Land Drainage

A well designed drainage system is only as good as its outfall, loose this and the benefits of your scheme will be lost, so you need to make sure your ditches and water courses are in good order before you attempt anything else.

Machinery has progressed in the past few years so we now use laser and GPS guided equipment.

Being in the South West most schemes require porous back fill, which on its own has advantages. It keeps the area immediately around the pipe open making them less likely to silt. It increases the surface area, which makes the drains more efficient and it provides you with a connection for any subsoiling or cross moling that might be carried out.

Drainage is proven to increase yields and has a track record stretching back thousands of years. Good design minimises costs and with so many different ways of draining, time spent on design is not wasted. No one in our society can ignore the environment, rather than viewing it as a hindrance, land drainage should be seen as an opportunity.

Drains are a valuable asset and should be treated as such. They should be carefully maintained and outlets checked regularly. Drains can last for generations, but eventually they will need to be replaced. If yields are to be preserved, let alone increased, you must give consideration for a long term replacement land drainage scheme.

Land drains, buried a metre below the ground, working twenty four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year, are perhaps the hardest working but least thought about piece of rural equipment in the UK. Perhaps it is understandable that drains are often forgotten, once the field has been cultivated nearly all signs of the investment disappear, as drainage tends to prevent problems before they occur, it will always be easy to overlook.

What should not be ignored are the benefits well drained ground can give to those who work the land. For thousands of years people have drained land to increase yield and to make farming easier and more profitable. Almost everything in farming starts with the soil and good drainage is the foundation of good soil. It is, quite simply, impossible to farm profitably on sodden fields.

Therefore I believe that land drainage must play a vital part in farming’s future – “Drain the field to increase your yield”.

If you require experienced land drainage contractors in Yeovil, Wincanton, Dorchester, Chard, Taunton, Bridgwater, Bristol & Bath, then contact SPS for a free assessment and land drainage proposal.