – but one contractor, Art Eddy of Woodstock, stood apart.
Eddy had little interest in leasing or renting a Badger plow, and the company would not allow him to buy one. “Art was a very determined man, and decided that he was going to build one himself, remembers Tony Paladino. “I only knew Art and Bob Hewitt (a future business associate) a little because we were all pilots flying out of the Woodstock Flying Club Airport. I’d never done anything for them.” At the time, Paladino owned an engineering design firm called Tritec Mechanical Equipment in Woodstock with partners Bob Elms and Bruno Ehrismann. Paladino is a born inventor who had his engineering degree, and was licensed as a civil engineer in his native Italy as well as in Brazil. Over his lifetime, he has come to hold several patents on plow improvements, tree harvesters and tree planters.
But getting a high-speed plow manufactured in Ontario was easier said than done. The Tritec team had a look at the problem, but decided that it would simply be too costly to design and fabricate a single plow. “However, Art convinced us that we’d have no trouble selling at least 10 of them, so we decided to
proceed,” Paladino notes. “He and Hewitt would have gone ahead somewhere else I suppose, if we had refused, but they knew Bob Elms and I had worked in research and development at Timberjack and Timberland (forestry equipment makers) and they must have thought this was a very important asset.”
different design
The first step for Paladino and Elms was to come up with an alternative for the roller linkage design of the Badger plow, which was patent-protected. That would be a challenge. After Elms had taken a close look at the Badger design (the brainchild of a Dr. Ainsley Ede of the Drainage Experimental Unit at England’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food), he was very impressed. He called Ede’s concept of a virtual hitch point projected by the radius of the rollers “ingenious.” However, ideas eventually came to the team, and after a trip to the US to see a plow researcher named Jim Fouss, the Tritec designers went to work on their own double-linkage system.
“If you can believe this, we actually used a Meccano set to build our first model,” Paladino explains. “We tested it in a sand trough, plowing about a foot deep.” The lower links in this plow design were adjustable, with the rear linkage completely free to float. Prototype construction followed, with the assistance of local welder Ron Hall. The team also found local expertise to do stress relief and lineboring on the post and the links. The design
N
included a diagonal sliding link that would enable, using a rope to release a latch, the raising of the blade from the ground. (This was eventually replaced in production models with a hydraulic cylinder.) Testing of the prototype was conducted in summer 1972.
controlling the ploW
Paladino was and still is a model airplane enthusiast, and with this experience under his belt, he created a radio control system to hold the plow on grade for the first tests. “I’ve designed, built, flown (and crashed and repaired!) radio-controlled model airplanes since I was 10,” he says. “To control a model airplane with radio, a signal from the transmitter is received by the aircraft, which makes a servo-control lever move in a given direction. I applied this system to the prototype plow by having a servo-control lever push or pull the spool of a solenoid valve, that in turn opened or closed the flow of hydraulic oil to the main lift cylinder of the plow.”
However, the system didn’t work properly at all because the operator’s eye could not accurately follow the target at the plow. “We found out there was a laser system that was developed by Dave Studebaker (grandson of the famous car manufacturer) in Dayton, Ohio,” remembers Paladino, “and we got a bank loan to buy that.”
The first production run of what they named the “Zor Plow” occurred in the fall of 1972. It was manufactured at the Zor Industries plant in Woodstock owned by Hall, Paladino, Elms, Eddy and Hewitt. The first model was the DP-200, which weighed 13,000 pounds and could install pipe within a quarter
of an inch of the setting, to a depth of six feet. “This accuracy was mostly due to the second linkage at the rear of the system,” says Paladino. “It did the job of the rollers on the Badger, without infringing on their patent, and it worked great since day one.”
Distribution of the Zor plows in Ontario was handled by Kraft Machinery, and US sales were handled by Eddy. Zor plows also travelled to Europe. A DP-300, for example, was shipped to Mastenbroek in 1976 and appeared at England’s “Farmers Weekly” demonstration that year as the 25/20 Trenchless Drainer, the first self-propelled double-link drainage plow. It was powered by a V10 Deutz with 260 horsepower and had independent hydrostatic track drives. In addition, Paladino sold a DP-200 to a company near Modena in Italy. “The chief engineer of this company visited Woodstock before signing the order,” he says. “Art, Bob Hewitt and I gave him an airplane ride to see the ZorPlow in action, and as soon as he verified the grades on the ground, he gave a down payment.”
Indeed, orders were coming in fast, but business interests began to shift among the partners. Hewitt bought out the others at Zor Industries. Paladino designed the DP-300 and other models for introduction in 1976; mounted on a Fiat Allis 21B, the DP-300 installed pipe up to 24 inches in diameter to six-foot depths. Elms and Hall worked on building a new plow (the Canteco Wedge Plow) in 1975, going on to establish a new business with Bob Shillum in 1976. Meanwhile, in 1975, Kraft Machinery had sold the first Zor Plow in Quebec, and before the year was out, began building its own model (the Krac Plow or Krac Charrue) in that province.
