When will his drain tile installation finally pay off?
At the Commodity Classic 2024, Chad Henderson talks about the transformative effect his (ADS) drainage tile installation in achieving more uniform soil conditions across farmlands. This allows for more precise application of inputs, reducing waste and enhancing plant health at every growth stage. Additionally, it has mitigated the risks associated with variable soil conditions, ultimately leading to more consistent crop yields and improved farm averages. But it is not an inexpensive endeavor, so when will Chad start being profitable on the farm land that he installed Drainage tile on?
00:00 What if there's a way you could do all of your planting at the same time your field came up in a uniform emergence. 00:07 And then also all of the treatments throughout the season, were treating the plant at the right, 00:11 or shall I say uniform time of plant. That's right. Development. And that's what I'm talking about. Chad Anderson. 00:17 He's been our guy where we talked about putting drainage tile in. And here we are at the a DS booth at Commodity Classic. 00:23 And we're talking about the fact that in the fields that you have put in drainage tile, one thing is you go across with the planter, 00:29 it all goes in the same time. When you go across there with a sprayer, you're treating the plant all at the same vegetative stage 00:34 or reproductive stage. The the real thing here is your inputs go further because it's not putting into two different soil situations. 00:43 Well, you know, even the fact that, you know, we, we look at a farm 180 acre block, right? Okay. And we, if I go in there 00:49 and I plant can plant 140 today, or I can go in there and plant 175 day, which one you wanna do? We're go plant 175. 00:57 I don't wanna have to come back unless I want to come back. Yep. And that's what we, that's what we was able to do. 01:01 That's what it helped us do. That's what the tiles and the lift station brought to us. We had holes and pockets that we couldn't get planted. 01:07 Or even to the fact that by the time it was dry enough to plant those bottoms, it was past plant deep on the top. Yeah. You know, so we, it, it really made our farm an even 01:17 and that's what we're after as, as American farmer. That's what what we want is we want farm averages. Farm averages. It's great to have high yields, 01:25 but farm averages, pay the bills. It'd be neat if we all had square 160 acre chunks and there was the one soil type on the whole thing 01:32 and it was just tilted like 2% this way for proper drainage. That's not what any of us have. That's not what you 01:38 Got. Yeah. That sounds like what Matt Miles got you. Yeah. Right. So here's what you got. 01:41 You got some fields that obviously have wet holes and wet problems and all that. If you did plant them when they were still wet, 01:47 you're not gonna get the same emergence. We all seen that the stuff comes up late, it comes up, it gets yellow. 01:52 You got all that. So what you would make the case of is that a drainage tile installation gives you the ability of efficiency in terms of your, uh, not just planting. 02:02 It's the whole treatment throughout the year. And Remember too, the farm that we're talking about here, it was irrigated. 02:07 So then I had, I was irrigating different plants at different stages. Yep. And then sometimes I never did even 02:13 get back to get some planted. So you're irrigating ground that wasn't even planted. So it was costing me money not to farm it. 02:19 A person might say, all right, you know what, you spend a whole bunch of money. We know that drainage tile costs a certain amount per acre 02:24 depending on, you know, some how much technology you use, et cetera. And then somebody would say, yeah, 02:29 but you spent a lot of money to get 10% of your field. Uh, I think about it was 10 or 15% of your field, uh, to this level of output. 02:38 But man, you spent a bunch of money for 10% of your field, you would say. Yeah, I would I would say that 02:43 you're looking at it the other way. You know, I wanna look at it as the fact of that was a zero and then the first year I made 250 bushel corn on it. 02:49 Yeah. So now let's do the math on that. Right. You know, and that's the way you have to look at it as a farmer, and again, we're looking at farm averages. 02:55 It increased our farm average increasing my farm averages will not put put me outta business. Right. 03:00 So on the expense thing, you know, we, we've done recordings. We've talked about can I make this pay? Can I make this pay? 03:05 You've only been, you're in like year three or four now what do you think the thing is, you're three or four for you, you double crop about half of your acres. 03:13 So it's not just three crops. You might have had now five crops off of that double how many crops do you think until you're like, yep, 03:20 it made, it made me money. Well, I mean, I mean we could do the math on it pretty quick, but I would say at five years I'm even, yeah. 03:27 You know, at five, I'm even at seven, I'm sure enough making money and this tile's good for 50. Yeah. 03:34 Somebody, Chad might think, all right, well I'll go on here and I I put this in and that's good for me planting, you know, 03:40 Chad's talking about getting in, planting in April down in your part of Alabama. But I think there's also the case to be made. 03:45 You go across your fields with a sprayer on average four times a year. Yeah. Three Or four times. Yeah. Uh, if 03:50 You're, if you're treating some of your crop that's here and the other part of your crop that's here 03:55 because it was stunted because it went into wet ground. That stuff that I'm not going back. Well that's, I'm not going back. 04:00 So it's getting it whether it's right Or wrong. And so the problem is you talk a lot about timing 04:04 of application, whether it's a foliar or A-A-P-G-R or anything. Insecticide, fungicide. This 04:09 plant doesn't have the same needs. I'm Praying for half the yield out of this one that I get out of that one. 04:13 But you still spent the same amount of money on the input. A hundred percent. So you can also, 04:17 I think when you start amortizing the cost of a drainage towel, you're getting 100% of the efficacy of whatever's in that sprayer across there. 04:25 Four times. I think we can make that argument. Yeah. Oh well. Every time. Because, you know, again, and that's just with a sprayer. 04:32 Yeah. We ain't talking about the planter. Yeah. We ain't talking about turning around on wet holes, backing in there, causing ruts. 04:38 I mean, it's just a whole, I mean, we could just keep going for days on the problems that it has 04:41 to happen. You know, I'll than Even go one, we've, we've done planter root on sprayer. We can do combine it. 04:45 I've been to your farm, it costs you the same amount of money to drive a combine across an acre, whether you're getting 200 bushels or 20. That's right. 04:54 Well, heck, the first time we met you pulled into a hole there and said, Hey, something needs to be done here. 04:58 Yeah. We drain this next year. You know? Yeah. I mean, I think we, I think we got a, I think we got a header cart stuck in that. 05:03 Anyway, get me outta here. The point we're talking about is uniformity, uh, efficiency of planting and then also getting the best utilization 05:11 out of every pass. Let's just talk for just a second, Damien, think about this. We're in a $4 market right now. Four 50 market on corn. 05:18 Okay. That's real. That's real. And a lot of people will back off of things like this and say, we can't get there. 05:23 We don't have the money for it. Right. And I don't disagree that, but it just prolongs the money. Okay. Instead of a five year turnaround, it goes 05:30 to seven or eight year turnaround. Yep. But still, you gotta keep making money. And if you're not being able to plant a spot 05:36 and you're having to pay rent on that spot, or if you're not being able to plant a spot and you're having to irrigate a spot Yeah. 05:40 It's costing you money. Yeah. I think the big one there is every pass across the field has the same cost. 05:46 Cost of product, cost of diesel, cost of your time, cost of wear and tear. And the equipment. If you're going across 10% of your field, 05:52 that could be drained. And because it's not, your crop is half of a crop or less. And remember where it could be 05:59 drained, you're better soil. Yeah. That's your good stuff. Yeah. That's what we need to Be working the organic mayors there. 06:04 All right. I think get me out here. Is there anything else you need to know? No, I'm, I think they got it. I think 06:07 they need to holler these folks at a DS and get some tile put In. All right. His name is Chad 06:11 Henderson, north Madison, Alabama. I'm Damian Mason coming at you from the floor of commodity class at 2024.
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See All GrowersChad Henderson
Madison, AL