Welcome - This is a series of photo's showing the development of a contour swale using a small size common farm tractor and a far amount of hard work. The system was
setup as a stock feed and water catchment system, water from the swale is designed to soak into the soil where it is used by the stock feed Tagasaste. Apart from pegging
out the area the whole job was completed by one person over 10-12 working days. Costs were kept down by using seconds and by doing all my own labor.

Cost break down (aud):

Fuel 60lt = $63
Equipment - beg borrow or my own = free
100kg dolomite = $35
4x 300mm x 2.4m concrete culvert pipe $75 each $100 transport = $400
100 star pickets $4.80 each = $480
caps, insulators, electric tap, = $100
3x second hand gates = $50
Grass seed = $30
Rough road base at $6 a ton = $20
Timber power poles = free

Grand total of = $1178

I wore out two pairs of gloves and had to go to the physio twice during the project.

Using a lazar level and two people the control of the land was pegged out, a very slight offset was added to one end to help move some run off
into our dams wing drains.

This is our 1970's model petrol Massey Ferguson, attached is an extra long ripper which had to be wired back so it didn't rip while the tractor was
being driven around the property, The grader blade is on a permanent loan from a good friend, it can tilt left or right and angle either direction. I would
highly recommend one for all farmers that own a tractor.
After ripping the same 1m wide area 8 times the grading started, using different angles traveling in both directions I graded 95% of the soil and clay
into the down ward bank, traveling over the bank also helped to compress the banks soil.
After the final grading the high ground was cleaned up by hand so soil would not end up falling into the swale, this was pretty hard work.
Dolomite was added to all exposed areas, Ph is 5-5.5 in the horse paddocks.
The swale which over flows into the dams wing drains, these were also re-graded to handle the extra water, this drain flows past the swale, the swale
will over flow into the drain at about 80% capacity.
Seconds (clipped) culvert pipes delivered onsite, they were placed using the tractors carry-all, I had been collecting old bricks and concrete to use
for this project, they were then back filled using quarry floor scrapings which cost $6 a ton landed.

Using a friends 300mm tractor drill, old power poles were tipped into placed with help using the tractors carry-all and some hard work. Second hand gates
were used on the three swale bridges, I used this amount to decrease horse traffic on the crossings. The swale has also been mulched with horse manure
and slashed grass taken from the catchment fire break which I upkeep. This was all raked and moved by hand. The bank also has Biochar added
to the soil and Tree lucerne or tagasaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis) was seeded into the bank as a stock feed, Rode's grass was also seeded into all
exposed areas. The water seen here was from a 10mm shower.
The dams new wing drains and connecting swale, this small area will be planted out with local native trees asap, all drains, swales and dam areas are
fenced off from livestock. the dam area is still under development.
The finished project, I just have to sit back and wait for all the grass and trees to grow.