Questions and Answers About Drainage Water Management for the Midwest

Questions and Answers About Drainage Water Management for the Midwest

2007-12

Subsurface tile drainage is an essential water management practice on many highly productive fields in the Midwest. However, nitrate carried in drainage water can lead to local water quality problems and contribute to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, so strategies are needed to reduce the nitrate loads while maintaining adequate drainage for crop production. Practices that can reduce nitrate loads on tile-drained soils include growing winter forage or cover crops, fine-tuning fertilizer application rates and timing, bioreactors, treatment wetlands, and modifying drainage system design and operation. Drainage water management is one of these practices and is described in this fact sheet. Answers given here apply specifically to Midwest corn and soybean cropping systems, and not to perennial or winter annual crops.

The Great Lakes Regional Water Program
Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture

University of Minnesota Extension (St. Paul, Minnesota)

8

Agricultural Drainage

Drainage water management

2000-2009

No

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