Do-it-yourself drainage tilers plow their own course on Ontario farms

Monday, February 20, 2012

With contract operators heavily booked after a busy year in 2011, many farmers are taking on the job themselves – and saving money in the process

by DON STONEMAN and ROBERT IRWIN

The Fournies, Joe Sr., his wife Karen, and Joe Jr., work as a team when they install tile drains on their heavy clay farms.

Karen Fournie drives the 150 h.p. 7120 Magnum front-wheel-assist with duals all around. It pulls a "Persall mini-tile plow" for installing the four- inch drains. Joe Sr. digs the starter holes with a backhoe, while Joe Jr. runs the tile cart and makes "the taps" (connections) into the mains.

In 2009 and 2010, after wheat harvest, the Fournies tiled more than 100,000 feet each summer. Not last year, though. The weather in August was too hot for them to work.

According to provincial surveys of tile manufacturers, about 100 million feet of tile are laid on farm fields in Ontario annually. It isn't known how much is laid by unlicensed installers on their own fields, but the numbers may be growing because contractors in some areas can't keep up with demand.

A newsletter published by Land Improvement Contractors of Ontario last fall says there were 93 licensed professional contract companies and 346 licensed operators running 170 licensed machines.

The Fournies cash-crop wheat and soybeans on owned and rented land in Lambton County's Sombra Township, south of Sarnia. Competition among area farmers for rented land is stiff, so it is difficult to expand. Joe Sr. says tiling is about increasing productivity from the fields that they have.

The Fournies aren't the only farmers intent on increasing productivity from their existing land. A year ago, tile contractors knew they would have a busy season in 2011. High crop prices put money in farmers' pockets. Since then, a wet spring and a wet fall added to the demand, and the pressure on contractors, to do more work.

"We haven't seen this kind of scenario, where contractors couldn't meet demand, for probably over 30 years," says John Martin of Martin Drainage in Wallenstein. The trend in 2012 is expected to be no different. "I've heard a rumour that some contractors are lined up for the next year," says Sid Vander Veen, drainage specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

While business was booming for contractors last year, some farmers wanting to get tiling done were left frustrated. They say the most lucrative jobs got priority over those who have been waiting patiently to get small fields drained and they simply didn't know when their turn would come.

In Ontario, provided they stay on their own or leased land, farmers are exempt from the provincial certification required for both the operator and drainage machine. Tile plows start at $7,200. A hefty tractor and backhoe are pre-requisites. Buying a tile plow to do their own fields is something that more farmers are considering. Scott Sexton, spokesman for Jesco Tileplow in Iowa, says he received 30 or more phone calls from Ontario starting about Aug. 1 and sold four plows to Ontario customers.

One of those farmers was Rockland area cash crop and custom operator Robert Laviolette. Ancient clay tiles still worked on his 125-acre home farm. The problem was on 145 acres he had purchased nearby. Laviolette finally tired of poor yields and fields he couldn't plant in wet years.

But drainage contractors in his area east of Ottawa were booked for two to three years ahead. His son Eric, a Hawkesbury physician who works on the farm in his spare time, launched a comprehensive search that led them to Jesco.

"Their unit was the cheapest," says Eric who also looked closely at two Quebec manufacturers. Eric says the $7,200 Jesco tile plow, which weighs 1,500 pounds, fit neatly into the eight-foot box on his pickup. Crossing back into Canada at the border, he just paid HST which the family can claim back.

Savings of $50,000-$80,000
The Laviolette's plow installs four-inch tile. For an extra $1,300, Jesco offers the option of a changeable foot allowing both four and six-inch diameters.

Aside from the lure of seeing immediate results in their corn, wheat, soybeans and hay rotation by doing the  installation themselves instead of waiting for a contractor, Eric estimates that "we'll save between $50,000 to $70,000 on the whole farm." 

They plan to install about 10,000 metres (nearly 33,000 feet), then either sell or rent the machine to others. They've already had inquiries from neighbours.

