Ag Geek Speak
GK Technology Inc Team Members, Jodi Boe and Sarah Lovas talk about precision agriculture, agriculture mapping, agronomy and drainage.
Ag Geek Speak
18.5 Tiny Bytes: The Who, What, Where, and Why of Drain Tile
Sarah and Jodi discuss drain tile and its ability to manage excess water. Through vivid analogies and expert insights, Sarah helps us understand the historical transformation of drain tiles from traditional clay to modern perforated plastic pipes, while shedding light on how soil texture and organic matter uniquely influence water retention and drainage. Gain a comprehensive understanding of the inherent nature of these soil properties and their pivotal role in effective water management.
The strategic use of drain tiles can lower water tables and prevent and/or mitigate salinization, a significant hurdle for producers in the upper Northern Great Plains. If you are a farmer or consultant who wants to design your own drain tile plan or have someone help you put together a tile drainage plan, give us a call at GK Technology. GK's ADMS software provides all of the tools you need to design your own tile drainage plan so you can start managing subsoil moisture.
So one of the really popular topics that we've been asked a lot about as a company this year has been drain tile, and that's because we've had a really wet spring here in the upper Midwest and there's a lot of motivation to implement drain tile. But let's talk about what that is, Because, coming from Western North Dakota managing water, where we don't have a lot of it drain tile really doesn't come into the picture. And I'll be honest, the first time me, Jodi that ever heard about drain tile, I wondered what the heck are all these farmers doing putting linoleum in their fields. I had no idea what they were tiling.
Sarah:It's a great conversation, right.
Jodi:So, Sarah, please enlighten us. What is drain tile?
Sarah:Drain tile is actually a perforated pipe that we bury underground and the purpose of it is to intercept excess water and actually direct it to an outlet. So it's a way of us getting rid of our excess subsurface water out of our fields. And generally we are installing that drain tile about three to four feet deep in the soil and again it removes only the excess water out of the system.
Jodi:And is there actually a reason why it's called tile system? And is there actually a reason why it's called tile? Because you mentioned it's all plastic now, but why was it called tile in the first?
Sarah:place? That's a great question. Drain tile has been around for a long time. As a matter of fact, I think the first drain tile was actually installed in a colonial US. It brought over from scotland and the original tiles. Drain tile was actually made out of tile, like what you would think about from those rooftops with tiles, oh, like terracotta pots, kind of yes, exactly, um, and prior to the 1970s, that's exactly what the um, what tile was made out of.
Sarah:As a matter of of fact, I worked with a farmer locally here that they had had some tile runs installed in the 1930s, just locally. And later on a few years ago the farmer ran over that tile line. He had improved some of the ditches and the tile lines were underneath and he'd broken one of those tiles the clay tiles and it had come to the top. Water was coming to the top where that tile line was, because that's what happens when you break a tile line is that water that's flowing in that pipe moves to the surface. So it's interesting because even locally here in North Dakota there have been some spots where drain tiles have been installed even back to the 1930s.
Jodi:Wow, wow. So you mentioned before too. So like drain tile removes excess water from the soil. Like what is? What does that mean? Like what, what actually gets into the tile?
Sarah:Let's talk about soil water, that's a good place to start. Yes, well, it's important, right? Because it's all about the water management in the soil. So every soil has what's called a water holding capacity that is a characteristic of that actual soil.
Sarah:The water holding capacity of any given soil is based on the texture of the soil, and organic matter also plays a be able to hold way more water than a sandy soil with low organic matter, and what that means is that that soil can hold on to that water. It can overcome the forces of gravity to hold on to that water. And so when a soil is at field capacity, and so when a soil is at field capacity, that is the water that is remaining after gravity has removed all of the water out of the system that the soil cannot hold on to. That is what is the excess water, that water that has drained out with gravity. That's that excess water. So when a soil is at field capacity, that is the greatest amount of water that that soil can hold on to, based on that soil texture and organic matter levels. So when we're using drain tile, we're getting rid of all of that excess water that the soil cannot hold on to.
Jodi:Ah, okay, so that makes sense and I think about when I think about like field capacity, I always think of like a demonstration from college where field capacity is like if you take a sponge, like a regular kitchen sponge, and you soak it in water, like all the excess water you're going to have when you, when you take that sponge out of the bucket, you're gonna have some water that just drains and that's what's going to go into the drain tile, right, absolutely, and all the stuff that, like when you pick up the sponge and it's no longer dripping water, that's going to be your field capacity, like the max amount that that soil can hold.
Sarah:Absolutely, Jodi. As a matter of fact, I use sponges for visual aids when I'm trying to demonstrate drain tile.
Jodi:Who knew sponges and soils had so much in common. But they do, and you mentioned too, like different soils and different organic matter levels will change those, the field capacity. Right, if you've got a heavier clay soil that's got a finer soil texture and a field that's got higher organic matter, that's going to have more capacity to hold on to water than, say, something with a coarser texture and less organic matter.
