Agricultural Drainage 101 - Minnesota Pollution …...Agricultural Drainage: Why it's needed, how it...
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Agricultural Drainage 101 Craig Schrader Regional Extension Educator, Crops University of Minnesota 507-389-6745 [email protected]
Transcript of Agricultural Drainage 101 - Minnesota Pollution …...Agricultural Drainage: Why it's needed, how it...
Agricultural Drainage 101
Craig SchraderRegional Extension Educator, CropsUniversity of [email protected]
Agricultural Drainage: Why it's needed, how it works and what are the consequences?
Gary R. SandsAssociate Professor & Extension EngineerBiosystems & Agricultural EngineeringUniversity of [email protected]
Outline
Definitions
History & status
Need for drainage
How drainage works
Impacts of drainage
What’s being done?
Where to get more info
What is Artificial Drainage?You might be familiar with:
Foundation drainage for homes
Perimeter “tile” drains
Artificial Drainage for Agriculture
Subsurface (“Tile”) Drainage
Surface Drainage
History&
Status
Drainage: An Ancient PracticeUse of buried clay pipe as old as art of potterySome dated in Crete to 5,000 B.C.Farmers in ancient Egypt and Babylonia drained wet soils for crop productionRoman author, Cato, wrote in 200 B.C. extensively on farm drainage as practiced by Roman farmersFirst subsurface drains were converted ditches (Roman times)Mole “ditchers” were developed and used extensively in the 1800’s
25% of Ag Soils are Artificially Drained
Extent of Subsurface Drainage (’92)51 million ac of corn-belt (est.)
Drainage Was a Factor of Change on the Landscape