When asked how he feels about the fact that the design elements he and Elms created long ago were being used in numerous double-link makes and models that emerged, Paladino is philosophical. “I think I can speak for Bob (who retired long ago) and myself to say that we are both really glad to have given to the world this fantastic machine for all to use in order to improve productivity on farms,” he says. “If so many companies copied us, that can only be a statement to confirm that we were correct on the design. It’s a great honour to be copied by so many. The Wright Brothers had the same honour!”
Eddy and Paladino stayed connected and by 1977, had built the Link 250, which could reach a depth of seven feet. Eddy set up the “Eddy Oxford” shop at his farm near Woodstock, and both he and his son Bill sold their Link plows throughout North America. In 1977, Eddy Oxford had also introduced model 75 for farm tractors, and in 1979, the model 175 for smaller dozer tractors. In 1981, the 175 was used in a new self-propelled plow called the Link 500. It featured an independent hydrostatic drive with a seven-foot plowing depth, tracks driven from both ends and the option of 285 to 320 horsepower.
Fast-forward to 2011. Dave Stevens, owner of Dave Stevens Drainage Ltd. in Tillsonburg, Ontario, was speaking to Bill Eddy about how he thought there was a strong market for an old-school, Ontario-made, double-link plow. “Bill said to Dave that he knew one of the designers who created the very first Ontario double link plow – me!” says Paladino. In February of 2012, they convinced Paladino to come out of retirement to resurrect the Link plow design – and he’s had a very busy summer. Make sure you read the New Designs section to learn more. DC
an original ZorPlow ad from the 1970s. Photo courtesy of Link mfg.
SeekI n G out the top performer S
Nuffield scholar studies land drainage.
by JeaN i N e m oyer
In a first for the industry, Nuffield scholar and British drainage contractor Rob Burtonshaw is traveling the world to learn about and promote land drainage. Through his travels, he plans to meet with like-minded people to share ideas and learn about new technology, innovations and practices from drainage representatives and some of the industry’s top performers.
A third-generation land drainage contractor, Burtonshaw recognizes most of his drainage knowledge came from his father and grandfather and says, “I suspect I could have no better tutors, but other perspectives and experiences are undoubtedly valuable as well.” So, his desire to learn more about the industry and drainage practices led him to the first Nuffield Scholarship award focused solely on land drainage. A prestigious honour, Burtonshaw received one of approximately 75 Nuffield scholarships worldwide awarded in 2012. Studying land drainage and its role in farming’s future, the scholarship provides travel funds for a year for Burtonshaw to bring new ideas back to Britain’s farmers and drainage industry.
Focusing his travels in North America, Burtonshaw believes more research projects on drainage are being conducted in Canada and the US, when compared to Europe. He’s already visited the Netherlands, Canada and the US, and will return to the US in fall 2012. “I’m keen to see innovation and practices that are new to me, as well as seek out the industry’s top performers,” says Burtonshaw. He’s pleased to say he’s learned something new every time he meets someone and has observed that, while all contractors do the same task, each performs it in a slightly different way. However small, he says, improvements can add up. In an early observation, Burtonshaw noted most drains are still installed with laser guidance in Europe and he is eager to speak to contractors in North America about their experiences with GPS grade control and bring this technology practice to Britain.
“Clearly there is an awful lot of pipe being put in the
ground in North America, and strong demand for drainage will help to drive competition and improvements,” says Burtonshaw. His biggest surprise so far has been the scale of agriculture in North America when compared to Britain: the field sizes in Britain are a fraction of the size in comparison.
applications on the home front
“I want to make improvements,” says Burtonshaw. “I’d like to learn how to lay drains faster, more accurately and at a
toP: a mastenbroek 26-15 chain trencher and Ct12 tracked gravel cart work in Wales on remedial drainage for a new gas main. Le Ft: a mastenbroek 25-20 plough, approximately 28 tonnes and 300 horsepower, has just finished a contract in Warwickshire.
Photos by rob burtonshaw.
lower cost.” The Director of Farm Services Ltd. based in Lighthorne, Warwickshire, UK, Burtonshaw says it’s vital that any business move forward and advance, and he hopes to apply some of his research to his own company. He also has plenty of opportunities to speak to British farm groups and industry representatives about the new developments and practices he encounters in his travels.
Burtonshaw is confident there is always something to learn from others, and using this philosophy as his approach to his studies, he’s sure to achieve his goal of bringing as much information as possible about land drainage back to Britain’s farmers and drainage industry. He encourages anyone who might have information to complement his studies to contact him at rob@farmservicesltd.co.uk. DC
m ontG omery County d r AI n S
Reconstruction being accelerated.
