Before installing a tile system for drainage on your farm, make sure it’s going to pay for itself and make sure you have the right information starting out.

Chad Poole, a research associate in biological and agricultural engineering at North Carolina State University, says, "Make sure you have a sufficient outlet, make sure you have control of that outlet. You need to know the textual class that you’re trying to drain and you need to know what layer that your tile is going to or you’re going to spend a lot of money and be highly disappointed.”

Chad Poole, a research associate in biological and agricultural engineering at North Carolina State University, says good drainage is important in the Blacklands of North Carolina because the region gets an average of 45 inches of rain annually.

Speaking at the Blacklands Farm Managers Tour Aug. 3 at Middle Creek Farm in Englehard, N.C., Poole encouraged farmers to have a consultant or Extension agent work with them before investing money in a tile system. “Tiles can do the job, but you need to do a good job of doing your homework,” Poole stressed.

Good drainage is of particular importance in the Blacklands of North Carolina because the region typically gets 45 inches of rain per year. Poole said a tile system works, but crowns and open ditches are still needed to move excess water.

Tile systems are designed to remove approximately a quarter inch of rainfall in a 24 hour period. This can present a challenge when two to three inches of rain falls in one to two hours. Tiles alone can’t remove that much water, Poole emphasized.

“Our systems have to contain both surface drainage and sub-surface draining systems,” Poole said. “If you’re thinking about filling up ditches, do a good job of figuring out how you’re going to deal with runoff water.”

Poole made it clear at the Blacklands tour that good drainage is a must for improving yields in corn and soybeans. “It will pay off if properly designed,” he said.

Poole pointed to long standing research at N.C. State that good drainage is paramount for achieving optimal yields. Research over the past 20 years shows that by using control drainage alone, yields were increased by 10 percent in both corn and soybeans in North Carolina’s Blacklands.

“If we can hold our shallow water table between 18 and 30 inches, we’re going to achieve optimal yields, but we want to do that during the entire growing season,” Poole said. “This is pretty much constant between soil types. If you have sands, you can hold it a little bit higher to the surface. If you have clay, you want it to be a little bit deeper.”