Field drainage ideas on cost, who and how to pay.

I rented a 50 acre farm this spring. Old
bachelor died and left it to his niece,
who's son knows me, and here we are. Didn't
get it until the end of may. Knew it was on
the wetter side, but the rent was on the
cheap side so we went with it.

It is wet. Didn't have much trouble getting
soybeans in this spring, but getting them
off is a different story. There's some old
tile out there. We've already repaired some,
but there's other areas not working and
instead of spending days paying someone to
chase tile that probably isn't worth
chasing, I'm thinking install new. We are a
small farm. 160 acres. Don't have a lot of
money to throw around.

The land owner seems willing to work with
me. To what extent, I'm not sure. They also
say they have zero interest in selling. I
know of some instances where a long term
lease is signed at a reduced rate and the
farmer pays for the tile or other times the
owner pays for it and the rent goes up. Any
creative ways any of you have pulled this
off? Would like to grid the whole thing out.
Maybe do 10 acres every couple of years.

I'm being told around 600-800/acre for a
whole grid job. Haven't had anyone quote it
yet though. The property does have drainage
ditches bordering two sides of it. How much
value per rented acre would this be worth?
Hard to put a dollar amount on the future.
Beans look really good. I do believe this
will be highly productive round when drained
correctly. Looking for opinions. Thanks
for reading my ramble.
Central lower Michigan

My renter has offered to tile other farms that he rents, as long as he gets a 3 year lease, and pays the same rent. If the lease is broken, the land owner has to pay for tiling. I"ve paid for all of mine done by other installers. Renter is willing to tile whatever little bit I could improve, and just charge me for the tile. He has his own plow with Intellislope.

I think your grid guess is a bit low, but it depends what spacing you need for the conditions. Install (only) here usually runs 90 cents to a buck a foot.

I had some tiling done 3 years ago I had renter pay for it to be used towards rent. If I would have paid for it I would have to depreciate it over 10 years. He was allowed to expense it out and I didn't have to declare the rent income,win win for both of us. Pete

Hi, do you think mole drainage would work. We did that when I was young. We had drain ditches along the fields and just ran the mole drains into them. Ed Will.

I also think the cost is a little low, would expect around a grand per acre,but could vary per region.

Tiling can make a poor farm good, but I am a proponent of running tile into wetland area to absorb nutrients instead of creeks.

You are right. I had a 30 acre field tiled several years ago and it worked out to about $1000/acre.

Cost will be determined by size of mains, number of connections,who does the job, etc.

The stuff I've had done commercially the past few years has averaged around $1000 per acre. That was a "done right' price.

Last I priced it (just to the east of you a bit), it was around $1000 an acre, completely done, done right.

My farm isn't much bigger then your spread.

Spent $75,000 on tile about 4-8 years ago.

So,e of the best money I ever spent.

When I starts my wife was concerned about the money Bing spent. She was a town girl until I met her.....

We bought some land this spring, she just chopped the stalks on it today. She said there is some mud on the chopper and back window, but it's done. When are the tillers coming? That will be a nice field when it gets drained right.....

She was along in the combine cab a few rounds and saw how spindly the corn was in the wet areas, about 15 out of the 33 acres. Beautiful ground, mostly sorta level black dirt. Just no drainage, holds water too much.

Lots of different ways to do it, tax considerations as some mention on a rental deal. You need a long term lease with the owner paying for th tile if the last ends early. 5-7 years would be typical.

Paul