The Rural Voice, 1980-08, Page 14Crops on well drained land have a better chance of survival.
But a farmer must look at tiling In economic terms.
Tiling
the /and
BY LAURA BRUMMOND
Banks have money for it. Government gives low interest loans
on it. Farmers believe in it.
Tile. Clay or plastic, the farmers are using it more than ever
before.
Hank Bellman, agriculture Engineer, Ministry of Agriculture
and Food, Walkerton, says if you're dealing with potentially
good agricultural land, then tile is the answer. He adds,
"Conservation means making the best use of our resources.
Certainly the tiling of land means the farmer is practicing
conservation."
Often, however, the farmer looks at tiling in economic terms.
With such high land prices, farmers must pay off the land with
intense cropping. Tile enables him to do just that. But at the
same time he practices conservation with an eye to the future.
Farmers tile so they can plant earlier and get increased
yields. But there are other advantages. In cases of drought or
slight drought, crops on well drained land have better chances of
survival. Bellman explains that if you have wet land at the
beginning of a plant's life, it doesn't encourage deep roots.
Plants develop deeper roots in well drained soil. They can reach
moisture better in a dry period.
There are three kinds of water in soil; water moving up, water
moving down, and stationary water. Water that moves up is not
affected by the tile, according to Bellman. And water below the
tile is not affected by the tile either.
Tile does not rob the plant of water. Tile water is "free or
gravitational" which the plant cannot use. The water which the
plants do use is on the soil particles.
When water is sitting on top of the ground, this is called the
water table level. For plants to thrive, the water table level must
be two to four feet below ground level. Tile provides this level.
Tile draining has another very important advantage. It saves
topsoil. Instead of excess water on top of the ground washing
away and eroding soil, the water is soaked through the ground
into tile drains and into outlets. Also, tile provides ground cover
quicker when crops are planted earlier, thus reducing erosion.
Barry Weigel, of Weigel Drainage Ltd., Mildmay, says tiling
helps prevent spring flooding. Water starts draining away earlier
in the spring and keeps draining late in the fall.
Farmers today are not only draining systematically, but
sometimes, every acre they own. Doug Kirkby, partner of KMM
Drainage, Walton, says that not all land should be tiled. He says
the type of soil is a factor. For example, once you drain black
muck, it can be difficult to manage --the soil blows away. He
adds, "People have to use sense though, if there's only a few
acres of it up front, you don't want to leave it jungle."
PG. 12 THE RURAL VOICE/AUGUST 1980