3. The implications are enormous
A growing population…
Seeking to increase their protein intake…
From a finite land resource…
With a limited water supply…
7. FARMLAND VALUES cf. GROSS INCOME cf. DEBT
Source: Marcus Mitchell, Bonnefield Canada
8. “Chris, we can’t buy any more land near our farm. We
need to do more with the land base we have”
“Chris, we have too much at risk. We can’t afford to lose
any crop.”
“Chris, my son wants to join the farm, and we can’t
support two (or more) families on our land base. We
need to do more with what we have”
“Chris, it just makes sense to improve our existing land
base, we already have the inputs and machinery to grow
crops on that land”
15. Surface or Sub-Surface?
There’s no easy answer. Both are needed in varying degrees.
Surface drainage:
-Water source is precipitation
-Time is critical
-Infiltration rate is low
-Topography allows it
Sub-Surface drainage:
-Water source is precipitation and/or from below the surface
-Infiltration rate is higher, or ground water pressure is significant
-Salinity
-Crops, root sensitivity
17. Surface Drainage
Critical for quick removal of excess moisture
Corn roots die after 48 hrs submerged
Topo mapping essential for reducing the amount
of soil volume to be moved, ensuring best fit
drain pattern
Caution to control erosion, keep slopes to a
minimum
Machine control absolutely necessary
Routine maintenance can be overlooked
Ditching vs. Land Leveling
18. Land Leveling
Primarily used in
flood irrigation, less
commonly used as a
drainage practice.
Most common drainage
application is in a rowcrop situation where
each row can
individually drain to
an outlet.
19. Land Leveling
• Every row has an outlet for water; slope is variable but positive in
one direction
• Cross ditches sometimes needed
• More soil moved = higher cost
• More disruptive: affects soil structure, compaction,
microbial/nutrient balance
• Topsoil stripping, subsoil leveling
• Applications are rows/ridges, low crops
• Fence rows/Blow ridges
25. Tile Drainage
• Consists network of perforated tubes spaced evenly
throughout a field to allow the removal of excess water in a
soil profile.
• Free water enters the pipe and can run to an outlet.
26. Tile Drainage
• Evidence shows that ancient Egyptians used hollow bones buried
in lines to drain the Nile floodplain
• Brought to NA by John Johnston; by the mid 1800’s he had laid
over 72 miles of clay tile (by hand)
• Johnston increased his wheat yields from 12 bu/ac to 60 bu/ac
27. How does tile drainage work?
• Gravitational water, the water that runs
through a soil, escapes into the tile and runs
to the outlet
• Capillary water, the only water that a
plant can use, is left in the soil
• ANY water that runs out of a tile system
is water that would otherwise displace
oxygen, effectively drowning the roots
28.
29. How Tile Drainage Works
• Holes in a flower pot
• Sponge in a bucket:
– When lifted out of the bucket, the water that drips out is the water that
tile will remove from a soil
– After it stops dripping, the water you can squeeze out is the only water a
plant can use – anything more than that is drowning the root by displacing
oxygen
31. Benefits of Tile Drainage
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Earlier planting*
More timely field operations
Crop uniformity
Reduced risk
Improved yields
Eliminate or reduce salinity
Peace of mind
Tax advantages – 100% deductible in year of installation
Increases land value beyond installation cost
32. Basic Tile Drainage Design Concepts:
• Topography – determines layout
• Outlet – necessity that can determine feasibility
• Coefficient – how much water the system can remove in 24hr
period (influences main sizing, influenced by soils)
• Spacing – largest cost variable, strongly correlates to efficacy,
influenced by soils
• Pipe/Tile – perforated, narrow slot, filtered
• Utilities, irrigation, infrastructure
41. Tile Drainage - Environmental
Benefits
• Reduced surface runoff
• Improved soil health
• Green Benefits
42. Tile Drainage - Environmental
Benefits
• Reduced surface runoff
– Tiled land acts as a buffer to rainfall, gives water time
to percolate into a soil profile and slowly be released
to streams (Van Vlack/Norton, Mason/Rost,
Skaggs/Broadhead, Irwin/Whiteley)
• Reduced peak flows in streams (Skaggs: 89%)
• Reduced soil erosion due to overland runoff -55%
(Baker/Johnson, Hill, Loudon, Belcher/Fogiel, Skaggs)
• Reduced movement of P (48%), K (22%), and pesticides
(50%) (Gaynor/Loudon, Muir, Bastien)
44. Tile Drainage - Environmental
Benefits
• Green Benefits
– Decreased fossil fuel consumption (Madramootoo,
Wind)
– Decreased greenhouse gas production
• Less CO2 from fossil fuel burn
• Less denitrification
45.
46. Founded 2006 by Chris & Charlotte Unrau
•Diploma in Agriculture from University of Manitoba
•10 year career in Farm Management – 1500 acre
table and chipping potato operation near Carman, MB
•Included project and water management; short stint in
fruit production
•Left the farm in 2006 to pursue Water Management
business
47. Brief history of
PLS:
Operations started in April 2007:
-One tile plow, 1500 acres/yr
-One employee
-One surface drainage unit
Current Operations:
-3 Tile Crews – 6000+ acres/yr
-2 Surface Drainage Units
-5+ Subcontractors working under PLS supervision
-2 Companies- PLS and AccuPipe
-30+ Employees
51. Our Expertise
The cumulative effect of our equipment, people, and
experience.
We’ve tiled clear across Canada once and half way back
home.
That’s 25 million feet of drainage tile installed!
Thank preceding speakers.
I’m going to take some time to talk about who we are, what we do, and why we do it. Close up by talking about some environmental and sustainability issues.
Here you can see what I was faced with - a crop that was under a tremendous amount of stress but not much that I could do about it at that point
Why is it important to talk about the environmental benefits of tile drainage?
There has been increased scrutiny on all forms of drainage, especially relevant with Lake Winnipeg algae problems, downstream flooding
Important to talk about how we in agriculture are working to not only remain profitable, but do it in a way that is environmentally friendly and sustainable. KEY POINT!
I’m going to bombard you with some scientific information, but it is to make the point that water management in agriculture CAN be beneficial to the environment.
The 3 key areas where tile drainage is beneficial to the environment
Reduced peak flows - often a major concern especially in flood prone areas
We have worked hard to develop relationships with other partners.
We continue to upgrade our GPS systems and software, and we always make sure we have the most current of this kind of technology.
We also work hard at keeping our people trained and knowledgeable.
This is our machine, has performed very well for us.
Explain the process of how installation works. Tile stringer goes ahead to lay out tile. Plow installs it. Backhoe digs connections to connect laterals to mains.
Sometimes the situation dictates how we install pipe, size can dictate the necessity to use smooth wall, or depth.
