Harry Siemens –

Water management can mean many different things. Marlen Bergen of Komb Ag Services of Altona, MB said his company serves all of Southern Manitoba offering full-service water management solutions.

There was a time water management meant hiring a grader, a local machine they use for maintaining gravel and dirt roads and eyeballing the low spots in a field, dig the drainage trenches to drain the excess water from heavy downpours and spring runoff a little quicker.   

Bergen said at Brandon Ag Days recently to him being in the water management business means surveying the land with a drone giving a high accuracy, high-resolution survey.

“And then we’ll do the licensing, look after the licensing. Drain surface planning. We’ll look at the sub-surface of tiling planning, and then we’ll provide you with all the services,” he said. “So all the custom work using rotary ditchers, scrapers, line levelers, and then we’ll also look after the tile side of it. So it’s pretty much a one-stop shop. And we also work with different tile companies so we can look at what best suits your needs.”

Bergen works with different contractors in particular areas, looks at his client’s needs and contracts accordingly. The question farmers ask most often does pay to tile his land, and it usually depends on why he wants to tile, either looking for more good land, and there isn’t any or is he looking to improve the land he has.

“I think what’s driven the tile industry is the price of land. Also for the land, they’re maybe farming, the soil conditions, and they may want to reclaim their land,” he said in answer to farmers questions. “One farmer was presenting at Ag Days said the reason he tiled his land had to do with salinity issues, and how you’re able to reclaim those lost acres. That value on the land may be $6000 an acre, and if that’s land you already own and you’re not receiving those benefits, this is a great way instead of buying more land, buying more equipment, more labor, and spending more time. If you can spend $1000 an acre on land you currently own and grow your net profit that way, it’s a much more economical way of growing your farm.”

Bergen said the size of the farm doesn’t matter. Many farmers, particularly the smaller farmers may tile their worst piece of land. And very often that worst piece of land becomes their best piece of land. That’s where it starts. He always encourages a farmer who isn’t sure whether it will work for him or not to first try some.

“If your surface water is up to par and we’re at the point to look at sub-surface, trying 20 or 40 acres using some strategic planning with tiling and see how that works for you. It’s a small investment, and now you can grow on that,” he said.

Some of the earlier stories this reporter did on drainage tile had to do with a southern Manitoba farmer who drained just the low spots in several fields.

“And you have challenges, when you start looking at draining, let’s say the low spots or sloughs, you’ve got challenges with the municipality, the neighbors, and governmental departments,” said Bergen. “You have to look at the regulations, get it licensed, and we work with all of them.  What I have found is, believe it or not, but your landowners, your neighbors, don’t always see eye to eye. When I get landowners or farmers coming to me, looking at problems and there’s an argument between neighbors as to which way the water should run we’ll fly the land and use available data and present facts of where that water should go and wants to flow naturally.”

He said getting the facts and presenting them to all parties goes a long way to helping everyone in the area.

“If you have projects and plans, if you can present something, the facts and the elevation to them,