Capturing spring water
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Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
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URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=200572
Printed Date: 08 May 2024 at 11:47am
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Topic: Capturing spring water
Posted By: Macon Rounds
Subject: Capturing spring water
Date Posted: 27 Mar 2024 at 7:10pm
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Here is my attempt to capture spring watter..... Spring development/water trough are not in place yet.... Any ideas on better capture techniques or on the trough itself please share... I have two more valleys to do similar. Photos or diagrams please.... FYI: I have several spring outcroppings in this long valley but as summer goes along all but the bottom one dries up. That is the reason for the daisy chain piping....     ------------- The Allis "D" Series Tractors, Gravely Walk behind Tractors, Cowboy Action Shooting !!!!!!! And Checkmate |
Replies:
Posted By: Macon Rounds
Date Posted: 27 Mar 2024 at 7:12pm
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I made concrete dams bellow the spring outcroppings. Perforated pipe above the dam with gravel then plastic dirt shield over that prior to covering with dirt. Solid pipe out the bottom of the dam .... ------------- The Allis "D" Series Tractors, Gravely Walk behind Tractors, Cowboy Action Shooting !!!!!!! And Checkmate |
Posted By: Ray54
Date Posted: 28 Mar 2024 at 11:30am
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Redwood planks were the way it us to be done. There are springs still functioning with old growth redwood planks over 100 years old. The current redwood is priced out of the market, and the wood is not the quality anymore ether. The last one we improved on the ranch we used concrete block. Other have used concrete culvert pipe. Some used perforated pipe like used for drain tile. The perforated pipe more were there is a large wet area not a real source of where the water comes from. A good size trench and a lot of course rock.
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Posted By: AC7060IL
Date Posted: 28 Mar 2024 at 1:05pm
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Hi Macon Rounds. Great projects. Love your photos of PA greening up in the springtime ~ Thanks for sharing. Imagine your PA soils have enough stone/quartzs aggregates to suffice a perforated field tile be buried into it & allow water movement to tile?? So additional aggregate may not be necessary? If so, then maybe trench in a continuous 4" perforated field tile thru the entire length of each valley? Dry dam a lower large basin area near the base of the valley that your perforated tile exits into. Size basin for total acres of water shed especially for excessively large rains. That way most surface rain & tile water becomes trapped inside basin. If your cattle need a watering hole, the basin will provide that. Then add an adjustable height riser drain & solid drain pipe exiting from the riser under the dry dam. Also contour the dam for an emergency overflow on either side of dam. Then get everything (all tiled valley, basin, & dam) seeded to a hay crop, pasture, or fescue/rye grass so any erosion is minimized. As sediments fills in basin, raise the riser drain. Before basin sediment fills to it's dam height, get in there in the dry season with a dirt scraper & earth move sediment to other needed areas. Not a fix it & forget it thing. But very manageable. |
Posted By: Macon Rounds
Date Posted: 28 Mar 2024 at 2:57pm
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Thanks for the advice. Our ground is corky. As we dig a ditch you find many different soil types in a valley.... We drained one area that had an abundance of water about 100 yards from the house... From the water outcroping We ran 4" perforated drain pipe in gravel about 300 yards to a drain culvert by the county road. All thr water gets absorbed by the dirt and no water comes out the pipe. That area below the water outcroping use to be unusable now it's farmable. ------------- The Allis "D" Series Tractors, Gravely Walk behind Tractors, Cowboy Action Shooting !!!!!!! And Checkmate |
Posted By: AC7060IL
Date Posted: 29 Mar 2024 at 8:06am
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Ok. Thanks for your explanation. That would be so frustrating? So I quickly researched some of your PA Alfisol/Utilsol soils. One note stuck out to me ~ “Their greater proportions of clay-sized particles improves water retention, and their greater alkalinity is a boost to many crops.” Is that what you mean by “corky”? If so, then yes clay’s particle charge binds h2o molecules to it. Thats one of many reasons it’s more challenging to farm crop heavy clay soils. Now I have a better appreciation as to why you’re using solid drain pipe. |
Posted By: Dennis J OPKs
Date Posted: 30 Mar 2024 at 9:42am
| Brings back memories. Dad had a small dairy operation in eastern NE and his only water source for dairy cows was a spring for many years. When everyone was forced to "Grade A" milk he finally had to install a heated waterer for the cows. The spring continued to supplement the waterer. His last version was a ground level concrete water trough which was at the center of a V shaped coffer dam to funnel the water to the trough. That spring would flow a 2 1/2-to-3-inch stream 365 and never really froze over. Biggest problem he had was crawdads burrowing in and around the concrete causing problems. That spring flowed out of a hill & flowed maybe 1/8 of a mile before emptying into a larger creek. |
Posted By: Macon Rounds
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2024 at 10:10am
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Some of the areas with springs I am just trying to dry up for farming.... that seems to be an easy task with perforated pipe in gravel. However The photos above are of one of the areas I am trying to capture the water.... If I used perforated pipe and gravel for the entire run , some water would migrate into the pipe and some areas it would filter out of the pipe. Leave less water at the pipe exit.. ------------- The Allis "D" Series Tractors, Gravely Walk behind Tractors, Cowboy Action Shooting !!!!!!! And Checkmate |
Posted By: Lars(wi)
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2024 at 11:30am
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I would think yes, possibilities of some(maybe all) of the water may seep out of perforated pipe before reaching the end. Is your plan to have the piping buried deep enough so you can ‘farm’ over the top of the pipe? Or is your goal to have a drier ‘grass waterway’ to travel over? ------------- I tried to follow the science, but it was not there. I then followed the money, and that’s where I found the science. |
Posted By: Macon Rounds
Date Posted: 31 Mar 2024 at 6:42pm
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Like I mentioned above. Some areas I have drained are for farming purposes. Photos above above are for the purposes of capturing water.... ------------- The Allis "D" Series Tractors, Gravely Walk behind Tractors, Cowboy Action Shooting !!!!!!! And Checkmate |
Posted By: Lars(wi)
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2024 at 8:14am
I gotcha on that, of the pics posted, that particular spring, what will the captured water be used for? Cattle drinking? Domestic use? Captured to just get it out of the way? I know working around springs can be a royal pita,lol. I applaud your efforts and ingenuity. The pic you posted, if that was the topography where I grew up, no way would that be ‘cropland’, it would be permanent pasture. ------------- I tried to follow the science, but it was not there. I then followed the money, and that’s where I found the science. |
Macon Rounds wrote:Posted By: DMiller
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2024 at 8:38am
Could one use Cypress? Is as rot resistant as Redwood as for use in Wet Environment, Used a lot in Tanks for different industries.
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Posted By: DMiller
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2024 at 8:41am
| We have two springs aside each other in a rock outcrop along a creek bank. Flow all year as well just added a deep well for stock waterer, it came in Artesian and had to include a drain to the creek past the Well. |