Why would a farmer bother to design a new ditcher from scratch, considering the wide variety of options already on the market?
For Jeff Penner, it was all about speed.
“Speed and the fact that I wanted to move as little dirt as possible and still have good drainage,” says Penner, a farmer from Swan River, Man., who invented and manufactures the V-Wing 3200HD Ditcher.
He said his corner of the province is not predominantly zero till, so there’s a lot of fall fieldwork.
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“We generally end up with only a week or so for our fall drainage work.”
Penner said fall drainage used to be frustrating because he would work long days right up until the ground is frozen but never get all the existing drains cleaned out or new ones built.
“I wanted a ditcher that was fast. Four to five m.p.h.,” he said.
“I wanted nice gradual ditches that we could farm right through without destroying our seeders and sprayers and combines. And I wanted wide ditches so the water would flow slower. A deep ditch with steep sides causes soil erosion because the water moves too fast.”
Penner also said conventional scrapers are too narrow, resulting in the outside tractor wheels running on the ridge and spinning.
“A lot of guys don’t want to pull a scraper with their own tractors because they worry about wrecking their wheels. So we had to solve that problem by making a wider ditcher. Our machine is 32 feet wide. It makes a smooth flat ditch that won’t wreck your tractor wheels.”
He said many people who see the machine for the first time think that a ditcher is bound to create earthen dikes at the edges that hold water back and act like a speed bump for the tractor.
“No. Our blades don’t work that way. They work more like grader blades. They’re hydraulically controlled to work in all kinds of different directions and angles,” he said.
“You can go all left, all right, V-plow or any combination in between. “That way you keep grading it out, feathering it out to keep a smooth edge.”
Penner is designing and installing side gates so the ditcher can serve the same purpose as a scraper. This will give operators the option of hauling 35 cubic yards of soil per trip for major terrain changes such as filling potholes.
Penner and a crew of 30 managed to finish the prototype just one week before the Farm Progress Show in Regina.
He did the design and engineering the old fashioned way, on paper, and then handed the project over to a professional engineer who transferred the design to CAD and made changes to improve the structural integrity.
Penner did 15,000 demonstration acres in just three weeks without a breakdown.
“The machine works the way I intended. It makes consistently broad, shallow drains. It’ll be easy to seed and spray and combine right through without busting up equipment.”
He hasn’t ignored digital control of the V-Wing Ditcher, adding that RTK is essential. He now has a New Holland tractor hitched to the ditcher, but he has tried different brands to compare their GPS technology.
“None of these systems have ever controlled a ditcher like this, mainly because there’s never been a ditcher like this. So I’ve had to work with the software. John Deere has their own private system. In fact all these system have their own parameters. I’ve found that the Trimble Autograde automatically controls up and down. It doesn’t move any more dirt than necessary.”
Penner said investing in large drainage machinery and software is not a big gamble. He thinks better drainage can result in a major economic boost.
“With better drainage, I think we can raise the average yield across the Prairies by five bushels per acre. Then take five bu. and multiply by $5 per bushel. You end up with something like $1.2 billion per year. And that’s why government is interested in better drainage.
“Farmers think government is anti-drainage. My experience is just the opposite. They want improved drainage for economic reasons but only if it’s in accordance with environmental considerations.”
The V-Wing Ditcher is 32 feet wide and weighs a little more than 30,000 pounds. There are no hydraulic motors, so hydraulic demand on the cylinders is relatively small.
The first units will be available next spring.
For more information, contact Penner at 204-734-0303 or watch the V-Wing Ditcher bigger, badder, faster video on YouTube.
