You know building a pond is on my list of things to do also....but never dreamed you could really do it with a tractor and loader....I may need to get some more info/direction from you on that in the future....I'm not looking to build one over an acre and no more than 8 feet at the deepest point...I was prepared to pay someone with a trackhoe to do it...maybe i should rethink that...do you think the 47hp R4020 has enough gumpf to do it? Maybe I could justify part of the price of the tractor by offsetting the cost of pond work...i have quotes of 8K to dig a 3/4 acre pond....pretty pricey..
New and Looking Hard at LS
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Gary Fowler
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- Jun 23, 2008
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- Bismarck Arkansas
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- 2009 Kubota RTV 900, 2009 Kubota B26 TLB & 2010 model LS P7010
If you have a boxblade to go with your tractor, you can surely build a pond yourself. You just need time and weather on your side. My BIL had a nice 160 foot x 100 x 6-12 deep pond built to conform to the Ark. Ag extension requirements for some reimbursement costs and it was $5500 for the dozer, backhoe operator costs and took about a week to build. I couldnt have built that with my tractor although digging in dirt would have been ok, but the contractor found some large rocks below grade that he had to roll out with the dozer and one even larger that he just had to dig around as it was too large even for his backhoe and dozer to move. The pond had to be minimum 6 feet below natural grade and 12 feet deep including the berm height. That would have been a lot of digging even in straight dirt without the rocks. In my pond which is less than 300 yards from his, I dug it till I hit shale which was about 4-5 feet below grade. I dont know how thick the shale is here, but I didnt want to go into it as it would have leached out the water. When I started hitting the shale, I stopped and left a few inches of clay on top. It holds water well so far. Also whenever I dumped the bucket, I would raise it up very high and let it plop down to kind of compact the dirt as it was places in the berm. I also walked up and down on the sides with the tractor as I was building it up. After I got it about the heighth I wanted, I struck off the top using the FEL bucket from each side and walked in the berm with the front wheels (that took a lot of F/R action) Then the tricky part came when I had to drive around the top with the boxblade to make it flat and wide. That was kind of scary driving around on a 8 foot high berm that at first was not even as wide as the tractor as it was still kind of peaked in the middle. After I knocked down a couple of feet off the top and spreaded the dirt to make is about 7-8 feet wide at the top, it was not so scary and I could drive around it much easier and continue to pack it down.
I do plan on getting a box blade with the tractor...no shale where I live...an occassional rock would be nice, but non-existent, ha!.. sandy soils with clays with a 1-2 feet below surface, water infiltration can be a problem as water table is not far bgs....
Gary Fowler
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2008
- Messages
- 11,917
- Location
- Bismarck Arkansas
- Tractor
- 2009 Kubota RTV 900, 2009 Kubota B26 TLB & 2010 model LS P7010
If water filtration is an issue, then you may have to put in some well points if you are going to dig very deep. Water seepage would be an issue with the tractor if it is bad as it would likely get sloppy very guickly. I got lucky with the drought here this year when building my pond as the area I put it in is usually a flowing spring year round which is why I wanted a pond there, so hopefully the spring will flow into it. So far it is still not flowing in my new pond but I did see some signs that the large pond has a little bit of spring water flowing into it. Hopefully we will get some more rain soon.