Tby steve Coo P er
he agricultural drainage lines that drain water away from individual farmland tile systems are being replaced in a carefully orchestrated program that is expected to take 10 to 15 years. According to Tom Cummins, Montgomery County surveyor, “In a county like this, drainage is paramount because of the loamy and water-bearing soil. We have more than 200 regulated drains and somewhere between 360 to 400 miles of tile, and during the past five years this drainage infrastructure has just been falling apart.” Montgomery County, whose county seat, Crawfordsville, is 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis, has 505 square miles that is mostly farmland, mainly corn and soybeans.
In Indiana and the Midwest, recognizing the need to drain the large numbers of watersheds dates to the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Montgomery County landowners realized that it would be mutually beneficial to pool their money and construct common pipelines that would carry water away from their land. Now there are a combination of open ditches and subsurface drains that landowners pay taxes to
maintain. It is not uncommon to have a largediameter 18-, 24- or 30-inch clay or concrete tile or an open ditch that would be as long as three or four miles. Cummins has found that those clay and concrete tiles have outlived their useful life, have started to break down and collapse and today are being replaced with pipe made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
“We started recognizing the problems that
a buckeye super 7 trencher is used by the maxwell crew to install Fratco XD, Class ii perforated corrugated h DP e pipe.
Photo by maxwell Farm Drainage.
needed to be addressed,” he continued. “I spoke with all the contractors who are on my list for doing the repair work and got their feel for what was the best product out there. I had three or four who were actual tile installers, and got a lot of good information from them, what seems to be doing the best job and that led me to the HDPE pipe.”
Mostly used in this county project is perforated, corrugated, smooth inner wall HDPE pipe made with virgin resin supplied by local manufacturer Fratco, Inc. (Francesville, Indiana).
Pipe diameters range from 10 to 30 inches. The bidding contractor who was awarded the project selects the brand of pipe as long as it conforms to the specifications and any additional criteria set out by the surveyor’s office. “We have never had a problem with the Fratco HDPE pipe,” stated Cummins. “It meets AASHTO and ASTM specifications.”
“Corrugated HDPE pipe is rugged because the material itself is rugged,” stated Tony Radoszewski, executive director of the Plastics Pipe Institute, Inc. (PPI), (Irving, Texas). “HDPE is abrasion resistant and will not
corrode. Used since the mid-1960s for agricultural applications, the pipe is a flexible conduit for water that has continued to evolve to provide for the demands of an efficient farming operation and the environment of soil and water conditions.
Today we have pipe that is delivered to the field on mega-size coils of thousands of feet, and on some reels there’s nearly a mile of three-inchdiameter pipe. This enables a contractor to tile acres of land rapidly. The very design of the HDPE pipe that permits perforations, which allow water to enter the system and be drained away, is the key.” PPI is the major trade association representing all segments of the plastic pipe industry.
Today, installing a system is vastly easier due to advances in machinery and the pipe. “I’m a fourth-generation drainage contractor,” said Bart Maxwell, Maxwell Farm Drainage (Crawfordsville, Indiana). “We started in 1910, and we’ve seen a lot of things happen over the years. We started with clay tiles and cement, and some of the first plastic tile was put in by my dad, Bart Maxwell, Sr.”
According to PPI’s Radoszewski, “The concrete folks like to say that their 100year product life cycle is proven, because some of it has been in the ground for 100 years. But now it’s not automatic to replace it with reinforced concrete pipe (RCP), which is heavy, difficult to work with, and some contractors report there could be as much as a 30 percent cost advantage of HDPE pipe in labor and materials verses RCP. Installation of HDPE pipe can be done with an excavator, chain digging machines or a trencher.”
“We experience so many different soil types and conditions,” Maxwell commented. “We usually try to look at it from the standpoint of ‘if there wasn’t any tile, how would we tile this field?’ You can’t of course do it without factoring in the course of the old concrete or clay tile.
“One factor is the grade we use installing the pipe It could be a tenth of a foot per 100 feet of fall, or five-tenths of a foot per 100 feet. The grade is based on each job,” Maxwell said. “We are very cognizant of the need to increase the size of the pipe based on the lack of grade. Using GPS, we survey the field and plot the topography, lay the main in the lowest parts of the field and keep at least two feet of cover over the pipe just because of the depth of some of the farming tools. Three feet would be great on a 24-inch tile. Sometimes we’re 12 feet deep to catch really low areas such as at the end of the tile run. When you’re doing gravity drainage, and you’re not able to pump, you have to have constant flow through that pipe.”