At press time, in late December, with about four inches of frost in the snow-covered ground, Robert had just installed three 850-foot runs, which were all working well within a day.

Their unit is pinned on their Ford TW-35's category three, three-point hitch. The tractor has four-wheel drive and a 192-gross-horsepower rating. Front wheel tires and inside rear duals are filled with calcium to maximize traction. Both men agree maximizing weight is important.

"In sandy loam the Ford is really just idling in first gear at about 1,400 rpm," observes Eric, who documented their first day's installation on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F022yhAHE6I&list=UUEh8oCQEuJXTs0J_nV9HMcA&index=2&feature=plcp) 
During a second test on heavy clay, they increased engine speed to 1,600 rpm. Grade is controlled manually, but they rely on a previously-owned laser level, commonly used in construction, to monitor accuracy.

"It's a one-man operation," explains Robert. He makes one pass without tile then, ahead of the installation, he lays out the tile alongside the trench using a large spool on wheels that he made himself.

Once the frost got too thick this winter, however, they needed a second person to run their Fiat Allis 11-B bulldozer to assist the tractor. They used a tire in the hookup between the two machines to make sure they didn't pull out the front end of the tractor.

Around Christmas, they knew the frost had gotten too thick "when we pulled the tire apart," Eric chuckles.

To get started the Laviolettes paid a local retailer $3,800 to deliver 3,000 metres of four-inch tile.  Converting to around $.38 a foot. that's about four cents a foot above the lowest cash-and-carry price in the area.

Investment worthwhile
Eugene Ewaschuk estimates he spent about $2,500, back in the mid-'90s, to make the tile plow that he and his son Randall have used to tile portions of their own and rented land near Alexandria. That included a mounted spool, which unwinds the roll of tile being installed. Eugene estimates rising costs would double that outlay today, but both maintain the savings they've achieved, together with being able to drain land on their schedule instead of a contractor's, make their investment worthwhile.

They buy their tile and fittings from a local contractor. "We still use a contractor for land with no natural slope," says Randall. "Dad designed our machine to be light enough to mount on a tractor that was just over 100 h.p., so that limited the depth it can go to about 36 inches."

Some of their flat land required tile to be inserted as much as five feet deep, he says, and that's where a large commercial machine is needed.

Their homebuilt equipment is also limited to a maximum tile diameter of four inches and grade is maintained manually. "It's easy (maintaining grade) with a good natural slope," Randall notes.

The Ewaschuks use an old fashioned surveyor's level on a tripod to monitor depth. "We have two walkie-talkies and Dad watches the level from a distance and tells me whether to raise or lower the hydraulics on the tractor," Randall explains. About three years ago, they improved their grade accuracy by adding a Latec Levelmaster, a digital device that shows the tractor operator the precise angle of the foot on the base of their tile plow. They use their own backhoe to connect runs to headers.

Laying tile requires a lot of precision and accuracy, warns Stratford-based crop consultant Pat Lynch. "Wanting to do it right and doing it right are two different things," Lynch says.

Even a bit of water standing in an improperly placed drain attracts root growth, which will stop more water and plug the tile. Horsetail, in particular, will follow along the path of the tile drains in the spring.

OMAFRA's Sid Vander Veen says there is more to installing drains than getting the grade right. Tile installers are trained to deal with regulations in the Fisheries Act, the Conservation Authorities Act and even the Endangered Species Act. Some conservation authorities require permits and approvals; others do not. Ditch cleanouts might require permits from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Vander Veen says that, if the outlet is a municipal drain, you need to talk to the municipality. And, he says, "if you collect water and discharge it" and someone downstream has damages, there is a potential liability. Other landowners must agree to take your water.

Even draining to a road ditch isn't always acceptable. "A roadside ditch is really a form of private ditch," Vander Veen says. "The road doesn't have to accept the water coming from a farmers' tile drainage system."

