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Illinois | Using a modern, 45K lb. dozer and starting from scratch with the tile and tile riser in place, what is the most efficient step by step process to build one of these? Assume relatively limited operator experience but not bad. What part of the dam do you push up first? How do you best work around the riser? Tips for shaping the channel, smoothing up in the end, etc. This would be on IL mixed type soils, and the structures will be farmed with 30-40' equipment. It is not a government spec job. |
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W.C. Mo. | I like to build my terraces before I install the drain tile then cut the berm where the tile runs down hill. Less chance to rip out a riser while digging the channel. I usually build the berms with a scraper so that I can cut and fill. My berms are wide based, usually 50- 60 ft or so at the base and not taller than 12" over max water height. They will not get any taller over time. Use a blade to finish. I no-till everything so usually farm right over the berm. |
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Central IL | Just start hogging dirt out of basin area pushing to the dam area. Be sure to pack as you go. Don't add more than 6" at a time to get it packed good. Just doze next to the riser it isn't hard to avoid it. How long has the tile been installed? If recent and trench isn't settled you need to settle it with water. Farmable dry dams get pretty wide in order to farm so hopefully you can dig a big enough basin to get enough dirt. Depends on the lay of the land where you are working. Should be able to just eyeball basin area when done and make sure it all drains to the riser. |
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Somerville, Indiana | +100 here on watering in the tile under the fill...Use a 4 foot schedule 40 plastic pipe or light steel, lighter the better with a valve at the top=all 2 inch...turn on water and shove the pipe down to beside the tile on each side...Spray shuttle works if can use that, hundred gallons of water usually enough, use a 2 inch Banjo pump. |
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West Central Indiana | I don't know if its "correct" but we install our tile and risers first, then build/shape around the inlet pipe. We push the topsoil back both directions where the dam is going to go. We push the topsoil back on a hill somewhere in the field and rob clay dirt from there to start shaping our dry dam. When the subsoil is within 6-8 inches of the height I want the finished dam I start pushing the topsoil back (from both sides). We get close with the dozer and put the finishing touches on with a 14' pull type box scraper. I admit I hate installing new tile, then push 1' off good dirt off of it then start pulling a loaded pan across it. I have done it like greasegun mentioned and got burned once because it rained and I didn't have the riser installed and then I had a pond to deal with, but it was poor planning on my part. |
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Mid-Missouri | What are your main reasons for watering in the tile? |
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South Central Illinois | Some 16 row corn planters can straddle the riser between the 4th and 5th rows. This allows the terraces to be built for 30' equipment. Just have to raise the planter to go over the riser. The risers would need to be installed on some multiple of 120' |
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Somerville, Indiana | when we get a thunderstorm shortly after the build, water tends to move under the tile...Sort of like two tri angles one on each side underneath the tile that doesn't get compacted at all...when that happens it takes out a square hole in the dam the same width at the machine did when it laid the tile...Hope this explains it, if not say so and will try again. |
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Central IL | Run water down trench to settle it. If you just build over a fresh trench, when it settles you will have a hole under the dam and it will wash right out. We don't use a pump we just stick a 2 inch hose down it and turn on the valve. A pump would probably be faster. You can stand there and watch it settle starting where you stick the hose in and then it just keeps going down hill. The key is getting it settled without a bunch of goo seeping out of the trench or it will squish out on you while driving above it. |
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| using a dozer you will not move dirt as far as with a scraper so most likely a lot will come from the bottom of the berm. After dirt work install riser, Things change with a few hours of operating (you might see things different) I have installed risers before and after( pluses minuses both ways). At least 15- 20 foot to riser to top. 30 -40 foot is best and berm will hold more water so less chance of overflow. It is a known fact that when you finish you will encounter a rain that will make Noah jealous you will think you miss figured pipe size, berm height, placement etc. but after you get tillth , organic matter , residue it may only happen once every few years with no damage, Instal slotted pipe as it will take seep water from the draw. Where the pipe dumps into ditch or creek use dual wall or pvc and pack in well. this is a problem place as discharge pipe can float up . The best place to start placing the first dam is where the first signs of a small ditch starts, This spot may have to move up grade if there is no way to hold that much water then instal two dams and risers. 6 inch will be sufficant most places but you are buying pipe size or moving dirt. 6 inch two small dams verses, 8inch one , cost usually favers more dams or higher larger dams. |
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Northeast ks | We call them tile terraces, here. Lots of them have been put in place of waterways, so you can farm the whole area. Normally, the tile and risers are put in first. Then, you would put flags every 50 or 100 ft from the riser needing about .4 ft fall for every 100 ft (NRCS will put the flags out and give specs here). After the flags are in place, I make a furrow with the dozer where the terrace channel will be. Then to make the terrace itself, you just push the dirt downhill, might have to make multiple pushes. |
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East central Indiana | We do it like riverbottom only well install tile but not inlet. Well get dam done then dig up and install inlet and backfill Around the inlet stone |
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Mid-Missouri | That is exactly what I thought, but have never seen it done around here.
We typically install water inlets right before doing the terrace building. I find it easier but if a dirt scraper is being used, it needs to be careful to stay off of shallow trenches to prevent from collapsing the tile. If the inlets are installed first, and are likely installed in the low places of the field where water naturally runs to, make sure to get part of the terrace built here around the inlet before a rain. without the terrace to hold water and force it down the new inlet, water will just run down the low area of the field, and down the new tile trench, making a big mess.
Dirt naturally likes to go down hill. I try my hardest to recover this dirt when building terraces and bring it back up the hill with a scraper.
When building the terraces with a dozer, I like to take cuts with about 1/3 of the dozer blade width if it can push that much and achieve the proper grade in that push. Back up, move over, and do it again. Another option is push with the full width of the dozer blade, making about 3 passes within that width, and then move over and start again. When done pushing dirt for the terrace, run parallel to the terrace and strike down all of the loose dirt, high and low spots, etc..
There are probably youtube videos of how-to for terrace and tile building. |
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Mid-Missouri | Here are a few pics of our "spoon" we sometimes use on our Deere 200 for laying pipe.
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 IMAG4605.jpg (90KB - 288 downloads)
IMAG4604.jpg (124KB - 282 downloads)
IMAG5121.jpg (517KB - 287 downloads)
IMAG5122.jpg (440KB - 267 downloads)
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Illinois | Thanks for all the great pointers. I probably have no less than 500 dry dams that we farm, but they have all been professionally built by contractors. This is my first go at doing a job myself, and I want to learn and do it efficiently and cost effectively. Some contractors build them to specs that make the most money for them and some build them so they can be farmed right with big equipment. A peaked dam with 15' between the riser and the peak falls in the former category!
Regarding watering in the tile, these inlets are offset from the main line, so I assume that would help prevent blow outs in the dam -- maybe not completely, but helps? |
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Auxvasse, MO | I scape off the topsoil and pile it to be spread back over the terrace to get back to production faster. |
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Liberty, MO | I like to fill trench before starting terrace construction, then where the trencher went under the terrace to be built, I like to core that area crossways to ditch 3 ft deep, tile is always 4.5-5 ft deep, carefully not to cross tile trench with dozer then refill cored area and start terrace building, in doing it this way IMHO it helps pack soil under the terrace, preventing a "blowout" but watering is always a good idea.
I always like to see the top soil pushed uphill before starting the serious dirt work too. This is the way I was taught by some of the best dirt pushers I know. |
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What's the correct process for building a dry dam or terrace?
