After years of coping with drowned out crops, farmers in Manitoba and North Dakota are investing in drainage tile to manage the water on their land.
However, another factor is also propelling the tile installation boom: skyrocketing land prices and the lack of available land in the Red River Valley.
“Instead of going out and purchasing land, we decided to improve what we already have. We decided it’s cheaper to try and improve it,” said Scott Gauslow, a soybean grower near Colfax, North Dakota, who tiled a quarter section of his cropland last fall.
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The story is similar north of the border, said Chris Unrau, owner of Precision Land Solutions, a tile drainage company in Winkler, Man.
“Somehow or another, they need to get more out of their farm,” said Unrau, who this month opened a new business in Winkler that will manufacture HDPE tubing, the plastic pipe commonly known as drainage tile.
Unrau had primarily placed the perforated pipe under high value potato land in Manitoba. But nowadays, there is also growing demand from oilseed and corn producers.
“The whole thing in Manitoba has been driven by potatoes, but it is starting to transition,” he said.
“We’ve got some guys who are on a program of tiling 40, 80 or 160 acres per year…. Guys are seeing they can get that 20 to 25 percent yield boost by tiling land.”
With land prices increasing by 10 to 20 percent a year in North Dakota, Gauslow decided it was more economical to invest in his existing land base rather than expand. Tiling typically costs $400 to $700 an acre, which is substantially cheaper than buying an acre of land in North Dakota’s Red River Valley.
“There is land that was selling 10 years ago for $2,000 (an acre). Now it’s over $5,000,” said Gauslow, vice-president of the North Dakota Soybean Council.
Demand for tile and companies that install the perforated pipe is outstripping supply. Gauslow had to book a contractor a year in advance to get tile under a quarter section of his land last fall.
Since then, new contractors and pipe manufacturers have entered the business to satisfy demand in the state.
Gauslow plans to install more tile because he’s already seeing the benefits from his first 160 acres.
A couple of storms dumped 50 millimetres of rain on his farm this spring, and the tiled cropland is managing the water more effectively.
“There’s no doubt about it, we see an advantage to it,” he said. “It allows the water to be absorbed a bit faster. It lowers the water table.”
It’s mostly producers with clay soil in the Red River Valley who are installing tile in North Dakota. However, most of the tile in Manitoba is going under lighter soil and potato land outside of the valley.
“I have a map of all the land that we’ve tiled and it’s pretty much a straight line, all along the western edge of the Red River Valley,” said Unrau.
