As Iowa’s 3,000 drainage districts age to a century or more, it’s time for landowners in those districts to consider updating drainage systems.

Dean Lemke, agricultural engineer for Lemke Engineering and Environmental Services LLC, told members at the Iowa Farm Bureau Fed­­eration’s (IFBF) 95th an­­nual meeting last week in Des Moines that 100 years ago, Iowa farmers spent more money in user fees to build the 3,000 drainage districts of Iowa than the entire United States spent to build the Panama Canal. That ...