Maxwell generally uses a trencher machine wherever possible instead of an excavator. “A key factor is that we can cut the trench with a contoured bottom so the soil is not disturbed on the sides and putting some gravel backfill is the extra insurance and then the native soil. There are some places you can’t use the trenching machine and have to use a bucket excavator and this means more stone has to be used. Our trencher also grinds the soil finer than just excavating out. So when you push it back in you don’t have large chunks. We backfill with number 8 gravel or stone to bed the pipe.”
To allow the trencher to more easily follow the natural contour of the land,
Drainage is paramount in montgomery County, indiana, because of the loamy and water-bearing soil.
Photo by maxwell Farm Drainage.
Any job, any size
From farm fields to parking lots. From roadways to golf courses and recreational turf, Ideal Pipe is your ideal choice for complete sourcing of pipe and fittings.
Fast, easy installation
Ideal specializes in flexible, lightweight, easy to handle HDPE pipe.
Reliable delivery
With over 25 years as a Canadian leader in plastic pipe, Ideal is the source to depend on.
A flexible partner
Talk to us today about the products best suited to your business needs.
A SILT'S EYE VIEW OF NORTH AMERICA’S FINEST DRAINAGE FILTER
Used since the mid-1960s for agricultural water management applications, corrugated h DP e pipe is a flexible conduit for water that has continued to evolve to provide for the demands of an efficient farming operation.
Photo by Fratco.
Maxwell fitted it with a shorter boot. To facilitate a safe installation with this shorter boot behind the trenching machine, he used shorter lengths of pipe – 13 or 14 feet, and as short as 8-1/2 feet.
For more information or memebrship application contact...
For more information or membership application contact...
National LICA 3080OgdenAve.,Suite300,Lisle,IL60532 Phone:630-548-1984•Email:nlica@aol.com Website:www.LICANational.org
Maxwell uses a 1971 Buckeye Super 7 Trencher. “Buckeye is building me a new one that will be delivered in October that will lay up to 36-inch-diameter pipe. The one we have now is slow by trenching standards, but as far as someone digging with an excavator or a backhoe goes, it’s very fast about six feet a minute, that’s 36 inches wide, six to seven feet deep. In a day’s time, it’s no problem to do 2000 to 2500 feet, a half-mile of 24-inch or 30-inch-diameter drainage tile. We run Fratco XD Class II perforated pipe. On the farm field, all the way around, which really drains
the new HDPE pipe,” continued Maxwell, destroy the old tile, cut another trench on to find any laterals coming in, so we the new system. It’s typical to lay about accomplish the job and we usually to operate the trencher, feed the pipe
eveloping the plan
five-member Montgomery County mapped out a program that included drains to be rehabilitated and a fair tax was a matter of going over what drains during the past 20 years and seeing how out of the assessments for these new
people so that as soon as the money spend it and then be broke until the the assessments come in again. In the
Water Management Systems for Pros
Best Just Got Better
process of examining the books, it became evident that we were spending money as fast as it was coming in. The county collected taxes over the years and at this point in time they figured out that we spent more in repairs and maintenance on fixing broken clay or concrete tile, than it was really worth. We changed the method. Now we identify the drains that are needing
constant maintenance and are getting to the point of doing a reconstruction, and fixing it from top to bottom. With a new drain we can keep the landowner’s assessment at a lower rate because it will be decades before any maintenance is needed on that drain. The determining factor is the number of acres in the watershed. Let’s say we have a 200-acre watershed; one farmer might own 20
Drainage contractor b art maxwell installs pipe on this farm in montgomery County, indiana. maxwell’s family has been installing tile drainage in this area for four generations.
Photo
by maxwell Farm Drainage.
acres, another 150, and so they figure the percentage of the watershed that they own and that’s the percentage that they will pay on that project.
“It’s been during the past four to five years that we have started going gung-ho on the drain reconstructions,” Cummins explained. “We’ve put in close to 50,000 feet. That’s anywhere from 10- to 12-inch all the way up to 30-inch diameterpipe. We have averaged four to five reconstructions a year with the smallest, generally, about 2000 feet. The longest one we’ve done to date was 6000 feet, completed during the summer of 2012 up in Crawfordsville, which is the main city in Montgomery County.”
According to contractor Bart Maxwell, “A lot of people didn’t think anyone would spend money on these projects, they just wanted to patch up the bad areas. And then all of a sudden when progress was being made, people began showing up at the Drainage Board meetings, and were willing to spend the money to get new mains so they could expand their farm drainage system, and that turned this county around. Before, some people wouldn’t do a drainage system because they didn’t have a good outlet and they were never going to spend money on this tile even though it would help them grow more crops. Now at every meeting there are several landowners saying they have a problem and want the county to fix it because they see the success of the program and the way the tax assessment is handled.”
