There are two common types of spillways, and the choice comes down to what you plan to do with your farm pond. Pipe is one option for a spillway, and the other is to create a natural earthen spillway. For ponds designed to water livestock or to be pumped for irrigation needs, a natural spillway is often the best bet since all you may need is a place for overflow to flow away from the pond.
Piped spillways are useful when you have a smaller pond, when the spillway needs to run through trafficked areas like roadways, or when you anticipate the need to drain the pond such as you might if you are using farm ponds to raise fish for harvest. A piped spillway requires more maintenance, and it can clog, but it can solve space constraints, and it can also be connected to a drain line at the bottom of the pond’s basin so that you can drain the pond easily.
