Agricultural Drainage Design Workshops Set for Wahpeton and Crookston

A Drainage Design Workshop will be held in the Tech Center, Room 87, on the campus of the North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton on Feb. 11-12 and in the Sargeant Student Center on the campus of the University of Minnesota -- Crookston on March 5-6.

The workshops are a collaborative effort by the University of Minnesota Extension, North Dakota State University Extension Service and South Dakota State University Extension Service.

The workshops are intended for farmers, landowners, consultants, drainage contractors, government agency staff, water resource managers or anyone interested in a more complete understanding of the planning and design principles and practices for drainage and water table management systems.

The two-day workshops start at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. on day two. The workshops will focus on the planning and design of agricultural tile drainage systems to meet profitability and environmental objectives. The course content is taught using a hands-on manner. There also will be a great deal of discussion time.

Planning topics include the legal aspects of drainage, basics of drainable soils, agronomic perspectives, doing your own tiling, land evaluation tools, wetlands, and conservation drainage concepts and techniques.

The design topics begin with basic design considerations and progress through small-team projects with several hands-on, problem-solving examples covering basic design and layout principles, water flow calculations, drain spacing, sizing and grades. Design principles for lift stations and conservation drainage practices also will be discussed.

There are two similar workshops planned in the region for those who are unable to attend the meetings in Wahpeton or Crookston. They are Jan. 29 -- 30 at the SDSU Extension Regional Center in Sioux Falls, S.D. and March 18 -- 19 at the Holiday Inn in Owatonna, Minn.

To register for the workshops, go to https://www.regonline.com/2014Drainage. The early registration fee is $225 but increases to $300 three weeks before the start of each workshop. Each workshop is limited to 65 participants.

For more information, contact Tom Scherer, NDSU Extension agricultural engineer, at (701) 231-7239 or thomas.scherer@ndsu.edu; Hans Kandel, NDSU Extension agronomist, (701) 231-8135 or hans.kandel@ndsu.edu; Gary Sands, U of M Extension engineer, (612) 625-4756 or grsands@umn.edu; Brad Carlson, U of M Extension educator for crops, (507) 389-6745 or bcarlson@umn.edu; and Chris Hay, SDSU Extension water management engineer, (605) 688-5610 or christopher.hay@sdstate.edu.

NDSU Offers Free Soil Testing at Big Iron

North Dakota State University Extension Service soil health specialists will test producers' soil for salinity on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at the Big Iron farm show at the West Fargo Fairgrounds.

Producers can bring a soil sample to the NDSU Extension table for the free test.

"Salts are native to North Dakota's glaciated mineralogy," says Chris Augustin, area Extension soil health specialist at NDSU's North Central Research Extension Center near Minot. "The past 20 or so wet years have moved these minerals to the topsoil. Water then evaporates, leaves salts behind and creates the white spots that reduce crop yields.

"Salinity management is water management," he adds. "We need to dry down soils so salts move below the root zone. Farming practices that do this include cover cropping, perennial cropping, no-tilling and subsurface drainage."

To provide soil for the test, take samples from a handful of spots in a field, mix the soil and take a sample of the mixture. That sample should contain about a cup of soil. Place the sample in a small dish on a sunny windowsill for a few days to allow the sample to dry. Then place the sample in a zip-top plastic bag and bring it to Big Iron.

"The test will take only a few minutes," Augustin says. "We see white scars across North Dakota and know that salts are lowering crop yields. We hope this quick test gives our farmers an idea of how bad it is and that they know we are here to help them fix these issues."