For Maxwell, the past is truly prologue. “A customer of mine bought a farm the other day and he got a packet with information about the farm from the early 1800s,” he said. “There was also the original tile paperwork that showed it was my great-grandfather and his brother who had laid 18-inch tile across this farm. Tom Cummins plans showed that the tile is now coming up for reconstruction. It was installed in 1918 and now four generations later, I may very well be the guy who gets to redo my great-grandfather’s work.” DC
John 519-524-9081
Hugo 519-524-5515
Fax 519-524-1849
http://hickenbottom.ca
w hen old be C ome S new
Link Mfg. is bringing back the Link plows.
Tby JeaN i N e m oyer
he search for a set of original plans to rebuild a Link 75 drainage plow in the winter of 2012 led to the development of a new manufacturing company, Link Mfg. The company was formed in Ontario drainage contractor, Dave Stevens’ shop, where Bill Eddy, son of the manufacturer, Art Eddy from Eddy Oxford Enterprises, and Tony Paladino, machine designer for the original Link plow, met to help rebuild a mangled Link 75 plow. While analyzing problems with the plow, the trio quickly determined a market existed for newly manufactured, high-quality, double-link drainage plows. Together, they’ve built a new business, using proven plans and are creating a buzz in the industry bringing three new double-link drainage plow models to the market.
Link Mfg. is currently manufacturing the Link 25 and Link 75 models, and has plans to bring the Link 250 plow to the market in 2013.
All Link Mfg. drainage plows are based on the original Link plow, initially designed and manufactured in the 1970s. The plans have been redrawn and updated by the original designer, Tony Paladino. By using proven plans and examining the original plows to see where they had been reworked and reinforced over the
years, the Link Mfg. team is confident the new plows are a superior product.
upgrades and improvements
Once popular across North America and the world, the Link plows are known for their dependable design, price and quality. The trio forming Link Mfg. hopes to build on that reputation with the introduction of the redesigned models.
tony Paladino, bill eddy and Dave stevens with the Link plow.
Photo by s ara avoledo.
TheLink25, a three-pointhitchplow,isdesignedforfarm tractors.It’sknowntoholdgradebetterthansomeofthe cantilever-typeplowsandisidealforfarmersinstallingtheir owndrainage,orlight-dutycontractors.Thisdesignisalso attractiveforthoseworkinginsmallerareassuchasvineyardsor greenhouses.
Thecontractor-gradeLink75plowis a provendesignthat hasbeeninthefieldforyears,butfeatures a newquickcoupler attachmentoption,engineeredbytheLinkMfg.team.“This featureofferscontractorsmaximumflexibility,”saysStevens whoexplainsthatbyallowingtheoperatortohookandunhook theplowfrom a dozerwithin20minutes,thequickcoupler optioneliminatestheneedtodedicate a dozerfor a single,fulltimepurpose.Twohydraulichoses,connecting a powersupply for a laserorGPSareallthatisrequiredtooperatethenew attachment.TheLink75plowmodelisidealfortheinstallation offour-,six-oreight-inchtile.
Thenewestmodel,theLink250,isalso a contractor-grade plowforuseonheavierequipmentandwillbeavailablein January,2013.Itwillallowfortheinstallationoftileupto15 inchesindiameter.
BuiltandassembledintheTillsonburg,Ont.,area,LinkMfg. plowsandreplacementpartsforallexistingLinkplows,are availabletotheNorthAmericanandinternationalmarket. FormoreinformationonLinkMfg.,visitwww.linkmfg.ca. DC
prinsco: your drainage advocate
At Prinsco, we take great pride in our leadership role on key industry concerns. Prinsco supports independent lobbyists who are advocates for land owners on issues of land use and water table management. We also fund a vast array of research projects related to material performance, drainage techniques and product innovation. If you’re looking for an advocate, Prinsco is on your side. Call 800.992.1725 today!
Dave stevens and tony Paladino with the Link 75 plow.
Photo courtesy of Link mfg.
Manufacturers busy, contractors on waiting lists.
By Peter Darbishire
mAC h I nery rev I ew
Contractors must plan well ahead if they want to take delivery of a new or recent-model, used drainage machine. For their part, manufacturers are cutting, welding and fitting to meet the demand. Such is the state of a booming industry! A whirlwind survey has yielded several pieces of news on the specialist drainage machinery front.
WOlFE chaN g ES OWNERS h IP, m OvES TO NEW S h OP
The next design changes of Wolfe Drainage machines will be introduced early next year, according to Ed Veeke, the principal of the company that purchased Wolfe Equipment in June this year. The business now trades as Wolfe Heavy Equipment. Customers can expect design changes. “Operator station upgrades will include improved creature comforts, increased size of cab, an
the latest Wolfe 540 plow: design updates will be available soon.
courtesy of Wolfe heavy equipment.
air-ride cab and improved visibility of the work zone,” he says. Improvements are also being made in machine design to allow better access for maintenance, improved cooling, faster hydraulics, Tier 4 diesel compliance and improved overall esthetics. Veeke adds that, in the longer term, “We intend to have a full line of drainage and trenching equipment.” The company recently
delivered its latest machine, the Wolfe 540 plow with a parallel link drainage plow assembly and increased ground speed when out of the ground. This machine was built in the new facility at Strathroy, Ontario, a 48,000-square-foot fabrication and assembly plant. Company personnel Keith Gillies and Dave Bechard continue with the business under the new ownership.