Training invaluable
Despite potential obstacles, the desire to improve fields, particularly at a low cost, is compelling. The Persall plow, including a laser system, control boxes and a week's training, cost the Fournies $22,000 in 2009. Karen Fournie says the week of training was invaluable and Brad Persall, who builds the Persall tile plow machines at Flamborough, was a good and patient teacher.

Tiling your own fields offers a big saving over hiring a contractor, says Joe Fournie Sr. He figures that the three-point hitch-mounted tile plow paid for itself "in the first 100 acres" just with the savings, which amounted to $100 an hour or more. The Fournies already had a tractor capable of pulling the plow, and a backhoe.

However, they aren't interested in tiling other farmers' fields, even if they could do it legally. It's enough of a challenge doing their own fields, says Joe Jr.

 "We learned from contractors," Karen Fournie says. "We make mistakes. They make mistakes, too." And she found that, when contractors were working on their farm, the Fournies spent a lot of time working with them. "We could have done it ourselves," she says.

But, she warns, doing tiles right is an ambitious project. She plans the detailed maps where the drains should go, starting in the winter and using tiling maps and aerial maps from the Internet. From these sources, she can estimate how much tile is needed and where it needs to go.

"Our ground isn't really flat," Joe Fournie Sr. says. "We are in clay ground and it is a pretty hard pull in places, so we will pre-rip," making a pass without any tile about six inches above where the tile will go. "When you come back with the tile, it is easier to pull," he says.

Some of the Fournie farms that were tiled with 40-foot spaces were re-tiled, splitting the distance between the existing tile runs. Joe Sr. says that, in some cases, tile runs were placed only 15 feet apart to boost soybean yields. "When you are in heavier ground, a little closer is better."

The Fournies are meticulous about getting it right. "If you hit a rock, the tile plow will rise above it," Karen Fournie says. "We throw a flag out the tractor window and we dig it up with the backhoe."

The price for a basic Persall tile plow is $14,750, delivery and training included. A laser system is another $9,000, as is an Intellislope GPS system. Persall says that farmers who don't have a GPS on their tile plow tractor will use the laser system. A 252 Tremble  GPS or an SF2,  a proprietary John Deere dual-frequency differential correction system, is the minimum GPS system required.

A full RTK GPS system on a tractor isn't necessary. The GPS system that is "one step down from RTK" will do the job as well, Persall says.

Patience needed
A few miles away, near Becher, north of Wallaceburg, Tom Vandamme used a Persall tile plow to install 330,000 feet of tile in two summers. That's about 240 acres on 30-foot runs. "I created a job for myself," Vandamme says.

He pulls the tile plow with a 7040 John Deere tractor and used a GPS guidance system to make straight lines. But he sets the grade on the flat-as-a-table fields with a laser system. "If you've got the patience for it," setting your own tile drains works, Vandamme says. "If you don't, it's a lot of money to not do it properly."

Vandamme says he still needs contractors to install mains to where he can connect drains. He allows that, while the province requires that farmers own a machine if they are installing on their own fields, "there are loopholes" in the current system and it is possible to rent a machine to someone else so that he can tile his own fields.  

However, he's not interested in tiling other farmers' fields. "I'm not insured if I hit a gas line," Vandamme says.

Not everyone with experience tiling their own farms is quite as enthusiastic about taking on large projects. Paul Gaw, who describes himself as a retired dairy farmer and "a down-sized cash cropper with just less than 500 acres" south of Kemptville, says he has put in at least 100,000 feet of tile with his Persall machine over a number of years. Gaw describes it as "a complementary machine" to a contractor. "I would never go in and do more than five acres now.

The year 2011 has been extraordinary for tile contractors. "We try to fulfill our commitments, big or small," John Martin declares. "The small jobs tend not to be as profitable. It's tempting for contractors to ignore them," he admits. And small jobs may cost more per acre than big jobs. "There's a cost factor to moving equipment in."

Some contractors contacted by Better Farming admit that they will charge more per acre for small tiling jobs. Others maintain the price is the same. To keep up, some will work through the winter if there are favourable conditions – limited snow, some frost and moderate temperatures. Unplowed corn stubble offers better traction than no-till soybean ground.

