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Mild fall extends tiling window

A mild fall has allowed more time for farmers to put in or replace drainage tile.

Mike Landuyt, a crop and livestock producer in southwest Minnesota, tells Brownfield it’s been abnormally warm and dry heading into December.

“I’m just fine not having to battle a lot of snow (and) we’re still working. We have our own tiling plow so we’ve been working on drainage tile, and it’s really nice to still be able to do that in December. The last few years, seems like as soon as we got to November that was done (because) the ground was freezing already.”

He says technology has made tiling much more straightforward.

“I get to run the plow and I can look right on my phone, on the yield map (and) in my FieldView it tells me exactly where I am in the field and exactly what the yield map was. I can see that this spot had a yield drag just by knowing the field, I know it was a moisture issue. So it’s definitely made it easier with technology.”

The Redwood County farmer is president of the Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association.