Farmer builds his own tiler for do-it-yourself tile draining jobs

Stirling dairy farmer Shawn Donnan has constructed his own mini-tiler to do his own tile draining at what he says is half the cost of paying for someone else to do the job. The tiler looks like a gigantic and bulky pick axe attached to the back of his tractor.

"This has been available for years," said Donnan, who simply custom designed his mini-tiler by making it a little longer to go an extra foot into the ground. "But you’ve got to be comfortable with doing drainage on your own."

His mini-tiler can slice a 6 ft. deep scar into the land and at the same time lay a line of plastic drainage pipe. Donnan created his mini-tiler on the design of P.M.P Persall, operated by Brad Persall, son of the inventor, Clarence Persall. "I send people to Brad," Donnan says. "I just enjoy building stuff. I didn’t do this to take any business away from Brad."

Do-it-yourself tile drainage is best done with three guys, Donnan says. "Two can do it but to maximize your efficiency you need three."

One guy operates a tractor at one mph to pull the mini-tiler. A second guy drives a tractor that carries a large roll of drainage pipe that turns slowly to allow the pipe to be pulled down the shaft of the pick-axe. A third worker uses a back hoe to dig the main drainage line to the outlet and to dig holes to allow for connecting pipes to be attached. He also fills in the holes later on.

Donnan has been using his custom designed tiler for a year now and was asked what he would do differently if he were to plan the design again. "I’d do it the same way all over again," he said.