Surface Land Forming

 

Land forming can remove those ponded areas in your field that just won't grow a crop.  Once relegated largely to rice paddies and furrow-irrigated areas, GPS-controlled survey land forming is being used across the world to improve land productivity. 

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Once requiring large dirt pans and deep cuts, advances in GPS technology and computer design allow us to measure and move soil across your entire field - cutting 1/2 inch here, filling 3/4 inch there, to create a smooth finish grade that will not pond with standing water.  Moving less dirt means less cost and minimal fertility and yield impact while solving one of the biggest yield-robbers in the field. 

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Tile won't do it all.  Most tile recommendations start by fixing surface drainage issues before proceeding to tile installation.  A tile system installed to a 3/8" drainage coefficient will remove a 3/8" depth of standing water each day.  If you have a 1" deep ponded area, the tile won't even drain the water down to the soil surface for over two days - at which point your crop is already lost!

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Are you in an area or soil type in which there is little existing tile?  Land forming is especially suited to those soil types which dry out from the top, are very flat and level (<1% average slope), and which have historically been surface-drained.

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Land forming costs are typically 10-20% of tile system installation costs, depending on your field characteristics.  Historically, sites were land-formed once and left for generations.  With the advent of new GPS technology, we can save your surface profile and lightly re-grade your site in the future, if required, to maintain top yield potential.

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     Services:

• GPS-controlled landforming (earthmoving)

• OptiSurface land-forming designs

• Shallow surface ditching

• Ag topographic and elevation surveys

 

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