The busy tiling season starts when wheat is harvested. There are opportunities to get small acreages tiled in June and July, when business is slower.

A major change in the business has been the widespread acceptance of GPS systems, not just for guidance, but also for grading the tile laying. "GPS has certainly changed the way things are done," Martin says." It allows for better pre-planning and on site efficiencies. You're not moving the laser around and you aren't influenced by wind and fog."

The RTK (Real Time Kinetic) system (see Better Farming's cover story, October, 2010) is accurate to within less than a centimeter. Scientifically a laser is still more accurate, Martin says. "But it doesn't follow the curvature on long runs. In the wind it shakes and vibrates. Anything we've observed with GPS, the end result is as accurate or even more," than with a laser.

In some senses GPS has left the old training a little bit behind in the dust, Martin says. It is still good if an operator understands the concept involved in more traditional tile laying such as using lasers.

One company that is helping contractors, and some farmers, use GPS for grading is EFS Precision, from Premier Equipment, formerly Elmira Farm Supply, north of Guelph. "Two years ago 25 per cent of contractors were on GPS," says EFS' Philip Horst. "I am guessing 60 to 75 per cent are now."

He sells two systems. He describes the AGPS Inc. operating on Windows XP or Windows 7 platform computers, as a "high end" system that only contractors can afford.

For farmers with a GPS steering system already on a tractor, a Tremble or its equivalent is a more affordable add-on. Both systems are RTK GPS and require either a base station or a subscription to a network of  base stations.

Another system, sold in the United States, is called Intellislope. It utilizes a slope sensor, which knows the pitch of the plow and works in conjunction with RTK GPS to control the grade. The maker claims it is compatible with all brands of RTK GPS. Intellislope's website also claims it is "proactive and reactive at the same time. Other GPS grade control systems have to get off grade before they know to make a change to get back on grade."

Cost a concern
A GPS system on a tile plow has Arnprior farmer Keith McMillan intrigued. "If you aren't doing the whole farm, you've got to wait forever" for a contractor, says McMillan, who tiled 15 acres of his farm 10 years ago with a Persall tile plow that cost less than $10,000. He recalls looking wistfully at the tile plows at the Farm Show in Woodstock last fall, but he wonders about the cost. An American-made GPS equipped unit might cost $35,000, he muses.

He's happy with the work done with the older model Persall tiling machine, but he says it "requires a bit more attention" on flatter ground in order to maintain the grade in the tiles.

McMillan pulled it with a 2670 Case. He found, however, that the 110-h.p. Massey had better control over the hydraulics to keep it on grade. So he hooked the Case tractor in front of the Massey to provide the needed traction.  "We never run out of power. It's the traction we have trouble with," McMillan says.

Brent Kuhl cash-crops 1,400 acres of corn, wheat and soybeans near Tara in Bruce County. He tiled about 11 acres in 2011 with a Jesco Tileplow delivered to a local farm machinery dealership. Previously, Kuhl put in tile with a High Hoe.

He says he has a number of farms where wet holes and other odd places needed to be fixed. He installed the tiles without either a laser or a GPS.  Because of the natural slope on fields, "it was a no-brainer to tile," he says.  He was anxious to put in tile after wheat harvest and didn't want to wait. There was a backlog of demand for Persall plows to be made and another popular American brand, the Gold Digger, was not available until spring.

Doing the tiling himself last fall "maybe saved $2,000" compared to a contractor, so the device didn't immediately pay for itself, but he was anxious to get the wet spots drained. "It was for the convenience," Kuhl says.

Arnie Hamel of Grey County built his own trailer-type tile plow, using a combine axle for the wheels. He has had contractors install drains, but now he wants to drain wet holes as well. He pulls it with an articulated 300-h.p. John Deere 8760 tractor that weighs about 14.5 tonnes.

