This is the Sugar Beet Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugar beet growing season. Most of sugar beet producers in the Red River Valley are getting plenty of rainfall. The question becomes, to tile or not to tile your sugar beet field? Today, we're diving into tile research with Lindsay Pease, nutrient and water management extension specialist with the University of Minnesota and Northwest Research and Outreach Center in Crookston, Minnesota. Lindsay, not everyone agrees with tiling a field, and it may even be a controversial topic. How do you see it?

Yeah. Drainage, especially in this part of the country, ends up being really controversial because even though people acknowledge, you know, there's a good yield benefit, good production benefit, A lot of what people see are the potential negatives, you know, downstream, what's happening with water quality, what's happening with water quantity, especially when these tile drainage systems can be running early in the growing season, you know, when we have a lot of snow melt. A year like this when you have a lot of rain falling, the drainage plays an important role in growing the crop, but I think where the controversy comes in is that people only see what's flowing off the field and downstream. But I really believe that there's a win win scenario here, you know, between having drainage as production practice, but also as a conservation practice. We see a lot of benefits from drainage, particularly when we think about surface runoff. Surface runoff can be so devastating, but having tile drainage in a field, especially if we get those midsummer rains, can actually help that water soak into the soil a little bit more. That's a win for water quality and for the field. So, really, that is one of those examples of how drainage has a role in conservation agriculture in general.

What are you seeing with your drain tile study?

Yeah. One of the long term projects that we have going on at the Northwest Research and Outreach Center is that we are looking at how a 60 acre field performs at a big scale, side by side with drained versus undrained plots. This is farmed with full scale equipment, and we are also at the same time that we're looking at the production benefits, monitoring for things like water quality, soil nitrogen levels, all of those metrics that, you know, could be used either way. We want to make sure that we're are using our nutrients effectively and efficiently while also making sure we're getting those crop production benefits. And this is really where that win win between conservation and production makes sense. This year, I am really excited because it's the 1st year that we've had sugar beets out on this particular field. Earlier today, we were pre piling beets off the headlands, and I can say already we are seeing a big production benefit from having tiling in that field. We are just looking side by side at the tiled headlands versus the untiled headlands, And some of the things that you can see differently between those sections is the size of the beats. You know, the size of the beats are a lot better with a bigger root in the tiled part. And, of course, you know, on the other side of the field, they're smaller and more bunched up near the surface. They're more round, more like softballs in the untiled section. From a trafficability standpoint, we also are seeing that, you know, in the untiled part of the field that the tractor going through and the truck's going through, it's a lot more muddy, a lot more compaction happening. Whereas on the tiled side, I was walking out there and didn't have any mud sticking to my shoes at all. And if any of you are familiar with those valley floor clays, you know how valuable that is and what that means.

I've worn the clay boots before. What about tonnage and sugar content in your study?

Now we don't have the production numbers. We don't have the official yield numbers just yet, but I'm really excited to run that. We do plan to grab some samples from each section of the field so that we can get those sugar numbers. Obviously, we know tonnage isn't everything. That's what we're seeing right now is that tonnage difference, but we are gonna be looking at the sugar yield off those sections too and hopefully having some official numbers, you know, by the end of the season.

Lindsay, what other types of research are you doing?

Yeah. We are also running experiments comparing sugar beets in different production practices as well like strip tillage, cover crops, and even looking at different types of starter fertilizer just to see what practices work best for sugar yield.

Thanks, Lindsay. Our guest has been Lindsay Pease, nutrient and water management extension specialist with the University of Minnesota and Northwest Research and Outreach Center in Crookston, Minnesota. This has been the Sugar Beet Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugar beet growing season.