Drainage Tile

An interdrain trencher at work on the Shafer-Karr Group Drainage Project can install tile at a rate of 15-30 feet per minute.

Tile is underground pipe of varying diameters, most often placed in crop fields that are very flat, so that excess water will drain more efficiently to the nearest creek, ditch, or river, thus enhancing crop productivity by keeping plants from drowning.  In the late 1800s, tile was made of clay and placed in shallow trenches above the frost line.  Therefore, most original tile has broken down and is difficult to find because tile systems weren’t mapped.  Today drainage tile is made of corrugated plastic, installed by trenching machines that can proceed at a rapid pace (up to 30 feet per minute) with adequate depth.