Drainage contractors in your area

[ste stuart]

Was talking to a mate of mine the other day who's a land drainage contractor, I've grown up in land drainage with that being my dads trade. I did work with dad for a bit but currently have a small groundworks business away from ag. My mate is always saying I should be in the drainage job as I'd enjoy it more than messing about round houses. There's no denying the lads right in a lot of respects, but my argument is that in our area (west lancashire) most of the land is drained, there's very few decent sized draining jobs done anymore, obviously farm incomes have an effect on that but fact is, round here there's drains, even if very old, in every field. So most work is maintenance/repairs/odd small patches of new drains. The other thing is competition, around me within about a 10 mile radius I can think of 6 proper drainage contractors with trenchers, jetters etc chasing what I'd consider less and less work. Now I know most, dad included will be traveling a bit to stay in work but that does kind of make my point in some ways.
So I'm just wondering what it's like in other areas, is there areas where there are no contractors? Is there places that would benefit from drainage but there's no one to do it? Are farmers doing it themselves? What do you do on your farm?

Ste

 

[Dry Rot]

Currently looking for a contractor to clean mostly weed growth from about 1,000m of open ditch. I've had two contractors looking at it and I think one will give me a price, but I am also considering trying for a ticketted driver and hiring the machine which opens it up to very much larger area. So that's more competition for you.

 

[teslacoils]

So I'm just wondering what it's like in other areas, is there areas where there are no contractors? Is there places that would benefit from drainage but there's no one to do it? Are farmers doing it themselves? What do you do on your farm?

Ste

Many old systems would benefit from either an update, or where runs go straight into a ditch, redraining in-between. But.....no money. Uncertainty about longevity of arable production. And ........ "they" don't like land drains. Not joking.

 

[Steevo]

Money/profitability of arable is your main issue.

I would say a fraction of UK land is properly/effectively drained.

One contractor local to here. Another in each neighbouring county.

£1500+ an acre is hard to find initially and hard to budget on earning back.

Even harder now stone is going up in price due to construction boom.

 

[KB6930]

We get contractors to do big schemes at the moment. Any patches I sort myself with 3cx usually hire an 8 ton machine for a week in the winter and clean a ditch or 2 but will likely end up with a 8 or 13 ton of our own and do it all ourselves. Biggest problem with contractors is there's a few to choose from but not many decent ones and the good ones are busy and very expensive

 

[Steevo]

We get contractors to do big schemes at the moment. Any patches I sort myself with 3cx usually hire an 8 ton machine for a week in the winter and clean a ditch or 2 but will likely end up with a 8 or 13 ton of our own and do it all ourselves. Biggest problem with contractors is there's a few to choose from but not many decent ones and the good ones are busy and very expensive

Plenty have better paying alternative services they offer too.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Dont see much drainage around here now, in the 70ts everyone was at it ,

 

[Dry Rot]

There used to be big grants for drainage. That would have been in the '70s. I was involved with a big estate up here. There were 50% grants at the time. A contractor offered to drain the whole estate for free. He'd take the 50% grant, then give the estate a 50% discount....but I expect you could smell that one from where you are reading this! He didn't get the job.

 

[Hawkes]

I can't find one in Devon at all. Plenty of people with diggers, we have a swing shovel ourselves, but an experienced land drainage contractor with all the gear and knowledge seems very rare in the SW? Anyone know one?

 

[Brisel]

I can't find one in Devon at all. Plenty of people with diggers, we have a swing shovel ourselves, but an experienced land drainage contractor with all the gear and knowledge seems very rare in the SW? Anyone know one?

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[Hawkes]

Thanks for the link Brisel , I have looked there before and none listed for Devon, Cornwall or Somerset . Not enough work on a large scale down here I suppose.

 

[Will7]

Money/profitability of arable is your main issue.

I would say a fraction of UK land is properly/effectively drained.

One contractor local to here. Another in each neighbouring county.

£1500+ an acre is hard to find initially and hard to budget on earning back.

Even harder now stone is going up in price due to construction boom.

Your price is well out on any sort of sensible scheme. I have just had 150acres done on a budgeted 8yr payback. This was all every chain and stoned to within 350mm of the surface.

I did 450 acres (the farm is 900 acres) 6 yrs ago at every 2 chain putting stone over all the pipe but only within 350mm in the lows. My WHOLE farm average wheat yield in this period has risen by 1.2t/ha.

It is well worth doing imho

 

[Dry Rot]

Thanks for the link Brisel , I have looked there before and none listed for Devon, Cornwall or Somerset . Not enough work on a large scale down here I suppose.

Dont worry about it, none in Scotland either! Perhaps there's a national strike and, being farmers, we never realised?

 

[Lazy Eric]

Your price is well out on any sort of sensible scheme. I have just had 150acres done on a budgeted 8yr payback. This was all every chain and stoned to within 350mm of the surface.

I did 450 acres (the farm is 900 acres) 6 yrs ago at every 2 chain putting stone over all the pipe but only within 350mm in the lows. My WHOLE farm average wheat yield in this period has risen by 1.2t/ha.

It is well worth doing imho

Are you a lottery winner?!!! Seriously good on you, would do the same if could afford it.
Drainage is paramount, makes so much difference.

 

[Steevo]

Your price is well out on any sort of sensible scheme. I have just had 150acres done on a budgeted 8yr payback. This was all every chain and stoned to within 350mm of the surface.

I did 450 acres (the farm is 900 acres) 6 yrs ago at every 2 chain putting stone over all the pipe but only within 350mm in the lows. My WHOLE farm average wheat yield in this period has risen by 1.2t/ha.

It is well worth doing imho

Wow, that's a fair size job you've had done there!! Impressive to think you've managed to add approx 1t/ac to wheat yields too. What sort of price is drainage with you? I had three quotes a year ago and they were all approx £1500/ac mark for around 15ac. I was under the impression the stone was the most costly part, so even if you did increase the size of the job, the materials aren't where you can make savings.

 

[Brisel]

You can use cockle shells instead of pea gravel, but they do degrade over time. Half the price of gravel when we did some.

 

[Will7]

Are you a lottery winner?!!! Seriously good on you, would do the same if could afford it.
Drainage is paramount, makes so much difference.

No, my farm is a business and I invest/borrow in what I believe will give me a return.

 

[Steevo]

Your price is well out on any sort of sensible scheme. I have just had 150acres done on a budgeted 8yr payback. This was all every chain and stoned to within 350mm of the surface.

No, my farm is a business and I invest/borrow in what I believe will give me a return.

What sort of price is drainage with you please?

 

[jimbo69]

Dont worry about it, none in Scotland either! Perhaps there's a national strike and, being farmers, we never realised?

Where are you based? My old boss does a fair bit of ag drainage work, he’s based near Elgin but travels a fair bit I think.

 

[teslacoils]

At 8yr payback it's worth doing. I'm looking at doing 60ac by running new drains between old ones.