Irrigation trench cutter - GIF

[Altair]

Irrigation trench cutter.




Previously:

1946 hand-built trenching machine - video
Belt-driven tractor with giant trenching wheel - GIF
V-trenching excavator - GIF
WW1 German Army trench digger - photo

[Ralphxyz]

Now I want to see it irrigating, we need some water.

[Frank S]

So instead of using crescent shaped siphon tubes which can be easily moved when and where required without damaging the irrigation trench. we need a 30 ft long chain saw mounted on the back of a tractor to cut deep gouges in the berms then lay in straight tubes for the water to flow through each requiring a valve because the tubes must be left in the berm for the entire season then we need a roller to pack dirt on top of the tubes all the while we can only hope that the water does not eventually erode along the tubes and wash out the berm. yeah that really makes sense to me NOT!

[Ralphxyz]

Thanks Frank that is why I wanted to see it in actual use.

[Frank S]

Thanks Frank that is why I wanted to see it in actual use.

in my Uncles Barley and potato fields I think something like 20,000 acres under till his fields were hardly ever used more than 2 years in a row for the same crops this meant his irrigation requirements changed for every field at least every 2 years the main canals were somewhat permanent which required cleaning and maintenance every year the branch ditches changed all the time. After harvest when the following year would have a different crop or be fallowed or have a grass crop planted for hay or for grazing always meant that miles upon miles of siphon tubes had to be collected the berms dozed and the ditches filled as well as the fields with aerial spray irrigation again miles of piping had to be removed huge 8 or 10 feet diameter wheels and the connecting pipes and spray bars relocated pumps moved unless they were the ones on his several 24inch diameter 200 ft deep wells, those obviously remained in place but often needed rebuilding after a hard season. In addition to having to relocate the feeder ditches before these could be leveled the ditch liners would have to be removed cleaned and rolled up for use the next year if at all possible as they were being removed .
I don't know what he might have thought about the chain saw straight pipes with valves and the roller packer to hold them in place. it may have been a great idea to him providing he was going to reuse the field for the same type of crop for several years. There is a lot of hard work in maintaining fields to have the proper flatness and slopes away from the ditches for row crops.