Drain Tile Recommendations for a Swamped Hay Field

[emilynhc23]

Hello helpful humans,

I am looking for advice on how to install drain tile (corrugated, perforated drainage pipe) in approximately 2 acres of swamped hay field. The section of field produces hay, but we cannot get equipment on it since it is so wet. The ranch is in Colorado and there are no people in my area that typically install hay field drainage since it is a minimal problem in this region. The ranch is associated with a small construction company that can complete the work, but we just don't want to install the drainage wrong. Questions are 1) What are the benefits of using 4" pipe vs 6" pipe and vice versa? 2) How far apart from each other do the drain tile sections need to be for even drainage? 3) What is the recommended depth for drainage? - we are thinking 3ft with a slope of 2%, but that is just from internet research and no real experience. Any help or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

 

[1503-44]

Crossed hundreds of them installing gas pipelines.

You can't just install pipe in the ground without knowing quite a bit of information concerning rainfall on the field, soil characteristics, surface use and the detailed topography needed to find out what pipe configuration to use and to get the proper pipe sizes designed.

But first

Check with the Colorado Water Conservation Board to ensure that you will not run afoul of Colorado water use regulations. In some states water is more valuable than gold and the law and practices can get complicated very quickly.

https://cwcb.colorado.gov

Here you will find more on system design in this Drain Tile Design PowerPoint Presentation

https://files.engineering.com/getfi...6b1d0394ac&file=Drain_Tile_-_Drainage-PPT.pdf

Here is an online reference,
The experts for drain tile Design are in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes"
University of Minnesota

https://extension.umn.edu/agricultu...e-system#topography-and-system-layout-1367611

--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."