Sarah:And that should be intuitive, right? Because normally when we see drought, we're going to see drought happen on a sandy soil before we see it on a clay, because that clay is holding on to more water versus the sand.
Jodi:And really these are things. These are all kind of inherent properties of the soil. These are some things that we cannot change, no matter if we have a really heavy clay soil that's really wet. There's nothing that we if we have a really heavy clay soil that tends to be wet in the spring and just hangs on to water, there's really nothing we can do to change the texture or the organic matter level of that soil to influence it how it holds on to water in that capacity.
Sarah:Exactly. You know, we can always try to add, like manure or something like that, to try to enhance the organic matter of a soil, but the truth of the matter is is that it's such a slow changing property, even when we're adding something as influential as manure, that it still takes so long that we think of that water holding capacity or what that field capacity level is of a soil as an inherent soil characteristic, something that we can't generally change a whole lot. So when we're dealing with drain tile in this soil system, again we are just getting rid of that excess water, the water that the soil cannot hold onto. So the point in bringing this up and explaining this is the fact that drain tile cannot enhance a drought. That's one of the big questions is people sometimes ask that if I put this drain tile in, am I going to enhance a drought? And that's not how drain tile works. You can't change that water holding capacity of a soil. It's only the excess water that's flowing on the gravity of the soil that will exit the system.
Jodi:What I'm hearing you say is that so if I want to make my fields more trafficable in the spring, earlier on, I'd probably want to consider drain tile to help move the excess water away from the field so I can get in earlier.
Sarah:What drain tile is going to do for us in the spring of the year is two major things. One, it's going to reduce the soil saturation overall, but it's also going to help increase the soil temperature quicker. Temperature of a water it takes a lot more energy to change than temperature of something of dry air, and so if you have a saturated soil that means it's got more water, it's going to take more energy to warm that soil, wet soil, up. So when drain tile is installed there's more air in that soil system that takes less energy to warm up and you will be able to have a drier, warmer field quicker in the spring of the year, which allows for generally earlier planting dates, which is a big deal.
Jodi:One other term that I hear a lot in tile drainage is pattern tile versus spot tile. Can you tell me what the difference between those two are?
Sarah:Absolutely so.
Sarah:There's lots of different ways that we think about incorporating tile into a field and agricultural system.
Sarah:One of the ways that we think about it is from a standpoint of doing a pattern tile.
Sarah:That's where we're going to take a field and actually set up a main and an entire pattern of laterals across a field that are going to direct the flow into a main at the edge of the field and that's how the water will exit.
Sarah:But the entire field is under that pattern tile, meaning the entire field is going to be influenced by that drain tile installation, whereas when we've got spot tiles or you know random areas or individual runs, perhaps there's areas where there's issues in the field and we just want to target that drain tile into that spot, for instance, side hill seeps, for example. One of the things that we haven't mentioned yet in this podcast is that when you install drain tile, the water table in that field will not be allowed to go higher than that drain tile because the excess water in that water table will flow out through the bottom of that pipe. So in a place where you've got that side hill seep, where you keep having the water flowing out of that side hill, it will stop that because the water table will not be allowed to reach the surface any longer and it will improve your traffic ability on that side hill steep. But oftentimes when we're doing that, spot tile that will get placed in a place that will remedy just that situation.
Jodi:Yeah, and it seems like pattern tile is very common in places that are relatively flat like the Red River Valley of North Dakota, Minnesota, and then spot tile is a lot more common in areas like the prairie pothole region, in areas with more topography. It seems to be a lot more common in those areas versus the flatter square fields of the valley?
Sarah:Absolutely. And I do want to bring up a piece about salinity as well, because drain tile can have a very positive effect on helping to reduce soil salinity if it's managed correctly. So one of the issues when we've got these water tables coming up to the surface is they often that water from below the surface often carries salts up to the surface and then the evapotranspiration rates at the surface. The water evaporates from the surface and leaves behind the salt, which results in salinization of the soil at those spots. So in areas where you've got high levels of salinity you can install drain tile and that will reduce the water table down to the level of the tile. And once you have enough rainfall to flush those salts back down to the drain tile, that water table will not be allowed to rise anymore to the surface and it should help to remediate some of the soil salinity issues that occur in some places.
Jodi:Which is huge to be able to reduce that. It's a challenge across so much of the northern Great Plains.
Sarah:Absolutely, and salinization of soil is a big issue. We could have a whole nother podcast on that.
Jodi:No, that's been great. I've learned a lot in this conversation, Sarah, talking about tile and talking about where it's used and how it's used. Thank you so much.
Sarah:Absolutely. Or if you would like to create your own drain tile plans or have someone help you create drain tile plans. Here at GK Technology we do that all the time with our ADMS software. Feel free to call us anytime and have a conversation.