Tiling part of the solution for nitrogen
CHATSWORTH – Tile appears to play a big part in the use of nitrogen out in the field.
Nitrates leaving a farm seem to give tile a bad name but Ben Kafer, president of Kafer Tiling and Excavating in Fairbury, noticed corn was greener on top of the tiles that are supposedly taking those nitrates away. Tiling with 90-foot spacing was done in the 1970s and in 2009, Kafer came in and split those lines.
A Google Earth image indicated streaks exactly where the existing tiles were and their lines showed up in between the green streaks of corn. After asking around, Kafer found the answer came down to soil health and benefits of tiling.
“We were trying to make it green between the tile lines so instead of trying to increase the nitrogen application rate, we needed to do more tile,” Kafer explained.
Kafer feels tile is very much a part of the solution and agrees farmers don’t like to have nitrogen going into the water supply. They want to keep it on their fields where crops will utilize it.
“I think it’s a win-win moving forward as we can cooperate and make the environment safe and still be able to farm our farms,” Kafer said.
A bioreactor has been installed on a farm south of Chatsworth to intercept nitrates harmful to the environment as it captures them into a pit. Bioreactors are manufactured devices or systems which support a biologically active environment.
Micro-organisms live in woodchips placed in the pit which change those nitrates to gas. Instead of nitrates down the tile, it goes back into the air as nitrogen which is better for the environment since the atmosphere contains nitrogen anyway.
The pit is dug deep enough to push water to the end of it where the water will try to make its way through woodchips. Water comes back into a water valve control structure.
“The outlet is even flooded where the water comes back so it keeps the hole completely flooded,” explained Kafer.
This model is proven to take nitrates out of the water leaving tiles. The right timing and applying at different times are still important for nitrogen applications.
For more information contact Kafer Tiling at 815-692-3641 or visit them in Fairbury.
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