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Eric[IL] 
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Location: Illinois
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![Quote Eric[IL]](forum_images/quote.png "Quote Eric[IL]") Quote  Reply
 Topic: Tiled my field
Posted: 09 Jun 2010 at 11:33pm |
My field has had a history of being wet in the spring. I am always last to no-til my corn. This year, I got my soybeans no-tilled April 15th. Just got two good days where the soil conditions were favorable. Low areas still drowned out though. My brother does excavating & tilling. So, last week (Wednesday-Saturday), we tilled 32 acres. Used up over 21,000 feet of 4" perforated tile. Plowed most laterals & trenched a few. Probably only tore up about 16-17% of crop with 60' centers on laterals. Soybeans were a foot tall. Anyway, we had water running out the first main in only a few hundred feet. We did not find any old orange clay tile. I don't think it was ever tiled.
I checked flow rate first day at discharge of the mains. We have 2 main discharges. They registered around 15gal/min each. Thats 900gal/hr or 21,600gal/day each or 43,200 gal from the whole field in 24hrs.
Day two flow rate was just less than 10gal/min. Now its a week later and they are still running at about 6-7 gal/min. Amazing amount of water per hour. I could have filled the local town's water tower several times over?
My son used our AC 170 to pull the stringing trailer laying out tile ahead of the plow. I drove my brother's Cat D4G hooked ahead of his JD 9400 & plow. Plowed 4.5' - 3.5' deep in one pass on 2% grade. Sorry - no big AC tractors in the mix. My brother's sons & hiredhand joined us for lunches each day that my wife cooked. We all enjoyed the time together - good memories.
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Eric[IL]
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Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Location: Illinois
Points: 485
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 12:09am |
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Burgie
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Location: Scottsburg, IN
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 3:55am |
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That is some good looking soil.
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"Burgie"
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Dave(inMA)
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Location: Grafton, MA
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 5:29am |
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Heck of a project! Must be nice to work in soil with NO ROCKS!!!
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WC, CA, D14, WD45
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scott
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 6:24am |
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I spent an inheritance getting 24 acres tiled 4 years ago. Works great! If yours works as well as mine you will never be sorry.
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JayIN
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Joined: 18 Dec 2009
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 6:50am |
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I did that several years ago in a bottom field that had a spring. Worked great! Several years later we had a drought and the corn started to wither. 93? Anyway , I went down to the bottom and plugged the outlet up with an inflatable ball. Two days later the spring caused the tiles to back flow and I had the greenest bottom field around ! Reverse Irrigation !
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sometimes I walk out to my shop and look around and think "Who's the idiot that owns this place?"
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Lonn
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 7:53am |
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That tile will pay for itself in a year or two and it will drain even better in a year or two.
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-- --- .... .- -- -- .- -.. / .-- .- ... / .- / -- ..- .-. -.. . .-. .. -. --. / -.-. .... .. .-.. -.. / .-. .- .--. .. ... -
Wink
I am a Russian Bot
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Brian F(IL)
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Location: Paxton, IL
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 8:01am |
Drainage tile is one of the best investments you can make to tillable farmground. It will pay for itself within 5-7 years depending on your weather, yield, & prices. We've been doing it for years and are just about done. It's too expensive to do it all at once but keep at it and you can make an average farm into a very good farm. FWIW.
Brian F(IL)
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Eric[IL]
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 8:15am |
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The biggest discharge main drains into a pond that you can see the cattails next to the pickup in the 1st photo. Like JayIN says, I plan to reverse irrigate from the pond if dry season demands it. The pond is also a great catch basin for soil & nutrients. I do not plan on having it stocked with fish.
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Andrew(southernIL)
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 8:16am |
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I know what you mean about the water flow the first 30 acres we tiled they layed the main one day then started the laterals the next and the water pressure was so extreme on the main that it made it hard to cut and splice into. Also a field that is only about 75% tiled we got we had no-till beans in 2 years ago and when it turned dry you could see where the tile stopped cause the beans were 6-8 inches shorter.
I see your beans are planted on a twin row set up and was wondering do you plant your corn that way too?
