In this episode, Presented by Growing the Future Productions & Precision Land Solutions, Dan Aberhart is joined by Manitoba’s top producers and tile drainage experts to dig deep into the ROI of water management. Chris Unrau (PLS), Darryl Wiebe (Beaver Creek Farms), and Jim Pallister (Pallister Farms) share real-world insights on land value, productivity, and the long game of tiling. From regulation to renovation, this is a must-listen for any grower serious about transforming soggy acres into profit.
Chris Unrau has a number he's watched for twenty years: $3,500 an acre. That's roughly where land values sat when the phone started ringing with tile drainage questions, not before.
Unrau, who built his tile drainage business from scratch in Manitoba after a decade managing a potato farm's excess-moisture problem, joins fellow producers Daryl of Beaver Creek Farms and Jim Palace of Palace Farms to talk through what actually drives the decision to tile: rising land values, competition for limited acres, and the difference between a luxury input and a crop input that pays for itself. Beaver Creek Farms alone has tiled 9,000 of its 9,700 acres.
What's Inside
- Why rising land values, not just wet fields, are what actually triggers a tile drainage conversation
- The difference between farmers who see tile as a luxury and farmers who call it a no-brainer crop input
- What happens to corn and edible beans on tiled versus untiled ground in the same field
- Why some operations choose to tile existing acres instead of buying more land
- How a third-generation farm decided tile was worth investing in before the results were fully proven
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