Joe Brewer doesn’t worry about gates over farm streams, knowing they will hold when high water comes. The floodgates are held in place by steel cable anchored with steel well stem pushed 10 ft. into the ground.

   “We’ve had water 3 to 4 ft. over the cables, and they hold the gates in place,” says Brewer.

   “We’ve used the same system for 15 years and not lost a gate to flooding. They rust out, but they don’t wash out.”

   The cable is wrapped around the top bar of steel gates. Wire ties at either end attach it to posts, but when high water comes, they snap, and the gate floats up with the rising water. When the water goes down, the gates do too, retaining cattle until the gates can again be tied up.

   “We use 5/8-in. steel cable and 15 to 16-ft., 2 7/8-in. steel pipe,” says Brewer. “We use a mini-excavator to push them into the ground until only 5 to 6 ft. are sticking out.”

   Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Brewer Family Farms, Dallas Center, Iowa 50063.