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If fishing is a sport your looking at an athlete
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Eric[IL]
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 8:28am |
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I was wondering who would catch the twin rows? Yes. In my opinion, Twin Rows are going to be a great setup for increase populations in corn or better plant singulation in soybeans. I plant 140,000 soybean seeds/acre and harvest around 122,000s/a. They have been my best beans ever. Corn should be able to manage 42,000plants / acre with no trouble, but you need additional nitrogen to accompany the additional plants. Twin rows may only be a transitional means to narrower rows like 24", 22", 20", 18", or even 15"? Time will tell. I am not exactly sure, but twins seem to allow better air flow around the plants - 15" don't??
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Dusty MI
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 8:34am |
Michigan would still be a swamp if it were not for draining and tilling.
Here in Eaton County there is an area that's know as The Old Maid Swamp. I have not found anybody that knows when it was drained, county drain could look it up, but just showing that it was a long time ago. There are plans to re-flood that swamp. I read where the recycle people talk about not letting old tires lay around because of mesquites. I wonder how many tires it takes to equal 1 acer of swamp?
Dusty
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917 H, '48 G, '65 D-10 series III "Allis Express"
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Andrew(southernIL)
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 8:40am |
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We are still on 36" corn and would rather switch to a twin on 36" center than to go to a 30". Know one around here plants any twins yet so I haven't talked to anyone to see what kind yield difference they have seen or if they liked it. I would think it would help prevent rust on beans and some other diseases. What kind of planter do you use?
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If fishing is a sport your looking at an athlete
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Anthony
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 9:00am |
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nice, when I worked for the NRCS I got to see some tiles drains being put in
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JC-WI
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Posted: 10 Jun 2010 at 10:50am |
Cousin videod a farm where they had tiled it, it had mains and laterals and had gates in the system that were computor controlled. The mains were like 5 feet down and the day he was filming, they were retaining water at the 18" level from the surface through these gates. at harvest time they will drop the water table to 36" if I remember right. Only problem I could see was the fact that every one of those gate boxes were sticking out of the ground with a big red flag on top so no one would run into them. but had to go around them.
Yup, Those guys could tell how many gallons an hour were flowing thru those lines and how many acres/gallons of water were in the soil and control of gates and all the info where sent to a satelite and then down loaded at their farming headquarters.
Those fields were so level, table flat for miles.
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Eric[IL]
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Posted: 11 Jun 2010 at 12:15am |
Andrew, my twin rows are 8" spaced on 30" centers. I use a great plains planter. a normal 30" corn head will harvest twin corn just fine. You could do the same with your 36" head setup on twin 8s on 36" centers.
JC, After I pay for the tilling, I plan to install gate boxes in both mains. A computer controlled satelite download would be very useful. I will have to look into that....
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Dutchboy Johan
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Posted: 11 Jun 2010 at 5:14am |
That's a complete different way of draining then here in the Netherlands we do. Here we have equipment that you see below. You won't have to grave a deep groove but the machine has a V-plow that's lift the ground a little bit where the drain come's and put the drain directly under the soil when it's lifted.
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---> Better by Design <---
Johan Straver, Almkerk/ Netherlands
Allis-Chalmers 190XT Ser.III #26829XTD
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Dave(inMA)
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Posted: 11 Jun 2010 at 7:17am |
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Johann, thanks for the pictures of the tiling machine - love to see a video of one of those in action. We don't do tiling here in New England - way too many rocks and ledges underground, and rarely is a field flat enough. About the only area in Massachusetts suitable for tiling would be in the western part of the state where the Connecticutt River flows through the state.
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WC, CA, D14, WD45
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Dutchboy Johan
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Posted: 11 Jun 2010 at 8:27am |
Here you have a movie how most of the fields here in the Netherlands will be tiled. With this system you can go to a depth of 7F and with drainpipes of 6,5".
[TUBE]9rYSn7m6AFg&feature=related[/TUBE]
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---> Better by Design <---
Johan Straver, Almkerk/ Netherlands
Allis-Chalmers 190XT Ser.III #26829XTD
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ToddBinNY
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Posted: 12 Jun 2010 at 6:37am |
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Do you have any pictures of the planter? Does it have Yetters? How do row cleaners work on twins in corn stubble?
