There will be a test of a new layout for tile drains in Clinton this year.
“What we’re doing for the very first time in Ontario, is trying to put it on a slope and you do that by running the laterals on contour, so it’s at the ever slightest gradingso you don’t blow up the tile when it hits the header, that’s where we would put a control gate in and stop the water so we can control the water table, basically, in the soil, on a slope,” said Mel Luyme in an online report by CKNX in Wingham.
“We’re doing a side by side by side of pattern tile, like regular, conventional tile, beside a contour tile that controls, beside a no-tile zone.
‘And we’re collecting the water quality and quantity off of the surface and sub-surface of all those fields, so we’ll have a very unique project that’s never been attempted before.”
Luymes said the project includes creation of contoured terraces so water will be removed faster, safely and with less erosion.
A demonstration is being planned in June.
The project is organized by Huron County Soil and Crop Improvement Association, the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority and Huron County with some funding from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
