Tile drainage and phosphorous - answering Steve Topping

Steve Topping is concerned about enrvironmental problems with tile drainage. Well, a careful study by Bengtson published in 1982 showed that tile drainage decreased the amount of phosphorous in the runoff by 48%, while increasing the amount of nitrogen by only 3.2%. Phosphorous is the more critical limiting nutrient and the one of greatest concern in contributing to the algal blooms in Lake Winnipeg. Tile drainage may not be perfect, but we need to look at the nature of public policy in Ontario which led to its wider use and consider it for Manitoba. The photo above shows a tile drained wheat field in Roland municipality which I visited. Bruce and Bob Bartley are the farmers. Note the consistent quality from one end of the field to the other. Almost every other field in the area had significant wet spots in the fields which were drowned out - like that in the second photo. The improvement with tile drainage was dramatic. We need to look more into this as a way of decreasing risk to farmers and increasing their potential.