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redline
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Posted: 12 Jun 2010 at 8:27am |
Amazing how little that machine disturbs the surface. Here is a video of our plow we use on a limited basis here in central Iowa. I have never regretted a tile installation!
[TUBE]AQlLP_92yy8[/TUBE]
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If it weren't for the last minute, I wouldn't get anything done!
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JC-WI
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Posted: 12 Jun 2010 at 11:53am |
Redline,
What size a tile are you dropping down there? Looks like a very basic little unit.
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Calvin Schmidt
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Posted: 12 Jun 2010 at 1:43pm |
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I've tiled our whole farm in two projects. The last one was 50,000' @ 35' spacing. My local contractor rented an Allis-Chalmers HD-21 plow tractor. I'll try scan a picture of my H-3 and the HD-21 side by side. Allis crawlers were real popular to pull drainage plows in this area at one time because they had a better power to weight ratio than Cats. One contractor bought a A-C 21B and cut it in half to add 4' to the tracks and the frame. It sure looked odd with a 4' space between the cab and the hood but it could pull tile where no one else could.
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Nothing is impossible if it is properly financed
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redline
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Posted: 12 Jun 2010 at 4:40pm |
That happens to be 4 inch perforated, but this machine will work with 5 and 6 inch tile, too. It was made in Iowa by "Farm Drainage Plows" usually called a Wurdinger plow.
here is a link:
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If it weren't for the last minute, I wouldn't get anything done!
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acben20
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Posted: 12 Jun 2010 at 9:33pm |
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why didn't you do it in the spring or fall why wreck the crop that is planted and looking good?
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Calvin Schmidt
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Posted: 13 Jun 2010 at 9:31am |
This is the A-C tiling rig at our farm. The H-3 posed beside big brother and then smoothed the tile runs. 
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Nothing is impossible if it is properly financed
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JC-WI
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Posted: 13 Jun 2010 at 9:37am |
Redline, Should have also asked how deep can you go with that outfit?
Ever get stopped with not enough power or traction?
Relative in southern Mn , Hodgeman drainage co. used the biggest Stieger they could buy and put triplets on for pulling tile plow. And if need be they would hook a D8 cat out front, but that was in rare incidences. All laser controlled.
We laid 1200 feet of line one time of 6" and from discharge the tiler went through a ridge and he was at max of 9feet with a vermeer treancher. then hit two rocks and had to raise and by the time he got to the area we wanted drained, he was a foot below surface. He should have stopped and dug the rock out and then continued but it was some young fellows and time ws money and was crowding that machine for all it was worth to get out of here and onto the next job.
Never thought you could lose 8 foot difference between ridge and the lowest part of area to be drained... Still think it should only be about 4 foot or less.
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MitchB
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Posted: 13 Jun 2010 at 8:55pm |
We live in West Michigan and we put 11,000' of tile in this past spring where we're going to plant apple trees next spring. Laterals are about 40' apart. It seemed like a lot of tile, but the tile guy said the more he puts in the cheaper it gets. So we told him to keep going until it was free! Tile has always been a good investment. Mitch & Barb in Kent County, Michigan
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Eric[IL]
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Posted: 13 Jun 2010 at 10:08pm |
Dutchboy - great photos of the V plow tile machine in your country. What an interesting concept. I bet the stringing roll on the machine is very nice. I also like the track setup - very cool looking rig!
AcBen20 - I have been trying for the last 4 years to hire someone to tile my field in the off growing season but the weather conditions have been too wet so tiling contractors are backed up also. I think my crop destruct was maybe only about 10% in stead of 16%. The recent rains have helped damaged plants recover better & limit some losses. For sure, the drainage will make up some of the loss also? Since we tiled the field, we have received over 4" of rain. Today's 1.5" rain came in about 15 minutes and one of the discharge tile was running 1/3 full or 5 gal/3 seconds.
ToddBinNY - I do not have any pictures of my Twin row planter. Currently, it doesn't have any row cleaners on it, but I have plans for some Ausherman tine row cleaners for next year. I plan to have 1 row cleaner per row funneling residue away from the twins. Surprisingly, it has worked very well without row cleaners for the past 2 years, but our weather has been wetter than normal. In wet years, you do not want a row cleaner gumming up any mud under residue.
Calvin - I like your HD-21 H3 photos. What a contrast.
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