Mission impossible: Reinvent this field Don Biehle waited a long
time to convert a piece of land the Southeastern Purdue
Agricultural Center acquired a few years ago into useful land.
The SEPAC superintendent planned to install pattern drainage in
zones with water control structures, establish wetland habitat
around the irregular borders of the wooded field and restore a
wetland. But the project scheduled for August 2009 was scrubbed
when Mother Nature dumped several inches of rain on the farm
near Butlerville. Fast-forward to this July. SEPAC and the
Indiana Land Improvement Contractors Association planned a field
day to demonstrate various tiling options. This time rains
skirted SEPAC, letting workers get down to business under good
conditions. In two days they laid the groundwork for a field and
wildlife setting that can be used either for farmland or
agronomic and natural resource-related research. The project
also serves as a model of how a field can be improved. • SEPAC
field is converted to productive