When you add up the cost of Seed, Fertilizer, Fuel and any cash rent…you know it’s not cost-effective to be replanting or not planting at all after a drowned field. Pattern tiling your fields will not only increase your yields 15% or More, you’ll be in your field on average 7-10 days sooner!
How will tiling benefit you?
Crops require specific soil moisture conditions and do not grow well in wet, “mucky” soil. Roots will not grow much deeper than the water table. Early in the growing season when water is in ample supply, plants are small and don’t require much water. During this time, the plants do not need to develop their roots to “reach” for the water. As the plants grow and use more water during the growing season, water becomes scarce. During this time, the water table starts to fall. Plants suddenly need to start developing roots to reach to the water.
During dry times, the water table can fall faster than the plants can develop roots to “reach” for the water. This can seriously stress the plants.
So by adding drain tile to a field, the water table is effectively lowered early in the season which allows plants to properly develop their root system enabling the plant to reach water later in the drier season.
The lack of water saturation allows oxygen to exist in the soil around the roots. Drain tile prevents the roots from being under the water table during wet periods that could cause excessive plant stress. By removing excess water, crops use the water more effectively.
An increase in crop yield can be easily summarized by the following: Simply by forcing the plants to have more developed roots by lowering the water table, the plants can more effectively absorb appropriate nutrients and water. The same principle is employed by containers that hold houseplants: they have drain holes in the bottom to allow oxygen to the roots and prevent soil saturation. By placing drain tile under a field in a grid style layout, the same effect can be achieved on a several hundred acre field.
You can never over-tile a farm but with our experienced Drainage Engineers we can design the most profitable return on your investment.
Here are some top reasons to invest in tile on your entire farm:
- Warms up the Spring soil faster
- Allows you to work/plant field earlier
- Significantly improves root structure
- Greatly reduce drowned outs & replanting
- Reduces erosion
- Minimizes field compaction
- Significantly higher yields in all weather conditions:
- In wet years, it helps to keep plants from drowning
- In dry years it enables the plants to develop a strong root structure during the long, dry summers.
- With heavy rain and saturation, it allows you to get back in the field 7-10 days ahead of the rest.
- A properly tiled farm might be the only thing that allows you to get your field planted on a wet spring.