Drainage Water Management at S&G Farms Video

Shared from Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership: 

In July 2024, David Spengler and Kent Bohnhoff installed an automated water control structure on S&G Farms in Tazewell County with support from the Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership, Fishers & Farmers Partnership, and the One Good Idea Grant.

Drainage Water Management, or DWM, allows producers to control the water table under their fields by managing the depth at which their drainage systems release water. The practice offers an agronomic advantage to farmers including a 5 -15% yield increase over conventional drainage, while also reducing the nitrate loss from the field.

“While we can’t control the weather, we can try to control how it impacts the crop and the land,” Kent Bohnhoff notes. In Illinois, about 16 million acres are likely to be tile-drained. A majority of these acres are good candidates for an edge of field practice, including DWM along with saturated buffers, constructed wetlands, and bioreactors.

Click here to watch the video to learn more.