R E cORDS SPIN aT N ORThlaND
In Minnesota, Northland Trencher Sales’ Larry Neid reports: “2012 will be a record-setting year in sales for our company. New machine orders continue at a steady pace and the market is very good for late-model used trenching equipment. Plows are outselling trenchers by about three to one, and the largest
Photo
A Few Key Features:
• 350 HP Cummins QSM11 Engine
• Cab with Heat and Air
• Power Shift Transmission
• 7’ Dual Hydrostat Drive, Tapered Digging Wheel
• Self-Leveling Wheel Up to 8 Degrees Left or Right
to P: the largest inter-Drain model 2050GP plow is the favored size for contractors. Photo courtesy of inter-Drain.
b ottom: rWF broN is working on a new low-cost, self-propelled drainage plow for 2013.
Photo by sara avoledo.
model 2050GP plow is the favored size.” He adds that Northland offers buyers a choice of Cat or Volvo power in both plows and trenchers, with Cat being chosen more often. Lead time for new machines is currently one year from order to delivery. Recent changes and upgrades have been made on the Inter-Drain lineup as well as some fine tuning on existing models. The “SP” model plows that use single cantilever technology have been reconfigured to accommodate the Big “3” wide cab, which is the cab of choice. The company’s USA Package has been extended to include climate controls on the heating and air conditioning system. Larger high-speed track rollers have been added as well. “A popular new option in 2012 was the power grease system that will make the grease gun a fond memory,” adds Neid. On the trencher side, Inter-Drain now offers the larger 3035 model in
HAVING TROUBLE KEEPING YOUR FIELDS DRY?
Is your tile outlet below the ditch level? Is the ditch too shallow to allow proper drainage?
Maybe it’s time to look at a Drainage Pump. A drainage pump can keep your field drier than draining it naturally. With a drainage pump YOU can CONTROL how low or how high to keep the water table in your field. For more information,contact your local Tile Contractor or Call Carry Pumps direct at: 1-800-492-2779 www.carrymfg.com
Our Stainless Steel Submersible drainage pumps are just right for the job. Pumps are available in a variety of horsepowers to suit your field application. Carry Pumps are available from 1/2 HP to 10 HP in single or three phase power,208,230 or 460 Volts,with pump capacity from 50 to 1450 GPM with 2 to 25 feet of lift.
the shelton supertrencher+ 760 digs in wetter conditions. Photo courtesy of turf tech.
the swivel steer 3035NT configuration, much like the popular smaller 2028NT. “This allows the track machine to turn a very short corner similar to a rubber tired trencher,” he says.
BRON PlaNS TREN ch ER
While plow production is pumping hard to keep up with demand at RWF BRON, manufacturing has begun on a new wheel trencher at its plant in Woodstock, Ontario. This machine will dig a 36-inch-wide trench to 7 ½ feet deep. Powered by a 440-horsepower Cummins diesel, the first prototype was to have been completed late September 2012. Coming soon, says BRON’s sales manager, Mark Odorico, will be a new low-cost, self-propelled drainage plow, with expected delivery dates from the spring of 2013. The machine will feature D6 undercarriage and a 350-horsepower diesel.
“Target weight is 68,000 pounds,” says Odorico.
ON Th E TURF
It’s just over a year since sportsturf drainage specialists Shelton SDS launched the Supertrencher+ 760. Mick Claxton, general manager for the company, says the machine was built as a result of customer feedback. The initial concept came about almost three years ago, after the team had received a number of enquiries from customers asking for a trenching machine with improved performance in wet conditions as well as dry. Shelton’s design team developed a prototype machine and, after successful trials, a production version was engineered: the Supertrencher+ 625. This machine was successfully sold for 12 months and was capable of installing the majority of systems. However, drainage specifications in some countries called for deeper
Link 25: For farm tractors up to 200 HP
Link 75: For dozers up to D7 size
and wider trenches for sportsturf pipe work, so the team enlarged the design of this machine to create the Supertrencher+ 760, with digging capabilities to 760 millimetres deep and 155 millimetres wide (30 inches and 8.25 inches).
The trencher incorporates many new features: a swinging main conveyor enables easy access to the exit port for cleaning and maintenance, and can be parked alongside the body of the trencher for transport. The transverse conveyor in the bottom of the
exit port quickly moves the excavated soil onto the main conveyor to be elevated into trailers running alongside, preventing the soil from building up and blocking the exit port in wet conditions. An optional extra transverse conveyor can be fitted to the top of the exit port to help minimize blockages should the trencher be working in very sticky soils.
