MACGREGOR, Man. – Canola on Almassippi, which is loamy, fine sandy soil in Manitoba, averaged five to 10 bushels an acre in the rainy conditions of this past summer. While some fields were not even that lucky, a few did hit the 15 bu. mark.
However, adjacent tile-drained fields on the same soil averaged 50 bu. of canola and higher.
“Our two canola fields which had been tiled gave us yields in the low 50s,” said MacGregor farmer Stan Wiebe.
“We install tile drainage for the sake of our high value potato crops, not for the grain or canola in our rotations. We absolutely must have tile for our irrigated potato operation. It’s a major risk management tool.”
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Other crops grown in rotation also benefit, he added.
Wiebe said he was surprised to discover that a field’s topography doesn’t seem to matter in extremely wet conditions.
“Once the soil is fully saturated, the high spots drown out as badly as the low spots in the non-tiled fields. In the tiled fields, we got excellent crops straight across.”
Since 1998, Wiebe has been gradually installing tile drainage on his farm. He started with 274 acres the first year. Results were so good that he tiled another 460 acres in 1999. To date, he has tiled 3,200 acres, with plans to eventually do most of his 5,200 acres. His plan proceeds at a rate of 300 to 400 acres a year.
So far, Wiebe has stayed with the tried and true conventional 50 foot spacing. He picked 50 feet in 1998 because it is common in the potato business. Producers have tried 90 and 100 foot spacing to save money, but that reduces the tiles’ ability to save a crop in extremely wet conditions.
Ontario farmers have gone as close as 20 or 30 feet with their tile lines, but Wiebe doesn’t think that is economically feasible on the Prairies. He said the 50 foot spacing is affordable and provides 100 percent protection in all but the worst years, such as 2005.
“In a typical year, 50 foot tile spacing would give us what we would term a 100 percent benefit. In an extreme wet year like this, I’d say it gave us between 80 and 90 percent benefit. You can install closer tile spacing, but you have to weigh the cost against the benefit. For us, in this area and on this land, 50 feet is the best.”
The worst fields have shown the biggest benefit, which Wiebe said only makes sense.
“The fields which had previously been low producing had the most room to improve. We have some very good fields in this area. It’s not always possible to get huge improvements from that higher quality type of land.”
He said their best fields, with higher organic matter, have a higher water holding capacity and don’t drown out plants, which means there’s not much to gain by tiling them.
Their worst fields are on sandy Almassippi soil with a solid clay barrier one to 1 1/2 metres below the surface.
“These soils can produce extremely well if you have a perfect growing season, but how often does that happen?”
He said these fields always drown out in a heavy rain. The sandy soil becomes saturated because the clay barrier below prevents water from penetrating deeper. By the time the excess water naturally drains away laterally or evaporates, the crop has been fatally damaged.
Wiebe said a living plant needs air as much as it needs water. Remove one or the other and the plant dies. When the soil becomes saturated, there is no room for air and plants subsequently die. Subsurface tile drainage allows the excess water to drain away before it kills the crop.
He said the improvement to his soil is remarkable.
“All of a sudden with the tiles, those fields are giving us yields year after year that are equal to or better than we ever got from our very best non-tiled, high-organic fields.
“It doesn’t matter what crops we put on those tiled fields now, we always gets high yields. We get better root development. The roots grow larger and deeper to access all the available water and nutrients throughout the growing season.”
Wiebe said some producers worry that a tile drainage system will turn a sandy field into a desert or remove vital moisture in a drought.
“Not true,” he said. “One of the things I’ve learned over the past eight growing seasons is that the only water moving into my tile network is what we call ‘free water.’ This is water which the soil can no longer attach to.”
Removes overload
Wiebe said that in an average year, with normal precipitation, tile drainage provides no benefit to grain or canola crops. In those years, it is only relevant to his irrigated potato crops.
The economic justification for tiles in irrigated potatoes and other high value crops is indisputable, he said. However, at a cost of $700 per acre on 50-foot row centres, the decision will require sharp pencil work for other crops.
“I think if you’ve got a high potential field that regularly floods out and gives you total crop losses due to rain, there might be an economic case to be made for tiles. If it’s a sandy field with a clay bottom and you have the potential to grow some high value crops like beans or canola or maybe grain corn, then you might be able to pencil out an economic argument for tiles.”
On the other side of the coin, Wiebe admitted that eight growing seasons using tile drains have also brought unwanted lessons.
“The number one thing I’ve learned is that tile drainage will not solve all of your problems. Our soil-borne potato diseases are still with us. Our soil has a disease called early die down. It causes the potato plant to die in late August or early September.
“We’ve invested heavily in irrigation and tile drainage, but none of that investment addresses the disease problem. It might be a challenge to keep growing potatoes on this land if we can’t find a solution to the disease problem.”
