Swales in a wet climate

Swales can be a lot of work or expensive to excavate if you don't have your own machine. I have a wet lot and get plenty of rain. Is there a good reason to put swales in or do I just dig small irrigation trenches to redirect the water flow?

If your site is wet I'd imagine that raised beds would help to control the moisture for your plantings. If you're digging swales you'll have to put that dirt somewhere, so I think with each swale you should have a companion raised bed.

Then every shovel full of dirt helps build 2 things for you at once.

More generally though, if it's too wet I'd imagine redirecting water with your swales is a great idea, just gotta ask yourself where do you want the water to go? I work in land development design and one of the rules we use is to not increase or decrease the amount of water leaving your property and entering another.