Typically Hamel makes one pass before actually laying tile. That helps him to know if there are stones in the path of the tile. Mostly, he is tiling at three feet deep, but the plow is capable of going to six feet deep on knolls. He checks grade with a transit,  but says most of his runs aren't long. He built his own manual grade monitoring devices, which include a three-foot chain, a four-foot chain and a homemade bubble. 

For his part, Wayne Wilbur, a Lambton-based-licensed tile contractor and farmer, says he modified a 2006-built Persall tile plow several years ago to get it licensed. "Give me half an hour with a welder and a cutting torch and it's done," Wilbur says. He says the modified machine is better at breaking the soil rather than "glazing" the clay, which can prevent good drainage for several seasons.

Brad Persall says there are no concerns about "glazing" in clay soils that are dry. "You are getting good shattering" using the unmodified plow, he says.

Wilbur, 70, says he bought his first tile machine 25 years ago "because the contractor I had kept stalling me off. That went on for a year and a half."  Wilbur's neighbor, a retired contractor, ran the machine for three years before Wilbur put his hand to it himself.

He says there are 14 three-point hitch-type plow units in his community and none are licensed. Wilbur, who says he does "very little tiling" any more but maintains his license and farms 600 acres, says "it is pretty tough to get the average farmer to do a good job with his own machine."

At one time "if you could do the paperwork, you could get the license in 20 minutes. The result was a lot of bad work."

Contractors aren't happy to see farmer-owned plow tiles because they see them as competition.  "I don't think OMAFRA will ever get to the point where they routinely license these things," Wilbur says. He estimates there are 17 manufacturers in the United States and "most farmers can make one of their own." Farmers began building their own plows "because they got shabby work from contractors," Wilbur asserts.

Brad Persall notes that "90-95 per cent" of his tile plows are sold to farmers who tile on their own farms. A few have been sold to contractors where a licensed operator runs them. "A lot of guys are putting (Intellislope) GPS on them," Persall says.

"I have contractors that own our machine. And they have it licensed. It can only be run by a licensed operator." BF
 

Becoming a tile drainage operator

Is tile drainage a potential growth industry? The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) website, updated last May 16, listed 90 licensed tillage contractors in the province. By the end of October, there were 93.

Tiling companies must be licensed. For a first offense of installing tile drains on farm land without a license, there is a fine of up to $2,000. The fine for a second offense is up to $5,000.

Tile machine operators are qualified through a system that requires them to undergo training and to put in time under the supervision of an already qualified operator. You can (get a class A operator's license) in a year "if you are diligent about it," says John Johnston, secretary treasurer of the Land Improvement Contractors of Ontario, an industry association. In addition, provincial laws require that contractors hold a business license and a license for each tiling machine they use to ensure it can do the job that is required.

Ontario is one of a few jurisdictions with licensing requirements. "It's for the protection of the farmer," says Sid Vander Veen, an OMAFRA drainage specialist.

An apprentice must work 60 days for a drainage contractor before getting a Class C license and then be under the nearly constant supervision of a Class A license holder. A class B license holder must pass a primary drainage course and have at least 250 hours of experience working as a C operator. The class A operator, in turn, must pass an advanced drainage course and have at least 500 hours under his belt as a Class C or Class B operator. Then the candidate must pass a field test conducted by the drainage inspector.

Johnston says the licensing system dates back to the late 1960s, when William Stewart was agriculture minister. Tile plows were just coming into place. "You could put in thousands of feet of tile in a day rather than hundreds." Anyone could "buy an old 'dozer and a plow and be in business," Johnson says.

Back then The Ontario Farm Drainage Association got a lot of complaints about the quality of work and did surveys. The executive put a voluntary inspection system in place to police the quality of workmanship of its members and lobbied the government to regulate who could have a license. The Tile Drainage Installation Act was proclaimed in 1973 and the first licenses were issued soon after.

 Johnston insists that the current licensing system is "not supply management on contractors." Anyone can get a business license, required to ensure that the machine is kept to standards, and hire a class A operator to run the machine.  The first course teaches elementary grade control. The advanced course teaches advanced grade control and how to design a tile drainage system on a farm. BF