Planning key to tile drainage system

MOWEAQUA, Ill. — Quint Shambaugh, principal of Pinion LLC, discussed the agronomics and economics of tile drainage during a webinar hosted by Halderman Farm Management and Real Estate Services.

The question at hand: Is tile drainage a worthy investment?

“If you aggregate university studies, they point to 10 to 45 bushels per acre (return) for corn across Illinois, Indiana and Iowa,” Shambaugh said.

“For soybeans, it’s 4 to 15 bushels per acre. You can feel really good going to your client and saying if we improve this farm, we’re going to see this (result).

“There are regional and situational situations where you can see a 50% to 100% increase in actual production, just because it’s that wet of a farm.”

The range of results is due to the quality of different drainage systems, soil types and other factors.

“The first thing I tell people is that it’s regional and situational,” Shambaugh said. “The first thing you want to do is base yourself regionally and situationally. Then, you want to start looking at it from the point of building a long-term plan.

“The important thing is to have proper planning and then equate those numbers to where you want to be from a returns standpoint.”

Pattern drainage systems vary in cost, but for one example Shambaugh asked the audience to consider a $1,000 per acre cost scenario.

“If you want a 5% year-over-year return, you only have to raise the rent $50,” he said. “If I look at it from a banker standpoint and look at it as an improvement to the farm, that year-over-year 5% return is something you can feel pretty good about.”

Drainage systems are an art and a science, Shambaugh said.

It’s about more than just having a computer design a plan. The plan must customized and executed with the equipment on hand.

However, there is a definite science to the project, as well.

“Imagine your farm as one big sponge,” Shambaugh said. “Your soil type determines how much water that soil can collect in a day. If that water isn’t collected, it either runs off or sits in pockets of your field.

“Our job is to determine how wide we can set the spacings of the tile and the depth of the tile. At Pinion, professionals do design, facilitation and quality control.”

Investing in planning can prevent problems down the road.

“You wouldn’t build a house and not get a set of plans first,” Shambaugh said. “Make a plan for the best-producing farm and then do what you can” to execute the plan.