PIGEON FALLS – Draining water from fields through a tiling system is nothing new. It dates back to the early 1800’s when Scottish farms used tiles to drain otherwise unproductive farmland. Drain tiles started appearing on U.S. farms as early as the 1820’s when the goal was simply to get rid of excess water to allow crops to grow better. During a recent virtual Discovery Farms conference, Tim Radatz, Minnesota’s Discovery Farms coordinator who also specializes in making tile systems work told the 150 participants, “Now in the twenty-first century the concern is more about water quality issues and what actually drains through those tiles.”