“Don’t call me an expert – this is just the way I do things”

Putting in Tile Drainage

By Todd Stanley

I farm around Grygla, Minn. with my wife Debra and my parents, Arnold and Ida Stanley. We raise wheat, soybeans, canola, barley, and perennial ryegrass.

For as far back as I can remember, excess water has been the major impediment to crop production in this area. Occasionally it is too dry, too hot, too cold, or too something for us to worry and complain about, but too wet is the most common. Economically, over my career, we have lost way more income to excess water than any other acts of nature or poor prices.

There is nothing that drags me down like watching a whole year’s work wilt or die in about four or five days. I am at my absolute lowest when the combine is stuck and I am dragging a chain that is full of mud and weighs five times its normal weight, while worrying that we might wreck something in the process of getting it unstuck.

In 1998, after years of installing and cleaning surface drainage systems with limited results, we began to explore going one more step with subsurface tile drainage. The conventional wisdom was that it wouldn’t work in this area because the subsoils are too tight and would not allow water to flow down into the tile.

After consulting with farmers and a contractor from other areas who had experience with tile drainage, we decided to have the contractor install pattern tile on 80 acres in the spring of 1999. We didn’t have water problems that summer, but that fall it got wet after harvest. It was amazing to see how fast that field dried up after each rain and how mellow the soil stayed. I was becoming more interested.

That winter I studied and talked to people in an effort to learn everything I could about the effectiveness and the effects of tile drainage. We attended an excellent three day school on tiling that the University of Minnesota puts on each year. We began to learn how tile drainage works and how to design a system. I became committed to the idea of tiling our farm.

The decision whether to have the tile professionally installed or to tool up to install it ourselves was not easy. It takes a minimum of three and up to five people to keep the machinery working. We decided to do our own because we were fortunate to have enough management and skilled labor to have another operation. If you do not have the resources, or don’t like to manage a crew, I would caution against tooling up to install your own tile. Also, the learning curve can be very steep depending on what obstacles you run into (ie. buried rock or grub piles, hard pan, mud, etc.). 

We did not know and still don’t fully know the economics of tiling, but we are very comfortable with how well it works and how it simplifies the struggle of timely operations. We have tiled over 4,300 acres that we farm and about 1,200 acres for my brothers and a neighbor.

Immediate results
Installing tile usually provides instant gratification as it starts flowing immediately. We don’t gain as much time in the spring as I thought we would, however, because the fields still won’t be fit to seed until the frost goes out. Tile drainage does not solve all water woes either.  If you don’t have good surface drainage, the water will not soak in fast enough to prevent crop damage in areas of ponding. And in seasons like the spring and fall of 2004 when it rained every day, our farm was paralyzed along with everyone else. But, as soon as the weather relented it only took four days to be back in the tiled fields.

We do our own engineering. If we were tiling land that we did not know, the lay of it would be helpful to have topographic mapping done to get the system properly laid out. 

Our systems are designed for a 3/8 inch coefficient of drainage. In theory, that means that up to 3/8 inch of water can be drained from each tiled acre through the system each day. We do not use surface intakes. Some of our land will drain into the outlet by gravity, but most of it needs a lift station to put the water into the outlet. Most of our tile is spaced between 75 and 120 feet at 3.5 to 6 feet deep. We GPS map all the lines in case we need to find them later, and also to show the system in the event we want to sell the land.

We have tiled some rented land under a variety of arrangements. We have negotiated for 10-year leases to give us time to recover our investment. I think this will be good for both landlord and tenant. We will get the increased production and decreased expense for 10 years, and the landlord will gain the tile drainage system to increase the rental income or the selling price of the land after the lease is expired.

I know some of our counterparts downstream in the drainage system are worried about increased flooding from the tile drainage. Runoff into the drainage system is equal to rainfall minus crop use. My perception is that if by tiling the land you improve the crop. It will use more water, thereby reducing the amount remaining for runoff. Also by lowering the ground water table, more water is allowed to soak in which results in a lower peak runoff and an extended period of outflow from the tile.

You can tell by now that I’m really into tiling (some would even say a bit obsessed). I like the increased control over what we are going to do on the land and when. Field operations become much more systematic.

Not everyone needs tile drainage but it’s worth looking into if you’re in an area like me with drainage problems. If you are curious about tile drainage and how it would work on your farm, there are any number of resources to begin educating yourself.  One web site with a link to drainage info is www.smallgrains.org (under the category Production and Research Info, click on the link “Tile drainage Info for Minnesota Farmers.”)  The U of M tile drainage seminar held each year provides an excellent understanding of the principles, design criteria, and legalities of tile drainage.

If you get ready to take the next step, contact a reputable contractor and have a 40 or 80-acre field tiled to test it for yourself. I know it is an expensive experiment, but until you try it on your farm you will never know if it works for you or not. After you take these steps, you will have a better feeling if you want to pursue tile drainage on more acres.  

If you’re a producer (or if you know of a producer) with a Northern Plains perspective on a particular crop production topic – whether it be producing no-till, growing a certain crop, using precision ag techniques, weed/disease control, boosting crop yield/quality or selling grain – we’d love to hear from you. Contact Tracy Sayler, tsayler@prairieagcomm.com or ph 701-347-5930.

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Feb. U of M ag drainage workshops in Crookston, Moohead

Subsurface tile drainage, planning, and design will be among a wide variety of ag drainage topics discussed in workshops Feb 22, Moorhead Area Conference Center, Courtyard by Marriott, Feb. 23-24 at the Northland Inn in Crookston, and March 1-3 at the Best Western Hotel in North Mankato.

Registration forms and program agenda will be available in January at the U of M Drainage Outlet Web site, http://d-outlet.coafes.umn.edu . For more information on the programs contact U of M extension engineer Jerry Wright, WCROC-Morris at (320) 589-1711, jwright@umn.edu ; or Gary Sands, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department in St Paul at grsands@umn.edu (612) 625-4756.