February 8, 2001

Farmland Tile Drainage Design Workshops Scheduled

To increase awareness of tile drainage and its implications for farmland water management, two two-day workshops on farmland tile drainage design and water management will be held in March. The first will be held March 5-6 on the campus of Southwest State University in Marshall, Minn. The second workshop will be held on March 8-9 at the Red River Inn & Conference Center in Moorhead, Minn.

The first day of each workshop will cover basic subsurface tile drainage design such as planning, tile sizing, lateral spacing, selection of outlets and economics. The second day will include a tile drainage design problem and the opportunity to attend several concurrent sessions. These sessions will cover the following topics: should I do my own tiling; surveying basics; tile line assessment; and alternatives and concerns to tiling.

The workshops are co-sponsored by the NDSU Extension Service, the University of Minnesota Extension Service, South Dakota State University Extension Service, Minnesota West Community & Technical College-Canby, and Southwest State University. The registration fee is $100 for the 2-days; or $65 for a single day and pre-registration by Feb. 16 is required.

For more information contact your county Extension office or NDSU Extension Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at (701) 231-7238 or nstroh@ndsuext.nodak.edu.

"Surface drainage is an important component of farmland water management but studies in the Midwest have shown that surface drainage combined with subsurface tile drainage can provide even more effective water management. For this reason, interest in tile drainage has been increasing in the North Dakota, northwestern Minnesota and southern Manitoba," notes Tom Scherer, an agricultural engineer with the North Dakota State University Extension Service.

Scherer notes that throughout the 1990s, excess rain has affected every area of North Dakota. In several areas of the state, the excess water has prevented planting or harvest of thousands of acres. The excess rain contributed to inundated fields or increased the local water table to near the ground surface. In either case, the excess water severely affected crop yields, he says.

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Source: Tom Scherer, (701) 231-7239, tscherer@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu