Tile drainage was the focus of water management meetings last week in southern Manitoba.

North Dakota State University extension agronomist Hans Kandel spoke at the meetings, talking about how tile drainage removes excess water from fields, which allows more oxygen in the soil for root systems to grow.

He says tile drainage can also help with excess salt problems when a rising water table brings more salt to field surface.

"Plants can't stand a lot of salt, so as we have salts, now we have to think about the reverse. If the water was brought up, what can you do to bring the water table down?" He says. "If you put tile about three feet down, there is an outlet for the water to go to, and then when rain falls, it dissolves some of the salts and moves that salt down into the profile and eventually into the pipe, and gradually you reduce the salt concentration to a level the plant can grow again."

Kandel says if farmers don't address salt problems, it will leave white patches on the field and stunt crop production.