The two-speed gearbox driving the digging wheel enables the operator to better match the digging speed of the wheel to the soil conditions:
slow for wet soils and fast for hard, dry soils. The offset of this gearbox enables the machine to run down the center of the tractor. A removable section of the hood at the back of the machine enables the cutters to be changed from a standing position, which is a benefit to the operator for both ease and safety.
D Ual PaTh cONTROl aND PaRallE lOg Ram DEPTh RE g U laTION
The Steenbergen Hollanddrain model EGS
the hollanddrain eGs 3000 features dual path control and parallelogram depth regulation. Photo courtesy of hollanddrain.
3000 is available with a multifunctional joystick. This is a unique feature, which is highly appreciated by operators. The one-hand controllable joystick with numerous functions can steer both tracks and is called “dual path control.” Differences in track speed will be corrected automatically in forward and reverse modes.
The mechanically driven digging mechanism and homemade “right angle gearbox,” chain transmission and safety clutches have all proven their durability.
The “parallelogram depth regulation” system, available on the EGS 3000 model, results in the most accurate depth regulation possible. Hollanddrain believes that precision depth regulation methods and the way drainage pipe is placed are some of the most important requirements of landowners and contractors alike. DC
January 7 - 9
Ohio LICA • Columbus, OH
January 7 - 9
South Dakota LICA • South Dakota
January 8 - 10
New York LICA • Syracuse, NY
January 10 - 12
Illinois LICA • Springfield, IL
January 13 - 15
Iowa LICA • Des Moines, IA
January 13 - 15
Michigan LICA • Lansing, MI
UPCO m IN g EVENTS
January 14 - 18
OMAFRA Drainage Course • Marden, ON
January 15 - 17
Nebraska LICA • Kearney, NE
January 17 - 18
Minnesota LICA • North Mankato, MN
January 24 - 25
Indiana LICA • Indianapolis, IN
January 22 - 24
LICO Convention • London, ON
January 27 - 28
Kansas LICA • Manhattan, KS
Th E 2013 lIca cONvENTION
The 2013 National Winter Convention, to be held February 5-10, will be an unforgettable trip for everyone. Members will stay at the Marriott Savannah Riverfront, which is within walking distance of the historic district and within minutes of dining and shopping!
Aside from the many attractions members can see on their own, LICA has wonderful tours planned. On Tuesday, Tybee Island will be the first stop for members to see dolphins in their natural habitat.
February 1 - 2
Missouri LICA • Kansas City, MO
February 5 - 10
National LICA • Savannah, GA
February 14
Stormwater Conference • West Lafayette, IN
February 22 - 24
Western Farm Show • Kansas City, MO
march 15 - 16
New Jersey LICA • Somerset, NJ
The next day JCB will be hosting LICA for a tour of their plant and other activities. After JCB, the fun continues at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum for a classic southern buffet! If you would like to discover more about the city of Savannah hop on the Old Savannah Trolley; this tour covers much of the historic district, River Street and City Market.
On Thursday, The LICA Contractors will be hosting the second annual LICA Golf Outing at the beautiful Crosswinds Championship Golf Club.
With a range of rich history, beautiful buildings, and of course heavy equipment, there is something for everyone in Savannah for the LICA National convention!
Look for registration details in the next LICA News and on the national website at www.LICANational.org.
Also 6” square & round risers with patented reducing Tee.
• Constructed of heavy-weight, high-density polyethylene.
• Parts highly adjustable & interchangeable with others on the market
• Orifice plate placed at tee level or at ground level.
• Exclusive locking device on each part. • User Friendly-Priced effectively.
STEEP g RaDES Tak E SPE cIal caRE
Continued from page 9
the 600-acre farm, which is owned and operated by Ian and Gill Leeuwenburg. A total of 46,000 meters (150,000 feet) of drainage pipe was installed at 30- to 40-meter spacing (110 to 150 feet). “It’s their third farm and the others are mostly drained too,” says Carter.
Carter backs his work with a guarantee. In terms of return visits to repair something that has not worked, “It’s cost me just $1000 in 15 years,” he says. The warranty covers his work for the lifetime of the buyer. With New Zealand’s agricultural economy thriving, the drainage work should continue for the foreseeable future. Carter must decide how long he wants to continue in serving the farmers in his area: at the young age of 70, he is considering his options. DC
N E glI g ENT ENTRUSTm ENT
Continued from page 38
• driver selection procedures that include review of employee motor vehicle records
• new employee orientation and training
• Adaptor available to repair old metal or broken intakes.
Why inventory 2, when 1 serves both!
