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Subsurface 'tile' drainage is an essential agricultural water-management practice on naturally poorly drained soils throughout much of the Midwest.
Installation of The main drain line is installed with a laser-guided trencher machine in February 1983.
Lateral drain installation exits into a culvert for measurement. Purdue University's long-term drainage experiment is revealing insights on crop yield, cover-crop growth, soil improvement, water flow and chemical transport.
An aerial image shows the experiment's drainage field, with drain lines superimposed on the image. The lighter-colored soil over the drainlines clearly shows the impact of the drains on drying the soil faster than where drains are not present. Note the darker areas in the right-hand side of the field correspond to the undrained control.
Lack of corn stubble in the foreground on the undrained block compares to corn stubble in the background on the drained block. It illustrates the extremes of benefits of subsurface drainage on fields with areas of ponding.
The undrained control plot in the center heading toward the trees as of June 12, 2017, has no corn stand from the original planting date of May 16, 2017, whereas drained plots to right and left had sufficient stand from the original planting.
Drainage pays! Editor’s note: This is part 1 of Purdue University’s report regarding its long-term drainage-experiment insights on crop yield, cover-crop growth, soil improvement, water flow and chemical transport. An overview of the experiment was published in the Jan. 19 issue of Agri-View.
Eileen Kladivko
Eileen Kladivko is a Purdue University agronomy professor. Visit ag.purdue.edu/department/agry/ for more information.
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Subsurface “tile” drainage is an essential agricultural water-management practice on naturally poorly drained soils throughout much of the Mid…
Drainage pays! Editor’s note: This is part 3 of Purdue University’s report regarding its long-term drainage-experiment insights on crop yield…
Lateral drain installation exits into a culvert for measurement. Purdue University's long-term drainage experiment is revealing insights on crop yield, cover-crop growth, soil improvement, water flow and chemical transport.
An aerial image shows the experiment's drainage field, with drain lines superimposed on the image. The lighter-colored soil over the drainlines clearly shows the impact of the drains on drying the soil faster than where drains are not present. Note the darker areas in the right-hand side of the field correspond to the undrained control.
Lack of corn stubble in the foreground on the undrained block compares to corn stubble in the background on the drained block. It illustrates the extremes of benefits of subsurface drainage on fields with areas of ponding.
The undrained control plot in the center heading toward the trees as of June 12, 2017, has no corn stand from the original planting date of May 16, 2017, whereas drained plots to right and left had sufficient stand from the original planting.
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