Farm Drainage: A History
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Partners,
Two weeks have gone by. We have been squeezing in extra projects that often get put off in a normal cropping season. This past week we completed a field drainage project we began over two years ago. Weather and fieldwork demands complicate projects like this, but this winter we decided that we would first complete planting, and then tile if weather and time allowed. Thankfully, both did. This week we installed over four miles of plastic tile on a farm we purchased four years ago that adjoins the Doll Homestead. We have now accomplished our goal of draining the whole western two-thirds of our biggest contiguous field!
Draining the soils of the Midwest has been on going since settlement began here in the mid-1800s. The early settlers actually preferred the hills and lighter soils in order to avoid water problems. Around here the ancestors farmed around "buffalo wallows" - the depressions in the fields that held water, that apparently back in the open plain days the animals would go to to cool off in the heat of summer. Some of the earliest tiling projects here (using clay tile underground to drain wet spots) date back to the late 1800s when all the work was done by hand - what fun that must have been! Some of the earliest engine powered trenchers came into use in the 1920s and 1930s but farm economics at that time didn't allow widespread adoption due to tight/non-existent margins.
I can remember as a boy what a big event it was to hire a contractor to come in to do a tiling project. It always meant we would see a big improvement to the land: drying up wet spots, allowing the building of grass waterways for easier and more conservation-friendly farming, and being able to eliminate open ditches of running water that grew trees and brush.
Seeing the value of soil conservation and surface water management, we decided to purchase our first tiling machine in 1974 to address our water issues. The old 302 Buckeye turned into one of the most important pieces of equipment on our farm - not only on our own land, but the custom tiling I (Steve) did in those early years put me through college! In 1998 we traded up for a rubber-wheeled machine; a Speicher 600, that we still operate today to dig in big mains and assist the tile plow for ease of hookups for pattern tiling jobs. We purchased the Soil-Max tile plow (pictured) in 2010. The speed of plowing the tile in (as opposed to digging a trench) allows for much faster installation of lateral runs.
If you have farmland in Illinois, you undoubtedly have drain tile of some kind on your property. However, the common best management practice now is to pattern tile a field, which means completely drain the property on 30-100 foot centers. Pattern tiling allows the field to dry out evenly which facilitates timely field operations, and reduces soil erosion and compaction. This also eliminates persistent wet areas in some fields which in the past have yielded absolutely nothing in wet years. Additional benefits are more predictable yields, improved field efficiency, and generally enhanced profitability for the land owner.
We truly appreciate all the drainage work our partners have participated in over the past many years, and look forward to more projects in the future. Our goal is to continue to leave a legacy of conserving and improving the farmland of which we are caretakers.
