Surface Water Management

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When you think of your fields, the first two things that often come to your mind is Drainage and Soil Texture. Delta Ag Services offers you new methods to change how you manage your fields with a consistent and proven strategy. This is done by strategically mapping your fields to reveal the natural flow channels, watershed areas, and hills to identify dump areas and depressions that can be linked together for drainage.

Design & Drain

Take the Guess Work out of draining your fields

Delta Ag Services will accurately design your surface drainage plan and create a ready to use background map for RTK ditching. We can also submit an application and provide support for licensing with Water Stewardship.

Altitude and Flow Channels

      Altitude with Flow Channels

Altitude with Flow Channels and Depressions

Altitude with Flow Channels and Depressions

Watersheds and Flow Channels

      Watersheds with Flow Channels

-RTK Ditching

SD Drain Ditch Working Screen

with 3D Background Image

With the proper field data loaded, SD Drain will allow the user to see a 3D view of the field as you are working. This allows the user to easily identify ditch paths as well as hills and depressions in the field.

How SD Drain Ditch Works

SD Drain® Ditch receives elevation data from your RTK GPS receiver and automatically outputs signals to the hydraulics that control your scraper. An optional slope sensor allows for extra input data. The slope sensor can also be used for blade tilt control, if your equipment supports that option

Superior Functionality

  • Ideal-scraper-cut depth setting divides large cuts into manageable slices.
  • Tracks where scraper has worked and automatically steps down to next slice until final grade is reached.
  • Calculates estimated volume of ditch.
  • Save and recall ditches.
  • Save and recall benchmarks.
  • Scrape uphill or downhill.
  • Side view generated as topography pass driven.
  • Easily modify proposed design.
  • Customize look of program.

Side slope function automatically controls blade along user-defined slope that is perpendicular to ditch path eliminating ridges.

Background Map for RTK Ditching

Background Map for RTK Ditching

Georeferenced background images easily load into SD Drain. Such maps are useful to determine where your ditches will be placed and where you need to place the excess soil.

Bench Marking and Pre-planning

A benchmark is a known reference point. SD Drain allows users to save and recall RTK-GPS benchmarks. This is useful if you quit in the middle of a job at the end of the day and would like to resume your job the following day without having to resurvey the ditch you are working on.

Benchmarks also allow you to preplan all the ditches in your field so you don’t have to worry about surveying your ditches, you can just start cutting. Use a benchmark when collecting all the topography data of a specific field. Using ADMS from GK Technology, you can then pre-plan where your ditches will be. This pre-planned survey information can be imported to SD Drain. From the overhead view, you simply tap on a survey to select it and SD Drain will automatically design the Ditch with the preset parameters. You can then modify the ditch design and save it. This can all be done in the office so when you get to the field, you just recall your benchmark and start ditching.

Ditch Design Pass Lines

The first thing you do in the field is survey the ditch by driving the ditch path. As you survey, SD Drain Ditch will automatically capture elevation points to create a survey line. When the survey is completed, SD Drain Ditch will automatically generate a plan for the Ditch. This plan will consist of the ditch bottom (Grade Line), and several slices (Pass Lines). The Pass Lines correlate to the Ideal Cut Depth of your scraper. When you drive the ditch path, the scraper will automatically cut the current Pass Line until the Grade Line is reached. SD Drain will show your progress as you work the ditch.

      Edit Your Ditch Design

Before you start cutting your ditch, you have the option to change how the final ditch design will look. You can modify the ditch design by changing the minimum or maximum slope values. You can also remove points in the survey pass. As an example, if you are forced to drive around a spot on the field, you can delete those points from the survey to create a proper ditch.

     Automated Back-slope Functionality

The patented Automated Backslope Cutting Feature (U.S. Patent No. 9,885,169) will allow SD Drain to automatically cut the blackslope of your ditch. This allows the scraper blade to step up as it moves away from the center of the ditch. You can modify the parameters of the backslope to allow for a steep slope or a gradual slope. Some users will utilize this function to drain into a steep road ditch as they survey the road ditch and then backslope out to the perpendicular ditch creating a flared outlet

Copyright Delta Ag Services Ltd