“Dealer Inquiries Welcome”
PRECISION INTAKES
Norm & Coretha Rozendaal 2064 Republic Ave West Monroe, IA 50170 (800) 932-7611 (641) 259-2651 (641) 259-3218 Fax
• ongoing driver training
• post-incident/accident review and training
• an enforced policy limiting driver distractions such as cellphone usage and texting
• a drug and alcohol testing program
• adherence to local, state and federal laws
• a strictly enforced, with no exceptions, disciplinary procedure for violations that includes revocation of driving privileges
To help avoid negligent retention, your fleet management program needs to include:
• reviewing the MVRs for all drivers, at least on an annual basis
• removing employees from driving positions if they develop unacceptable driving records
• conducting ongoing training of drivers on safe driving behaviors
Kitchener • Sudbury • Delhi • New Liskeard • Rainy River 519-748-1199 Toll Free 1-800-265-6456 Fax 519-748-6100 info@ksmart.on.ca www.ksmart.on.ca
STRUCTURAL - Bridges, Culverts, Low Rise Buildings PLANNING - Municipal & Private Development Land Use Planning MUNICIPAL - Site Plans, Lot Grading, Subdivisions, Servicing DRAINAGE - Municipal Drains, Storm Water Mgt, Storm sewers
ENVIRONMENTAL - Water Supply / Wastewater Treatment Plants
AD INDEX
www.dillon.ca
n e G l IG ent entru Stment
Is your company at risk?
by Jaso N o sWaLD
Negligent entrustment can stem from employees driving company-owned vehicles, or their personal vehicles, on company business. Employers have a responsibility to know if a person has something in their driving background that creates a risk or harm to others. Negligent entrustment implies a company knew, or should have known, that it put an unsafe driver behind the wheel of a company vehicle.
A party injured by the company driver must generally prove five elements to establish liability in a lawsuit for negligent entrustment:
1. The owner company entrusted the vehicle to the driver or knew the person was driving on behalf of the company.
2. The driver was unlicensed, incompetent, or reckless.
3. The owner company knew or should have known that the driver was unlicensed, incompetent, or reckless.
4. The driver was negligent in the operation of the vehicle.
5. The driver’s negligence resulted in damages.
A driver may be judged incompetent if he/she is intoxicated, unlicensed or inexperienced, or has a record of reckless driving. Examples include:
• not possessing a drivers’ license or driving with a suspended license
• not possessing a Commercial Driver’s License when it is required for the type of vehicle
• lacking experience or training in operating a specific type of vehicle
• having at-fault accidents or moving violations in recent past on his/her motor vehicle record
Some jurisdictions use the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) to establish minimum competency for drivers. FMCSR is increasingly being referred to as a benchmark to measure the qualifications of an individual when driving is a regular part of his/her job duties. The FMCSR standards are also utilized by companies that are not under the authority of the Department of Transportation (DOT). In simple terms, FMCSR requires that a driver:
• hold a valid driver’s license
• be physically qualified to operate the vehicle
• be able to read and speak English
• by reason of experience or training, be able to safely operate a vehicle
• by reason of experience or training, be able to determine whether the cargo is securely loaded
examples of possible negligent entrustment
On his way to work, an employee was
driving a vehicle owned by ABC Inc. when he passed out from a medical condition. His vehicle struck several other vehicles and killed one of the passengers. ABC Inc. knew this employee’s license had been revoked because of his medical condition but still allowed him to drive a company vehicle to and from work.
Driving his own vehicle on company business, an employee of XYZ Inc. pulled out into the path of a motorcycle. The rider of the motorcycle was killed. The employee had been driving on business for XYZ about five years and did not have a driver’s license. XYZ never requested a copy of the employee’s license and never reviewed the employee’s MVR.
What can you do to reduce your exposure to negligent entrustment?
While the driver’s negligence in causing an accident is usually the primary issue, the investigation of negligent entrustment charges must focus upon two main issues: the company’s policies and the company’s actual practices. Were policies in place and were the policies followed?
Your fleet management program must be followed and documented. Management must be held accountable for implementing the fleet management program. The following list includes areas that your company’s program should include:
DRAINAGE WATER MANAGEMENT EVOLVED
The Trimble® WM-Drain ™ farm drainage solution streamlines the survey, analysis, design, installation, and mapping steps of surface and subsurface drainage making your drainage water management jobs more efficient than ever before. And now you have another option for collecting topographic survey data to be used with the WM-Drain solution. The new WM-Topo ™ survey system can be taken by hand into hard-to-reach areas such as ditches, muddy fields, and fields with mature crop cover. For more information, visit www.trimble.com/agriculture or see your dealer.
• New tungsten carbide hard surfacing for extra long wear in all soil types. All cutter sizes available.
• New shape for efficient clean out in a wide range of soil conditions.
